While she was working on the translation this week, Noriko sent me this charming photo of her little black cat watching over her, with Japanese New Year decorations in the background. You can see my book on the floor, as well as Noriko’s dictionaries and the notebook in which she writes her translations longhand.

My Japanese colleagues is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

But it seems that a widget is a clever little package of information, in this case about my book ‘Out of Silence’. Its publisher, Boydell Press, is embracing widgets as a new kind of promotional material. If you click on this link, the wonders of widgets will open before your eyes. By clicking on the little coloured icons along the top of the widget’s homepage, you can read excerpts from the book, look at pictures, listen to a sound clip of me playing the piano, link to social networks, recommend the book to friends, and order the book from the publisher.

Boydell’s widget is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

I’d been given one of those microphones which consists of a little box to be clipped to the belt (alas, I didn’t have one) with a wire leading to a lapel mike. Because I was going to be sitting down and playing the piano as well as talking, I decided that the box had to be clipped to the back of my waistband. Once it was in place, I was told not to switch on the power until my talk began, otherwise the audience would hear everything I said in the ‘green room’. So I switched it on, with some difficulty, just before I went on stage.

But then, when I sat down at the piano to play, I realised that the mike was picking up extraneous noises and disturbing the audience (possibly the lapel mike was knocking against a button as I played, though I didn’t realise that at the time). A couple of pieces later, someone stood up and asked if I could please switch the microphone off before I played the piano, then back on again when I continued talking. Easier said than done, because the off-on switch was a tiny little device on the box clipped at my back, and I was wearing a long tunic (see photo). I struggled un-elegantly with the switch for a while before deciding to unclip the whole box and just balance it on my lap as I played the piano. Then I held the box in my hand when I went back to the lectern to talk. If I continue with this talking + playing format, I’ll have to find a better solution to this problem.

At the Rye Festival is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

Before the interview began, Noriko was describing to us what it felt like to be standing on a train platform in Tokyo at the moment of the earthquake. She said that everyone in Japan is extensively trained in how to respond to the signs of an earthquake, but on this occasion they didn’t immediately realise what was happening because the shaking was not up and down as it usually is, but from side to side. At first this lateral movement was so subtle and unfamiliar that she thought she was experiencing a moment of dizziness and wondered if she might faint, but then she looked around and saw that all the other passengers were feeling dizzy as well. Everyone knew that the side-to-side shaking was something unusual and disturbing, even hundreds of miles from the epicentre of the earthquake.

Duets on Woman’s Hour is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

Since the programme was planned, events in Japan have overtaken us, and Noriko is now organising a special fundraising concert in aid of the Red Cross, in King’s Place, London, on the evening of March 30. Our discussion about my book, and some piano music played by us both individually and as a duet, will now be framed by announcements of Noriko’s concert, so that the enormous audience for Woman’s Hour will be aware of it. Noriko is in Japan at the moment, and still has to get back to London to record our interview. Obviously travel plans from Japan are unpredictable, but we hope everything will work out, and the feature is scheduled to be broadcast on the morning of Tuesday March 29th.

Noriko and Susan on Woman’s Hour is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

For me the most striking feature of the book is her description of musical life in Germany and Austria at the time. As a British musician working at a time when the arts are fighting for support, I read Geissmar’s words with envy and painful nostalgia for a artistic climate I never experienced:  ’It is astonishing to me even now to look back and remember how rich was the musical life in cities like Berlin and Vienna in the post-war years after 1918, and how culture flourished in Germany and Austria. While in France and England the capitals alone are the centres of all cultural and social life, in Germany towns like Dresden, Leipzig, Munich, Hamburg, Cologne and Breslau all have their own individual life. In the musical field there were everywhere men of outstanding merit, and there was ample opportunity for all of them.

‘…Everybody who remembers this period will agree that Vienna had a unique magic of its own. The interest of the population in everything connected with their musical and theatrical life seems incredible to an outsider. The smallest detail of every performance was of the greatest importance to everybody, and the passion of the Viennese for everything concerned with their Opera House, their Stars, and their Orchestra cannot be described.’

The baton and the jackboot is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

This feels like a very special development, partly because in the world of pianists, it might be fair to say that there’s often more spirit of competition than of collaboration. Therefore it’s amazing – and heartwarming – to hear that another pianist likes my book so much that she’s prepared to spend a considerable portion of next year translating it, despite her own busy concert schedule. It’s also very pleasing that this initiative should come from Japan, a country whose art I have admired for so long. Altogether, Noriko’s project is one of the nicest things that has happened to me this year.

Noriko Ogawa is best known in this country as a performer, of course, but she is also well known in Japan for her articles about music and musicians, and she writes a regular column in one of Japan’s most widely-read piano magazines.

A present from Japan is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

The Independent’s literary editor, Boyd Tonkin, said:
‘..In another part of the musical forest, but with just as sure a literary touch, that outstanding pianist and educator Susan Tomes took us inside the world of the over-worked, under-valued classical player in ‘Out of Silence’. I wish idiots who bleat about the ‘elitism’ of the classical tradition could at least pick up this generous, friendly, revealing diary of a year’s hard slog.’

Read the article in The Independent

‘Pick of 2010′ is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

The interview is broadcast at around 2pm Vancouver time on Sunday October 17. If I’ve done the sums correctly, that’s at around 10pm in the UK. You can listen online via this link.

CBC ‘In concert’ interview on Sunday is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

It’s a fascinating topic and one I’m often asked about. There are various possibilities: pianists are loners, and so are writers. The composers of great piano music were often people who were deeply interested in literature; pianists follow their lead. In collaborative music, pianists work from the whole score and are used to having an overview. Does this influence their way of thinking?

Or it is that people who are naturally analytical are the ones drawn to the piano in the first place? Does playing the piano, with separate musical strands for the left and right hands, and the ability to play both melody and harmony at the same time, develop the brain in a particular way?

Pianists and writing: what’s the link? is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

The festival runs from 2-10 October and you can find out more here. On the evening of Saturday 2 October I’m giving a talk, at a lovely house in Wimbledon Village, about my books. I’ll be reading excerpts from the books, talking about why I feel drawn to write about my experience of performance, and I’ll be playing the piano as well.

The evening begins at 6pm with a talk by author Philip Ball about music and the brain, and after a half-hour drinks interval, we continue at 7.30pm with my talk. You can buy a composite ticket for the whole evening (6-7pm and 7.30-8.30pm plus the drinks interval), or you can buy a ticket for just one of the talks.

Wimbledon BookFest on Saturday is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

Barbara Alex’s book is really a collection of Sebok’s wise sayings, elegantly displayed on the pages with the help of some imaginative typography. It’s rather like reading a collection of Zen proverbs, and indeed there are things in common between the two. ‘Play the contents and not the container’, Sebok said.  ‘Teaching freedom is a self-defeating thing, because one has to become free. That cannot be taught. It is the learner’s job.’ ‘Don’t concentrate, but rather be concentrated by the music.’ ‘To play louder, you must hear more.’ ‘You cannot play now and think later.’ ‘Music is understanding in action.’

Such remarks were great when they arose naturally in the course of a lesson, and were often said with a twinkle in the eye. When I read the isolated comments in the book, I can’t help wondering how they will strike people coming to them ‘cold’.  Will Sebok’s remarks, pinned to the page like rare butterflies, seem enlightening or tantalisingly enigmatic?

Words from a Master is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

In the afternoon I felt suddenly very tired and lay down to listen to Radio 4’s Open Book programme. Tim Parks (author of ‘Teach Us to Sit Still’) was talking about his recovery from a strange illness a few years ago. He spoke about the healing role of meditation, and said that the experience of ‘letting go of words’ in meditation had profoundly changed his approach to writing. As he signed off, he quietly said something like, ‘It made me wonder whether narrative is actually a bit perverse, and somehow sick.’ This fascinating thought chimed mysteriously with what we were talking about in the morning.

Not telling a story is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

Independent review of new music books is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

The draw closes on the 9th August, so if you’re interested, click the link above and have a go.

Win a free copy of Out of Silence is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

another oldie

Richard Osborne devotes a large part of his Music column in ‘The Oldie’ magazine (Summer 2010) to my new book. As I don’t have a picture of the magazine I’ve chosen instead an illustration of an real oldie, one of the 700-year-old oaks in Richmond Park.

Richard Osborne writes in The Oldie: ‘Pianist and five-star essayist Susan Tomes … The twelve months [of Out of Silence] deliver twelve chapters each containing nine or ten short essays. Some are prompted by a concert or an event; others are simply serendipity, such as the delightful ‘In Praise of Idleness’, inspired by a Bertrand Russell volume discovered in a charity shop. For a parent with a musically gifted child the collection is essential reading.’

The Oldie magazine review is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

‘It is remarkable just how much Tomes manages to find illumination in things that may initially appear musically unpromising. … even celebrity chefs unwittingly provide much food for musical thought in this unputdownable volume. By the end, I felt I not only knew more about the author, but also about myself. Highly recommended.’

International Piano magazine review is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

We talked about how our favourite cookery books combine cultural glimpses with helpful recipes. Claudia Roden’s book is a good example. You move smoothly from reading about bean soups made in pots on the roof-top, or the daily task of making yoghurt, or the doughs and shapes of pastries favoured by different communities, to discovering how to make these things yourself. As you cook, you feel you’re entering into the world described by the cookery writer. I lamented that this can’t really happen with books about music. Yes, you can describe concerts and so on, but you can’t end each section with a recipe for how to make a lovely piece of your own:

500g of assorted notes
125 grams of accidentals
100 grams of minims
200 grams each of crotchets and quavers
50 grams of dots
A sprinkling of triplets
A generous cupful of rests

Pick through the notes carefully, removing any double flats or sharps …

Musical Recipes is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

Read the article in the New Yorker.

Order ‘Out of Silence’ from Amazon.

To order by phone from Boydell and Brewer’s US outlet in Rochester NY, call 585 275-0419 in the US. To order from Boydell in the US by e-mail, write to boydell@boydellusa.net

‘Out of Silence’ mentioned in New Yorker is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

‘In my experience, highly gifted musicians often find it extremely difficult to articulate their ideas about music and reveal the secrets of their craft through writing. Not so Susan Tomes. Her latest book, ‘Out of Silence’, is packed full of fascinating material reflecting upon the difficult and sometimes intangible issues that face a busy professional pianist…Yet the approach here is anything but self-centred, as can so often be the case with autobiographical material. Rather, what emerges from these pages is Tomes’s strong sense of humility, her quirky humour, and above all her tremendous love and driving enthusiasm for her work. … a compelling read.’

BBC Music magazine, July 2010

‘A glorious collection of essays. ..After ‘Beyond the Notes’ and ‘A Musician’s Alphabet’, with this third volume Susan Tomes joins that small band of musicians whose literary skill runs parallel to their musical talent. All of them are male, most are pianists: Glenn Gould, Alfred Brendel, Daniel Barenboim and Stephen Hough, for example…

Tomes’s work reminds me of JB Priestly’s life-affirming collection of essays, ‘Delight’. I can offer no higher praise.… Tomes extracts on almost every page a life lesson for the rest of us, whether or not we are musicians.’

Editor’s Choice for July 2010, Classic FM magazine

More book reviews is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog