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

After the performance, Bob was talking about ‘the Russian crescendo’, a concept I hadn’t come across before. Stephen Hough, a supreme Rachmaninov interpreter, writes about it on his blog. Apparently the ‘Russian crescendo’ refers to Rachmaninov’s own piano playing style, in which he often eases off as a long crescendo reaches its climax. Bob said that this type of crescendo struck him as psychologically truer than a simple, inflexible ‘getting louder’. He compared it to climbing a mountain where, when you realize that you’re about to reach the top and see a wonderful view, you instinctively slow down, notice your surroundings and step gently onto the summit rather than pressing on relentlessly with no alteration in your pace. An inspiring image!

Russian Crescendo is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

The following night we stayed home and watched the second Prom, this time on television. The marvellous Bryn Terfel was singing the role of Hans Sachs in Wagner’s ‘Meistersinger’. It was far easier to hear and see properly, and because of the BBC’s recording skills we almost forgot that the performance was being relayed from the very same hall whose acoustics we had deprecated the day before. Without television, we would have missed the play of emotions on Terfel’s expressive face and the fascinating detail of his singing. How ironic that a televised performance should be more satisfying than a live one!

The Proms: live v. televised 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

Britten seemed preoccupied and worried. Dame Fanny asked him, ‘Why are you so worried? The notes of the piano part aren’t particularly difficult.’ Britten answered, ‘My dear, it is because there are so few notes on the page that I’m worried. I have to conjure up a whole world of sound.’ What a wise answer!

So few notes is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

I cringed through a 1967 BBC clip of Austrian-born musicologist Hans Keller interviewing Roger Waters and Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd. Keller, cigarette in hand, pontificating in his crisp Viennese-flavoured English, pointed out to viewers that Pink Floyd’s music was repetitive, extremely loud, and that he was ‘perhaps too much of a musician to enjoy it’, a damning remark if ever there was one.

If this was hard to watch, so were Waters and Barrett as they smirked through their replies. I disliked both sides yet identified with them both. I remembered how it felt to be a teenager, proud of my generation’s music. But I also agreed with Hans Keller. Though I disliked his superior manner, I suspect I would have agreed with his observations even as a teenager. And I found it admirable that he was willing to make himself unpopular and stand up for his views, unlike today’s media-trained presenters, so desperate to appear non-judgmental.

Aging rockers is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

Observing all this, I was struck by a powerful feeling that the banking crisis has changed nothing in the financial district. It was clearly business as usual, and people were feeling jolly good about it. Our government keeps telling us that ‘we’re all in this recession together’, but clearly we’re not. As I entered the mediaeval church for an hour of chamber music, I felt as if I were entering another world.

Not ‘all in this together’ 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

The words ‘any more’ surprised me. I had never thought of tennis as ‘old hat’. During the Wimbledon Championships, the only time I pay close attention, it seems such an appealing sport. Especially when the current crop of players contains people from all kinds of nations and backgrounds, such a wealth of good-looking athletes, and so many potential role models, it seems inexplicable that young people should find it resistible. The plus points of tennis remain the same as ever, so it must be the victim of some random and mysterious swing of fashion. And the thought suddenly struck me: maybe tennis has become the classical music of the sports world?

The classical music of the sports world? 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

However, as soon as I heard the recordings I immediately thought, ‘No’. I was struck by the ‘wrongness’ of the tempo, or the mood, or the instrumental tone, the loudness and softness, or the interaction between the players. I hadn’t previously thought of myself as having fixed ideas about the right way to play the pieces, but it turned out that I was ruthlessly quick to spot the wrong way.

In a curious way this kind of ‘negative example’ is just as helpful as hearing a model performance which inspires you with good ideas. I’m not suggesting that the performances I listened to were unsatisfactory in any objective way (indeed, some of them were ‘classic recordings’), just that they helped to clarify my own thinking. Suddenly knowing that a certain way is not your way is quite a powerful energiser.

The power of negative example is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

About ten minutes from the end of my recital, as I was sailing full steam ahead with the final piece, a black kitten wandered in from the garden. In full view of the entire audience it advanced delicately on to the oriental rug which lay in front of the piano, glanced up to make sure everyone was watching, and proceeded to describe graceful circles around the carpet, occasionally stretching its back and pointing its little feet like a ballerina. It then tiptoed over to the listeners and started to thread its way playfully in and out of the chair legs.

Of course the audience was mesmerised by the kitten. I could feel that everyone was desperately trying to keep their attention on the music, but not really succeeding. Even I was having trouble banishing the kitten’s charming antics from my peripheral vision. I had to decide whether to continue playing, but I had worked up so much momentum that I couldn’t simply stop, and in any case a little voice in my head told me that this kind of thing is just the reason that house concerts are useful practise for coping with unexpected distractions. So I ploughed on. When the applause broke out, the startled kitten shot out from between the chairs and vanished into the garden. Once again I had learned the truth of WC Fields’ advice, ‘Never work with children or animals.’

A kitten steals the show is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

Listen to Australian radio interview is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

Plus, if you’ve written a comment on a blog post, you can also now tick a box to follow any further comments on the same post. You’ll find this option under the comments box. You will be notified by email if there were any other comments on the same post.

Some readers have confessed that they never find the comment box or the comments, so here’s how: click on the title of any blog post, and you will be taken to that post’s own page, with comments shown under the post, and a ’Leave a Reply’ box for you to type your own comment in. Or click on the blue italic ’comments’ option under the title of any blog post to get the same result.

Read this blog via email, etc is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

Understandably, such house concerts are usually a money-free zone for all concerned. But since I enjoy playing in intimate settings, I’ve often wondered if I could set about creating more such concerts and even make income from them. From time to time I read about people in other fields who’ve done similar things. There are ‘private dining clubs’ where foodies gather to eat in private homes, their addresses kept secret until the last minute. Guests get to meet fellow foodies and eat well in a relaxed domestic setting, for less (or not more) than they’d pay in a restaurant, and the cook makes a reasonable profit. I’ve also read about a few musicians, though not in the classical world, who’ve set up ‘tours of people’s living-rooms’. One example is the Canadian singer Jane Siberry whose inventive approach to touring was the subject of a recent Globe and Mail feature.

But when I imagine setting up such a tour for myself, I can’t quite get my head round the potential problems (one of which is the piano). Once you start advertising your events or charging for tickets, you enter a different zone, one bristling with public liability issues. There’s also the important issue of privacy for the person hosting the concert. You’d want to have some control over who was allowed in to the house.  But on the other hand you wouldn’t want to burden each host with the task of gathering up 30 acceptable customers. Is there a way round these problems?

A tour of living-rooms? is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

It reminds me of a wonderful remark variously attributed to American author Mark Twain or to his contemporary, humorist Edgar Wilson Nye, about the music of Wagner: ‘Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.’ Like all the best observations, you can savour it for ages without it losing its bite.

Better than it sounds is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

It’s almost like not being in England at all. Surrounded by this sea of colour, it’s as if you’ve wandered into some Mediterranean paradise, or at least onto the set of an exotic opera. And yet the scene is silent. Visitors tend to keep quiet as they take it in.

We found a seat amongst the bushes, fashioned from an old tree stump. A little plaque explained it was there in memory of Wally Miller, head gardener when the azaleas were planted a few decades ago. What a genius!

Isabella Plantation, Richmond Park is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

The setting for the final was, inexplicably, an outdoor ‘performance shell’ in Vienna’s Rathausplatz. The seven finalists were allowed 7 minutes each (at least, this is all we heard on TV), and each devoted their 7 minutes to a fast concerto movement. Because the city square is so huge, the performances were amplified. But the sound coverage was inadequate; we saw the performers in close-up, but their sound seemed small and distant. It was clear that conductor and orchestra couldn’t hear the soloists properly either – at any rate, this was the kindest explanation for all the lapses in co-ordination. And for some extraordinary reason, the young Russian pianist had to play with the piano on the conductor’s right, with the piano lid removed and the piano facing the other way from usual, so that the pianist’s left hand was closest to the audience. It must have been very disconcerting for him.

Perhaps the open-air presentation, similar to that of the ‘Proms in the Park’, was designed to do away with the supposed stuffiness of the traditional concert hall. But they were in Vienna, whose concert halls are a joy to behold. What a waste of an opportunity for these fine young players to perform in the Musikverein or the Konzerthaus! I can’t deny that the thousands-strong audience outside in the Rathausplatz cheered everyone warmly. But their applause seemed identical for each performance. Who could blame them? With such poor sound coverage and such brief glimpses of each player, it was impossible to judge between them. And how much could the judges hear? At the end, I felt strangely uninvolved in the results – an unusual feeling for me. In fact, the winner was a delightful young flautist, Eva-Nina Kozmus from Slovenia. I look forward to hearing her and the other young musicians in better circumstances.

Eurovision Young Musicians 2010 is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

The guidebook said, ‘The architecture style was both functional and devoid of all ornament, such as sculpture, stained glass or illuminated work that might distract the monks from prayer …Like the layout, the architecture is simple and stark. It was not designed to please and its simplicity makes no concessions. Its beauty results from the vigour of the proportions alone, from the harmony of forms, from the perfection of its stonework and the way light falls through the rare openings.’

I was very surprised to read the phrase, ‘it was not designed to please’. To me, nothing could have been more deeply pleasing to look at. Its pure lines, shapes and spaces and the way they related to one another seemed masterly and illuminating, as though the building was carrying on the work of the monks all by itself.

The Abbey of Silvacane is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog

Two years ago when the previous BBC Young Musician competition took place, there was a lot of complaint (including from me) about how the proceedings were relayed on television. We heard barely a few bars of music before fading out to an interview showing each young musician at home, playing computer games, shopping with friends, caring for their rabbits or whatever. There seemed to be a desperate wish on the part of the producers to prove to the general public that these young achievers are ‘ordinary’ after all. This year it was much more sensitively arranged. We heard long chunks of music and had a chance to make up our own minds.

BBC Young Musician 2010 is a post from the Susan Tomes: Pianist & writer blog