A music-loving friend and I were discussing the prospect of concerts resuming after lockdown. It might be months away, but most musicians are eagerly, indeed desperately looking forward to this point. ‘Trouble is’, said my friend, ‘I might not feel all that confident about going back into a concert hall after this.’ I asked why. […]

A friend has sent me (in the post!) Richard Morrison’s excellent Times article from April 3: ‘Note to artists: it’s not a sign of weakness to be unable to work now.’  This is the link, but The Times is behind a paywall so you can only read it if you’re a subscriber. Richard Morrison says […]

… No, not the supermarket shelves! That’s become well-nigh impossible in the coronavirus outbreak. As we’re stuck at home, I’ve decided to explore some of the piano music I’ve had on my shelves for ages but never got around to learning. I have quite a few volumes of piano music which I bought for the […]

The coronavirus situation is constantly changing. Many people’s plans have already been impacted by it, even though in Scotland, where I live, there are just a few cases at the moment. In the past few days I’ve had several worried concert promoters on the phone about upcoming concerts. They are naturally concerned about the well-being […]

Everyone sees Brexit through their own lens. This is mine. When I was small, playing the piano was my favourite thing. I had heard that Mozart and Schubert came from Austria. Bach and Beethoven and Schumann came from Germany. Debussy and Ravel came from France. And so on. Those countries were just pretty pictures in […]