Some years ago I recorded ‘Loose Elbows’, a CD of Billy Mayerl’s piano music. It features some of the sparkling, good-humoured pieces Billy wrote when he was the celebrated pianist at the Savoy Hotel in London in the 1920s and 30s.
My disc has been in and out of print for some time now, but people [...]

Went to a lovely concert given by a group of distinguished European string players in memory of the Hungarian violinist Sandor Vegh, whose centenary falls this year. Sandor Vegh founded the International Musicians’ Seminars in Prussia Cove, an inspiration to many of today’s leading players.
At the concert there were two different string quartet groups, giving [...]

As an antidote to all the stress of last week, we went to see The Artist, the French film which is now starting to win all kinds of awards. I had read of its producer’s difficulties in persuading people to back his eccentric idea of making a silent, black-and-white movie. Thank goodness he persisted and [...]

Over New Year I have been corresponding quite a bit with pianist Noriko Ogawa, who has almost finished translating my book ‘Out of Silence’ into Japanese. Though I am really looking forward to the Japanese edition, due out in spring, I am rather sorry that the stream of interesting questions from Noriko will now dry [...]

On the last day of the year, I find myself pondering the things that gave me most satisfaction during 2011. To my surprise, I realise that some of my happiest working moments were to do with teaching masterclasses. I say ‘to my surprise’ because I fended off teaching for a long while, thinking it was [...]