I’ve been trying to prepare my mind for tomorrow’s BBC recording of a discussion between me and fellow pianist James Rhodes for Radio 4’s Between Ourselves programme (to be broadcast on April 26 at 9.00 and again at 21.30). James has found a way to bring classical piano music to large numbers of new listeners, [...]

I woke up early and went downstairs in my dressing-gown to bake a cake, but when I got to the stage of adding eggs, I found there were no eggs in the house. So I had to get dressed and run round the corner to a shop I knew would be open at that early [...]

Noriko Ogawa arrived back safely from Japan, and here we are playing piano duets for Woman’s Hour. We’re also talking about my book ‘Out of Silence’ which Noriko is translating into Japanese. The broadcast is on Tuesday 29 March sometime between 10 and 11am, and you can listen on iPlayer for a week afterwards. Noriko’s fundraising [...]

Here’s the Florestan Trio on stage at  Wigmore Hall at the end of our Monday lunchtime concert. It was broadcast live on Radio 3 and will be repeated this Saturday 19 March at 2pm. It’s also available this week on iPlayer.
It’s always a delight to play at Wigmore Hall, and the quality of the audience’s [...]

After coaching chamber music at various music colleges this week, I’m still baffled about how chamber music can attain its proper status in higher education. My visit often begins with students explaining that they have struggled to find time to rehearse together; this is the reason they are not properly prepared, etc. I’m warned that this [...]