I’m coming towards the end of my week in Fiesole, a week of baking heat during which I have realised that much of the music we’ve been studying must have been written in a cooler climate. In this kind of intense heat we can hardly face playing, or even hearing, some of the more energetic [...]

A few months ago, disheartened by the difficulty of ‘growing’ my blog readership, I consulted some of my students about the situation. I say ‘students’ but in fact they are all high-achieving young professionals who come for the occasional coaching. They all agreed that it’s nearly impossible to persuade people to go to the trouble [...]

Sad news this week that Steinway Pianos is to be sold to a private equity company. What does this mean for pianists? On the face of it, nothing; it’s just a change of owner for the firm. But a friend writes from New York that the Steinway showroom on Manhattan’s 57th Street is closing down, [...]

Listened to Sir Mick Jagger being interviewed about his upcoming Glastonbury appearance by John Humphrys on the Today programme this morning. John asked Mick what had changed about rock music since he started his career. Mick’s reply ranged over things like lyrics, social comment, attitude, clothes, rebellion, ‘bad boy’-ism, and the relative tameness of some [...]

I have had a lovely day playing chamber music with two fine musicians I met last year at Prussia Cove during the IMS ‘open chamber music seminar’  – Bogdan Bozovic and Anita Leuzinger. They flew in specially from Switzerland. Together with Erich Höbarth we’re doing a couple of fundraising concerts for Prussia Cove this week [...]