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 [...]

I’m almost at the end of a longish period of learning the notes of a batch of works I’ll be playing over the summer in different concerts and festivals. The large pile of music on the side of my piano has loomed fearsomely over me for a while, but is now starting to look bounteous [...]

Feeling slightly disturbed by large advert in today’s Guardian: ‘Do you know the value of your instrument?’ it asks, above a photo of ‘A Fine French Violin by JB Vuillaume’. It goes on, ‘The last 20 years have seen a huge price increase in the value of musical instruments. Please contact us for a free [...]

In today’s Guardian I have a letter on the subject of political lobbying, which is headline news in the UK at the moment.  The letter was cut before being published, and I felt that part of my specific point had been lost, so in case anyone would like to read the full version, here it [...]

Since my last post, I’ve heard from a number of fellow pianists who don’t play from memory because they specialise in song recitals or chamber music, and have a vast and ever-changing repertoire. They point out that one good reason to experiment with playing from an iPad is that one could dispense with the services [...]