In a second-hand bookstore last week I came across the cello part of Beethoven’s late string quartets. Just the cello part – the other parts were missing. It was cheap, and I bought it out of curiosity. Looking through it when I got home, I was struck by how impossible it is to guess, from [...]

I have been coaching on the Marryat Chamber Music autumn course, which ended last night with a wonderful concert (see photo). I find it immensely cheering that such talented, accomplished young musicians obviously love chamber music so much and are determined to make it a major part of their lives. The four participating groups between [...]

On my last evening in Prussia Cove, I was asked to say a few words after supper about the guiding ethos of the place as envisaged by violinist Sandor Vegh, who started the International Musicians’ Seminars forty years ago. I stood up in the dining room by candlelight and reminisced about some of the things [...]

Today’s Guardian article about former concert pianist Anne Naysmith, who lives in a little shelter made of trees and bushes at the foot of a railway embankment in west London, got me thinking about pianists. As the article points out, her case has  echoes of the famous Miss Shepherd, also a former concert pianist, who [...]

Last night we watched the Olympics closing ceremony, basically a long pop concert with eccentric dance interludes. I assume that the singers couldn’t really hear their support groups or backing tracks in the enormous stadium - at least, I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt, because so few of them sang in tune. Were they miming? I [...]