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 [...]

Yesterday BBC Music Magazine tweeted that pianist Artur Pizarro had played a concert in which he read from the music, using an iPad to display the notes. It’s one of several recent reports about classical musicians using the score, reading from an electronic gadget of some kind. In no case have I detected any kind [...]

“…. your ultimate companion to a summer of music”, says today’s Guardian Guide to Festivals. But is it? Not if classical music is your thing. I subscribe to the Guardian, look forward to reading it every day and love it to bits, but every year when they publish their guide to summer festivals, I could [...]

I’ve just signed up for Twitter.  My Twitter username is @susantomespiano and there’s a ‘follow me on Twitter’ button on the left-hand side of this page. It’s daunting, because I already feel I’m drowning in email. But the younger generation keeps telling me I really should bite the bullet and join Twitter. According to them, [...]

I’m going to the BBC tomorrow to record an episode of ‘Saturday Classics‘, which I’m presenting on Saturday 11 May from 3-5pm on Radio 3. Each week a different presenter chooses two hours’ worth of classical recordings and chats about their selections. The presenter has to write around fifteen lines of script for each gap [...]