Renowned piano teacher and educator Murray McLachlan has reviewed my book in International Piano: The Piano: A History in 100 Pieces To read more reviews of this book, click here

The quarterly magazine Musical Opinion has a review of my book in its October-December 2021 issue. Some excerpts from Julian Jacobson’s review: ‘Susan Tomes’ new book is aimed at the informed amateur or mélomane, in the untranslatable French word: the Radio 3 (perhaps rather than Classic FM) listener or Wigmore Hall and festival devotee. Analysis […]

Another nice review of The Piano – a History in 100 Pieces, this time on David Barton Music, the website of an educator and researcher. He begins with a description of the book’s contents – and here’s how he sums up: ‘Tomes explores each selected piece in turn, placing it within a historical, cultural and […]

A friend of mine has been musing on this question: How many other professionals are subjected to continual public assessment the way musicians are? For a long time, musicians have put up with being publicly reviewed because good reviews can bring them quickly to the attention of ‘movers and shakers’ around the world. At least, […]

The October issue of the venerable Gramophone magazine has a review of my new book. I reproduce some of it here as the magazine is behind a paywall. The reviewer, Jeremy Nicholas, has quibbles about my choice of pieces, wondering why I included this and not that, but he goes on to say: ‘If one […]