This morning I heard a report about scientists who have made a list of recommendations for touring musicians to cut back on carbon emissions. Amongst other things it recommended that musicians should use instruments or equipment ‘held by the venue’. Good luck with that, symphony orchestras! When I had finished laughing at the phrase ‘artists […]

In London yesterday, I visited the beautiful premises of Daunt’s Books in Marylebone High Street to sign some copies of my new book (see photo). The architecture of the store certainly gives one the feeling of being in a temple of books. Today I came across a nice review of the book in the new […]

This week I came across the video made by cellist Felix Wurman about  Domus at the beginning of the group’s career. We were trying to publicise our concerts in our portable concert hall, a large geodesic dome which the players assembled out of aluminium tubes, putting it up and taking it down in each place […]

Yesterday I was in Perth, recording Mozart and Beethoven quintets for piano and wind instruments with principal players of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra – Adrian Wilson, Timothy Orpen, David Hubbard and Chris Gough. The performance will be relayed as a Radio 3 lunchtime concert on April 9 at 1pm. We conformed to Covid restrictions […]

It’s now a whole year since concerts started being cancelled in anticipation of the pandemic. I remember very well that I had been to a birthday coffee party where the extended family sat around a big circular glass-topped table while our reflections ate scones and drank coffee in mirror image. I got home and there […]