The Times Literary Supplement of January 4 has a lovely review of my book ‘Speaking the Piano‘.

Because of the subscriber paywall, only a snippet of the review is publicly accessible online, but here’s a photo of the review as it appears in print.

And here’s an excerpt:

‘Tomes is a celebrated classical pianist, renowned for her communicative musicianship and her engaging writing on music. This, her fifth book, explores the role of teacher and pupil in mastering this grandest and most bewitching of musical instruments, ‘with its enormous bulk and its heroic air of solitude.’ Part manual, part memoir, part philosophical treatise on the intellectual and emotional rigours of musical performance, the book darts back and forth in time as Tomes recounts her musical journey. …
Fascinating … Tomes is at ease with the paradox of writing about music, that most ineffable of art forms.’

The reviewer, writer Kate Wakeling, was kind enough to tweet that ‘It was a joy to write about Susan Tomes’s wise and gentle book for the TLS.’

Getting dark as you play