News of the death of the wonderful comic actress Prunella Scales at the age of 93 has reminded me of a little anecdote in my first book, Beyond the Notes, in the section about touring Japan with the Florestan Trio in 2000. Twenty-five years ago! For context, I should...
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On Wednesday I played a solo recital in Ambleside Church as part of the Lake District Summer Music festival. My programme contained six pieces by the female pianist-composers whose work I have been performing in the past couple of years. In the context, I was touched...
I've been remembering a little conversation which happened years ago when a fellow musician was giving me a lift to the Tube station in London. I was on my way to play a concert. As I was getting out of the car, he said to me: 'Have you got your music?' 'Yes.' 'Have...
Last night I went to a stupendous concert performance of Wagner's 'Die Walküre' at the Edinburgh International Festival. (Thank you, Amber Wagner, Simon O'Neill, Christine Guerke, Bryn Terfel, Karen Cargill, Matthew Rose, conductor Sir Andrew Davis and the RSNO!) The...
The Edinburgh Festival and 'Fringe' begin this week and the city is plastered with publicity posters. The trend towards anti-glamour continues. Even if a performer wants to look glamorous, they are portrayed in a jarring context. Someone in a beautiful suit lounges in...
A friend told me a tale of a violinist friend of his who came across a mass-produced violin for sale on eBay for €23. It was even cheaper than it sounds because the price included the violin, a bow, and a case. He bought the violin, which arrived with a set of...
For various reasons I've been to quite a few amateur performances recently. All were enjoyable, but I noticed something that was common to them all. It puzzled me, but I am not sure if I have simply forgotten what it is like to be a beginner or a non-professional....
Adjusting the piano stool to the right height for a concert may seem the simplest thing. When I finish rehearsing in a concert hall, I always leave the piano stool adjusted to the right height. The more old-fashioned piano stools have wooden handles that are quite...
I've just returned from the Gaudier Ensemble's annual festival at Cerne Abbas in Dorset (photo: the last piece of the final concert - the Dvorak piano quintet with (L to R) Marieke Blankestejn, Ulrike Janssen, me, Iris Juda and Henrik Brendstrup). One of the pleasures...
Bob and I went to a big book sale today and came home with lots of 'four hand' duets to be played by two people sitting at one piano. We spent a chunk of the afternoon going through volumes of Dvorak Slavonic Dances, Brahms Hungarian Dances, and eventually a mad set...
This morning I was making soup and listening to Stephen Jardine's phone-in programme on BBC Radio Scotland, as I often do on a Friday morning. They were discussing whether parents should restrain their children from behaving badly in public places such as cinemas,...
It's been on my mind recently that I never properly learned Beethoven's final piano sonata. I've been performing and lecturing about the two penultimate sonatas, opus 109 and 110, but when someone asked if I'd like to do opus 111 as well, I had to admit that it isn't...
A lovely surprise awaited me when I played at the Brunton Theatre on Tuesday. Sitting in the front row was my first piano teacher, Gordon Lindsay ('Mr Lindsay', as I knew him). He taught me from when I began piano lessons at the age of seven until I was nine or ten....
I still have mixed feelings about playing from memory. I find that the memorising is the part of my concert preparation which takes the longest. Even after I've worked out exactly how I want to play something, there's a long extra stage which is mostly concerned with...
Finally I have managed to track down a copy of this month's 'Classical Music' magazine, which for some reason has become harder and harder to find in the shops. Knowing there was to be an article about me in the February issue, I tried to find the magazine in a number...