When I was playing in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago, I had an interesting conversation with a student there. (Birmingham University is rightly protective of its students' identities, so I won't name her.) She was studying aspects of the history of women playing...
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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...
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...
Last week I played a lunchtime recital in Aberdeen, the first time I'd played in the city for ages. I took a train early enough to allow me to see sunrise over the Firth of Forth, followed by a spectacular curve around the coastline of Fife as the first light was...
It's hard to keep up with changing perceptions in the world of music. We classical musicians are used to being the butt of complaints that our concerts are off-putting because of their focus on accuracy and daunting accomplishment. Unfortunately there's no way round...
I have been haunted this week by articles about the New York collaboration between 'performance artist' Marina Abramovic and pianist Igor Levit. You can read all about it here. Basically, Marina Abramovic seeks to 'get the audience into a different state of mind' in...
While baking a cake this morning, I listened to an excellent BBC Radio 4 programme, 'The Joy of 9 to 5', about managers. Presenter Lucy Kellaway investigated what managers actually do, and introduced us to some new approaches to management, emanating in particular...
I've just finished reading James Rhodes's book Instrumental. Nobody can put down the book without feeling intense sympathy for him and admiration for the way he's turned his traumatic experiences into positive motivation for life as a concert pianist. No-one can doubt...
I've been looking forward to performing Beethoven's song cycle 'An die ferne Geliebte' with tenor Jamie MacDougall next week at Glasgow University's lunchtime concert series. Admission to this popular series is free by the way! Unfortunately Jamie has had to pull out...
On Tuesday 13 October at 1pm I'm giving a lecture-recital about Beethoven's opus 109 piano sonata at the Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh, on the edge of Edinburgh. Preparing for this event has taken an embarrassingly long time. Practising the sonata itself is one...
I haven't written anything here for a while because I've been away at the International Musicians' Seminar 'Open Chamber Music' in Prussia Cove, Cornwall. We had a week of rehearsals in Prussia Cove (see photo), and then eight of us did a week of touring, giving five...
A reader has reproached me for not including the classic Richard Tauber recording in my previous blog post about different versions of Léhar's aria 'Dein ist mein ganzes Herz'. He points out that the composer actually wrote with Tauber's voice in mind, so mine was...
One of the highlights of Saturday's 'Last Night of the Proms' was Jonas Kaufmann singing 'Dein ist mein ganzes Herz' from Franz Léhar's operetta 'The Land of Smiles' (Das Land des Laechelns). Oh my goodness, what a song! So beautifully constructed, such clever and...
The news that Alex Ross is now the only full-time classical music critic on an American magazine has got me thinking about the changing status of reviews. Gone are the days when an 'important' concert would routinely be reviewed by all the major papers. When I was a...
I went to a concert recently (I won't say where or when). In the group was an older musician playing quite a prominent role on a string instrument. Unfortunately his control of pitch had become unreliable. He was smiling and concentrating, trying to play the right...