A friend and I have been discussing the career of a mutual friend who died recently. He was a fabulous musician who wasn't as well known as he should have been. Writers and visual artists can stay put in the place where they choose to live, and create their work...
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I have been keeping half an eye on the 2025 Van Cliburn piano competition in Texas, partly because when I was writing Women and the Piano I did a fair amount of research into the gender disparity one can see in the lists of piano competition prizewinners around the...
A new series of Channel 4's 'The Piano' has begun. Judge Mika is still there, but Lang Lang has left the show and in his place is the multi-talented American musician Jon Batiste. For anyone who isn't familiar with the show, this is the concept: an upright piano is...
I'm off to Cerne Abbas in Dorset for another of the lovely chamber music festivals run very successfully each year by the Gaudier Ensemble. Concerts are on 8-11 August inclusive. As far as I know, most concerts are sold out, but if you live nearby it's always worth...
I'm off to Italy to teach for a week on the European Chamber Music Academy course. ECMA is an unusual organisation which moves around during the year, holding courses at a number of 'host institutions' in different parts of Europe. It offers high-level coaching to...
This Saturday, BBC Radio 3's 'Summer CD Review' has selected my Mozart piano and violin sonatas e-album, made with violinist Erich Höbarth, as one of their summer recommendations. You can see Saturday's playlist for the programme here. The recordings were made live at...
Sad news this week that Steinway Pianos is to be sold to a private equity company. What does this mean for pianists? On the face of it, nothing; it's just a change of owner for the firm. But a friend writes from New York that the Steinway showroom on Manhattan's 57th...
Listened to Sir Mick Jagger being interviewed about his upcoming Glastonbury appearance by John Humphrys on the Today programme this morning. John asked Mick what had changed about rock music since he started his career. Mick's reply ranged over things like lyrics,...
Noriko Ogawa, who translated my book 'Out of Silence' into Japanese, has been giving concerts in Japan, from where she sent me this photo of our lovely Japanese editor from the publishing firm Shunjusha. Fumiko-san, our editor, had brought some copies of the Japanese...
I'm really looking forward to Sunday's concert at Wigmore Hall with Erich Höbarth. It's the second in our pair of concerts this season featuring duo sonatas by Mozart for piano and violin. What a treat it has been to be so closely involved with this music - and this...
I have had a lovely day playing chamber music with two fine musicians I met last year at Prussia Cove during the IMS 'open chamber music seminar' - Bogdan Bozovic and Anita Leuzinger. They flew in specially from Switzerland. Together with Erich Höbarth we're doing a...
I'm almost at the end of a longish period of learning the notes of a batch of works I'll be playing over the summer in different concerts and festivals. The large pile of music on the side of my piano has loomed fearsomely over me for a while, but is now starting to...
Yes, yes, I know that today is the 100th anniversary of the celebrated premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. But this is my husband Bob's recollection of the 50th anniversary in 1963. Bob was in the Upper Circle of the Royal Albert Hall with a group of students...
Tonight, Tuesday May 28, between 9pm and 9.15pm, BBC Radio Scotland's 'Classics Unwrapped' is playing a track from my new e-album with Erich Höbarth of Mozart piano and violin sonatas. It's the first track on the recording, the 'Allegro con Spirito' from the D major...
Since my last post, I've heard from a number of fellow pianists who don't play from memory because they specialise in song recitals or chamber music, and have a vast and ever-changing repertoire. They point out that one good reason to experiment with playing from an...