Tomorrow I'm playing a solo recital at the Lammermuir Festival, a lovely festival which takes place in various locations, sacred and secular, across the beautiful county of East Lothian in Scotland. I have practised my programme to the point of feeling a keen desire...
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The other day I came across an article called 'The Pianoforte Recital'. It was published in The Musical Times in 1911 - over a century ago. The author, Frederick Kitchener (himself a pianist), complained that piano recitals had become far too numerous, and that...
Last night I appeared at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, discussing my latest book with broadcaster Kate Molleson (see picture of me turning away from the piano after playing one of the pieces we were talking about). Conversation turned to the idea of...
Last night my TV recorder failed to record the Final of BBC Young Musician. I had been so looking forward to it and was crushed to find that I couldn't watch it when I got home from a coaching session. BBC iPlayer tantalised me with 'Coming Soon', but didn't say when....
On Wednesday, Erich Höbarth and I played the final concert in our Mozart Series in Perth Concert Hall. It has been a lot of work, and a lot of travelling (especially for Erich, coming from Vienna each time) but it has been very satisfying. In fact, it has been one of...
When I was in Cuba last week I saw something sweet at a concert. My daughter and I were in the Gran Teatro in Havana to see the graduation show of ballet dancers from the national ballet school, and musicians from the national music school. During the instrumental...
King's Place, the building behind King's Cross which houses two concert halls and also the Guardian offices, was heaving today for the first Guardian Open Weekend (see photo). It was great to see the place so full, and full of such interesting-looking people too. I...
Our discussion at the Guildhall on Friday, about talking to the audience, turned out to be unexpectedly interesting. It would take too long to report on all the facets of the discussion, but here's one of them. All the performers agreed that talking to the audience is...
Back in the seventies, a friend told me he was reading a book by Marshall McLuhan on how technology was beginning to intrude into everyday life. 'Apparently there is no activity which human beings will not interrupt in order to answer a ringing phone', reported my...
Here I am working with the Trio Paul Klee, from Paris, at my London masterclasses last weekend (I was pointing something out to the audience at the moment the photo was taken). I thoroughly enjoyed working with the eleven young professionals (three trios and a duo)...
The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in Silk St, Barbican, is running a seminar and 'round table discussion' on Friday 9th March from 5.30-7pm. The topic is 'Talking to the audience'. It's part of the 'Understanding audiences' series. Is talking to the audience a...
On Saturday I played the third of my Mozart Series concerts in Perth Concert Hall with Erich Hobarth. We were both very struck by the quality of the audience's attention. In any winter season, there are often outbreaks of uncontrolled coughing in the audience, but it...
I'm on my way to Perth in Scotland, for the third of my Mozart Series programmes with violinist Erich Hobarth. We'll rehearse today, and the concert is on Saturday evening at 7.30pm in Perth Concert Hall. Please come along, Perthshire music-lovers! Mozart popped up on...
It was lucky I didn't have to play the piano much while I was in Austria, because I have been nursing a small injury to my right hand. It happened back in December when I was playing a solo programme including Ligeti's 'Musica Ricercata'. In the second piece, as the...
Here are all the winners of the Graz Competition on stage at their Gala Concert on Thursday evening. Two piano trios, three Lieder partnerships of singer and pianist, and three string quartets (not all of whom are visible in the photo). For details of who won what,...