I've returned from London, where I recorded an album for Hyperion of piano music by some of the women featured in my book. I had a wonderful recording team. Incredibly, it's now 40 years since I first recorded an album with producer Andrew Keener, now a doyen of the...
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Today's blog post is on quite a niche subject. When I was writing a short biography of pianist Sophie Menter (1846-1912) for Women and the Piano, I mentioned some of the extravagant things her fans used to do to show their adoration. When she played in Copenhagen in...
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...
I have been following - online - the Van Cliburn piano competition which takes place every four years in Fort Worth, Texas. As well as being one of the world's most prestigious it must be the most generous, with an array of prizes and offers of management, concert...
Very sad news today that the great pianist Radu Lupu has died. He was probably the first 'favourite pianist' I chose for myself rather than taking my teachers' choices on trust. I tweeted something about having once had a couple of lessons with Radu Lupu when he was...
A fortnight ago I performed Mozart's wonderful Piano Concerto in B flat K595 with the Meadows Chamber Orchestra, a long-standing amateur orchestra which has become an institution in Edinburgh's musical life. The orchestra celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The...
On Saturday, I shall be playing Mozart's last piano concerto - the B flat major, K595 - with the Meadows Chamber Orchestra in Edinburgh. Since I don't have an in-house orchestra, I have been preparing by playing along with a recording. We have three CDs in the house...
A friend of mine has been musing on this question: How many other professionals are subjected to continual public assessment the way musicians are? For a long time, musicians have put up with being publicly reviewed because good reviews can bring them quickly to the...
One of the most depressing sights of lockdown in Edinburgh - for me, anyway - was the sight of the Usher Hall being turned into a Covid test centre. I know that test centres are important. But it seemed a sad change of fortune for the first big concert hall I got to...
This week I did an interview about my book 'The Piano' with Andrew Ford, the knowledgeable host of ABC's long-running 'Music Show' in Australia. He has woven in archive clips of other pianists talking or playing favourite music, so it has become an pleasing mosaic of...
Last week I was thinking of writing a blog post about knitting. What is the connection between knitting and pianism, you may ask? Well, I had been reading about the 19th-century pianist Clara Schumann, who continued to tour and earn money for the family after her...
This morning I heard a report about scientists who have made a list of recommendations for touring musicians to cut back on carbon emissions. Amongst other things it recommended that musicians should use instruments or equipment 'held by the venue'. Good luck with...
![No more bullfrogs […for now]](https://www.susantomes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/IMG_20210816_155540976-rotated-1-400x250.jpg)
My readers will know that I hate people coughing in concerts. I don't mean the sudden cough that the person can't help and does their best to stifle - I mean the self-indulgent barking cough which rings out across the hall and seems to be targeted at specially quiet...
Last week I followed the Cardiff Singer of the World competition on TV with great enjoyment through all the rounds. I was so impressed with these singers who, despite a year of lockdown and no opportunities to sing to live audiences, were able to come out and perform...
This week I was the guest on a podcast called The Classical Top Five. During lockdown, a group of critics and broadcasters have been making their way through various 'top five' categories ranging from the serious to the light-hearted, and this week they turned their...