I was lying awake in the night, with music playing in my head as it usually does when I'm awake in the wee small hours. Sometimes I set the music going consciously, as for example when I'm 'practising' something I'm currently trying to learn or memorise. At other...
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An old friend of mine, a fellow musician, wrote to tell me about a lovely dream he had had. He, I and another musician friend were sitting in the branches of a cherry tree playing music together. 'The cherries were the notes!' he said. He didn't say what instrument I...
Wimbledon Championship Fortnight is halfway through and I have spent quite a lot of time watching tennis, with occasional breaks for some piano practice. Whenever I watch a lot of tennis, or more particularly when I listen to a lot of expert commentary, I feel that my...
The weather has been extremely humid lately and my piano doesn't like it. I have a little device which registers the temperature and humidity; for weeks it has been announcing the humidity as 75%. I have an older piano with ivory key coverings (newer pianos have...
This morning there was a discussion on Radio 4 about the response of the arts in the UK to the Brexit vote. Contributors rightly said that there is much we can and must do to understand who we are, what are the social issues facing us, how can we forge a constructive...
The UK vote to leave the European Union has shocked the classical music world, particularly the young European musicians who have opted to study, live or work in the UK courtesy of EU rules and funding. I've taught them and played with them on various courses and have...
Two recent topics of conversation have come together in my mind to prompt a question. Topic 1: the number of classical concert reviews is shrinking rapidly. Everyone in the profession has noticed it. Many newspapers are reducing the number of classical reviews they...
We have a lovely cat, Daisy, whom we 'rescued' from a cat shelter. Shortly after she moved in, another cat got in through the catflap one evening. We were out and didn't see what happened, but the two cats had clearly had an epic struggle. Clumps of cat fur were on...
At the weekend I had an unusual experience. Following the conclusion of BBC Young Musician and viewers' anger that the result was so under-reported, I wrote a letter to The Guardian about the wider issue. We've heard a lot recently about orchestras folding, opera...
In today's Guardian I have a letter which aroused quite a lot of interest when it appeared online yesterday. Please share it if you agree. Here's what I said: 'Much of the recent discourse around classical music and its troubles has contained a subtext of glee at the...
Today I went to the BP Portrait Exhibition, a favourite annual exhibition. As for some years now, the emphasis was on near-photographic realism, achieved with admirable technical skill but occasionally at the expense of 'suggestiveness' if I could put it like that. By...
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...
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...
In the admin section of my website, I can see what search terms people are most commonly using. For months now, the most popular search terms have been 'noisy piano practise in apartment', 'neighbour nuisance from piano playing', 'how to stop pianist practising...
17-year-old Jessy McCabe's petition for more women composers to be on the A-level music syllabus has been in the news today. It has generated quite a lot of interest and discussion, too. Good for her. The Independent asked if I had any comments to add, and some of my...