On Monday there was a report in The Guardian about the benefits of being involved in music. This time it was, 'Playing a musical instrument or singing is linked to better memory in older age'. To my delight the next paragraph began, 'The piano was especially...
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During the Christmas holidays we watched The Sound of Music on television. Some parts of it will forever be charming, while other parts have not worn so well. No matter - it's still a feast of nostalgia for those of us who remember the film when it first came out. Bob...
A reader has asked me to specify my favourite books of the year. I keep a note in my diary of the books I read, and this year I read 42 books in their entirety, plus a few more I didn't finish. Here are my top five favourites: 1. The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth....
On the day the world is glued to the Royal Wedding in London, it seems slightly beside the point to mention that this is the second anniversary of my blog 'going live', but then, why not? I’m quite pleased about it. I wasn’t sure I’d manage to keep the blog going for...
It was exciting being on Radio 4 yesterday, especially when I looked at my website afterwards and saw there was an enormous surge in the number of visitors – more than a ten-fold increase on the usual number. I had never seen such a number before on my ‘site stats’....
On the last episode of 'Between Ourselves', the Radio 4 discussion programme, James Rhodes and I are talking to presenter Olivia O'Leary about what it's like to be a concert pianist. I haven't heard the edited broadcast, but we talked for almost two hours in the...
The azaleas, camellias, magnolias and rhododendrons are nearly all out now in Richmond Park. Although most of the park is just green, there's an enclosed park-within-a-park called the Isabella Plantation. Why is it called Isabella? It seems that 'Isabel' is an word...
I never used to follow contemporary dance, but a chance encounter with the Mark Morris Dance Group seems to have turned me into an Sadler's Wells groupie. I've gone on to enjoy Pina Bausch, modern flamenco, and on Saturday we relished the last night of Anne Teresa de...
I can't help feeling rather proud of this photo, taken yesterday, of the first tadpole I've seen this spring. He/she/it was resting on a lily leaf under the surface of the water. There was an item on the radio this morning about the big increase in the number of...
I've been trying to prepare my mind for tomorrow's BBC recording of a discussion between me and fellow pianist James Rhodes for Radio 4's Between Ourselves programme (to be broadcast on April 26 at 9.00 and again at 21.30). James has found a way to bring classical...
Suddenly the weather is good, and for the first time this year we were able to have lunch outside. Here I am, out for a treat at the Covent Garden branch of Jamie Oliver's restaurant chain, about to enjoy my antipasto plate of delicious Italian cured hams, pumpkin,...
I woke up early and went downstairs in my dressing-gown to bake a cake, but when I got to the stage of adding eggs, I found there were no eggs in the house. So I had to get dressed and run round the corner to a shop I knew would be open at that early hour. An Indian...
Here I am standing outside Jane Austen's house in Chawton, Hampshire. It was touching to see the quiet village in which Jane lived with her sister Cassandra and her mother, and to read about the circumstances which left the three of them dependent on the kindness of...
Noriko Ogawa arrived back safely from Japan, and here we are playing piano duets for Woman's Hour. We're also talking about my book 'Out of Silence' which Noriko is translating into Japanese. The broadcast is on Tuesday 29 March sometime between 10 and 11am, and you...
These two lovely ducks sat peacefully under a bush on Richmond Common amid fallen azalea flowers, and didn't even move or turn their heads as I passed close to them. Most of the azaleas in the park have yet to come out, but there were drifts of daffodils and...