Hyperion Records, which was recently bought by Universal, has decided to make its catalogue of recordings available on streaming platforms for the first time. The first batch of 200 Hyperion recordings has just gone up on Apple Music, Spotify, iTunes and so on. As the...
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A friend has sent me information about a new piano, designed with an ergonomically curved keyboard. I have wondered about the feasibility of such a keyboard for a long time, but have never had the opportunity to try one. As a pianist, often required to traverse the...
This week I have been in Rome, where Bob was giving a seminar at La Sapienza University. We added on a few days to turn it into a little holiday. We visited the Keats museum at the Spanish Steps. I have been in Rome a number of times, and have toiled up and down the...
I recently made up a couple of cadenzas for a Haydn piano concerto. I kind of improvised them at the piano, and played them in the concert without ever writing them out. Afterwards, I thought I'd try and note them down before I forgot them entirely. Cadenzas are...
Last night's Prom offered the invigorating spectacle of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra playing beautifully under their fine young conductor Ilan Volkov. One of the good effects of globalisation has been on the standards of orchestral playing. Because of the...
An American friend has sent me an article from last Friday's New York Times about piano competitions. Michael Johnson, who has served on prestigious competition juries, laments the corruption that allegedly prevails. Perhaps there are competitions whose juries engage...
I've been thinking about Charles Hazlewood's article in Monday's Guardian. He wrote about some open-air orchestral concerts he's going to conduct in a field in Somerset, explaining that he wants to bring great music out of the intimidating concert hall and into a fun...
Last night, I stupidly didn't watch the first part of the MGM Film Musicals Prom on television, and only turned on for the second half. I'm so used to concerts of this kind being slightly embarrassing; orchestras often sound uncomfortable with the idiom, and there's...
Last night we went to hear Mendelssohn's 2nd Symphony at the Proms, played by the excellent Hallé Orchestra under their conductor Sir Mark Elder. A few weeks ago, Bob reviewed all the available recordings of Mendelssohn's 2nd Symphony for Radio 3's CD Review 'Building...
The final concerts of my season took place last week at the Cerne Abbas Music Festival in Dorset with the Gaudier Ensemble. During the festival we gave a late-night performance of Messiaen's ‘Quartet for the End of Time' in a candlelit church, with no other lights...
Controversy in the press about whether Proms audiences should be discouraged from clapping so much. What's under the spotlight is the Prommers' habit of clapping in between movements, and the growing sport of racing each other to be the first to applaud vociferously...
I watched a fascinating TV drama-documentary about conductor Arturo Toscanini. During his lifetime he was famous for his expressive gestures when conducting. Orchestral musicians who played for him said that it was always perfectly clear what he wanted them to do. It...
I've started to prepare for the next festival I'm involved in, the annual chamber music festival of the Gaudier Ensemble. It takes place in the lovely old village of Cerne Abbas in Dorset in July. This year I have a few little piano solos and ten different chamber...
When I was a student, I had a friend whose mother was a keen gardener. She was a pianist too, so I felt she was a kindred spirit. In the holidays I sometimes went to stay with the family for a few days. One day my friend said to me, ‘You know, my mother actually got...
It's now a week since the Florestan Festival ended, and lots of people have been kind enough to write and say what they thought of it. One thing is very interesting: there's enormous variety in what people enjoyed best. Some relished the things which were new for...