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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I was looking through the list of candidates for a concerto competition recently and was struck by the list of pieces they were playing. Mozart (lots), Haydn (several), Beethoven (several), Mendelssohn (several), Schumann (several), Chopin, Brahms (several), Grieg,...
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...
Despite this week's rehearsals for the Florestan Festival I've managed to watch several rounds of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition on television (the Final is on Sunday). I've been following this bi-annual competition for many years and always find it...
Roses have started to bloom in the garden. There's an old rosebush which has been living here for longer than I have. Its roses are pale pink, but this year for the first time the petals are tinged with the faintest gold. Maybe the weather is different this year, or...
A couple of people have mentioned that they couldn't immediately find my Guardian article online yesterday, and have suggested I give a direct link. Here it is: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/05/florestan-trio-beethoven-second
One of the pieces we're playing in Luxembourg tonight is a piano trio arrangement of Janacek's first string quartet, known as ‘The Kreutzer Sonata' after a short story by Tolstoy. The story recounts how the narrator becomes jealous of his wife after she forms a...
Over breakfast this morning I heard the sports announcer say that footballer Roberto Kaka is to join Real Madrid for a record-breaking transfer fee of £56 million. This sum is quite apart from the player's own prospective earnings, reputed to be in the region of...
The new little convolvulus plant in our garden has just flowered for the first time. Its six delicate purple flowers will be gone by the end of the day. Bob says there should be new flowers tomorrow. We bought the convolvulus plant in homage to a wonderful sight in...
Today I've been rehearsing a quintet for piano and strings with some very fine players using some very fine old Italian string instruments. I'm never sure if it's good to say who owns what, so I'll just say that these top-league instruments sounded incredible. One of...
A friend writes to say that she has been pondering my remarks on Nonfiction and Fiction because of something that recently happened when she was filling in a job application. On the form, she was asked to describe herself as either ‘disabled' or ‘non-disabled'....
We were walking through Richmond Park, discussing various members of the younger generation and their current dilemmas. Should they change their jobs, travel the world, leave this partner or get together with that one? Will the pursuit of their dreams enable them to...
I find that Piotr Anderszewski's views on chamber music have begun to prey on my mind. Yesterday I said it was no hardship that chamber music has to be performed in an upright position. Since then I have started to wonder if I was too hasty. Now I suddenly feel that...
I'm still mulling over a remark made by the marvellous pianist Piotr Anderszewski in a Telegraph interview I read on the plane to Berlin. Asked why he doesn't play much chamber music, Anderszewski replied, 'Well...I'm a solitary person. But also I like to lie down,...
This morning we flew back from Berlin. Yesterday's thunderstorm had been swept away and the sky was a brilliant blue, with hundreds of fluffy white clouds bobbing about beneath us. Sometimes when travelling by plane, especially on a dull day, the glorious sunshine...