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I’ve been writing this blog since 2009, but there still seem to be plenty of interesting topics to mull over. You can subscribe (it’s free) to follow the blog by email – each new post will pop into your inbox.
My new book pops up here and there
Two nice things happened yesterday. I popped into Waterstones in Princes Street to ask if they were going to stock my Nocturne book. Lo and behold it was already on the 'New NonFiction' shelf, with its own little recommendation card (see photo). An hour later my...
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‘Nocturnes’ is out now
My book Nocturnes and the Fascination of Night Music comes out today from Yale University Press. Tomorrow (Wednesday 25 March at 7pm) I'll be talking about it at Toppings Bookshop in Edinburgh. When I did a radio interview recently, the presenter asked me, before we...
‘Human Authored’ logo for books
As a member of the Society of Authors in the UK, I was recently sent information about a new scheme - developed with the Authors' Guild in the US - which allows 'authors to register their books and download a ‘Human Authored’ logo to display on the back cover of...
John Keats and Haydn symphonies played on a rented piano
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...
Playing a historical piano
This week I'm giving a recital of music by historical women pianist-composers. I'll be playing an Erard grand piano made at the end of the 19th century by the firm of Sebastien Erard in Paris. (Officially the piano is dated around 1900, but a technician told me he...
Music at the Coronation
The Coronation of King Charles III came in the same week that we heard the organisation Psappha, which promotes new music, had been forced to close because of funding problems. This in itself followed hard on the heels of threats to close the BBC Singers and reduce...
Watching the Queen’s Coronation on TV in 1953
Talk of how people are going to watch the King's Coronation next week has reminded me of my father's tale about Queen Elizabeth's Coronation in 1953. My father had recently moved to Scotland to marry my Scottish mother. Before coming to Edinburgh, my dad had been...
My old friend Gerald
This weekend I heard that my old friend Gerald Pointon had died. I felt like writing this little reminiscence. Gerald was a high-powered lawyer in Paris, specialising in arbitration. As a graduate student at Cambridge University he had sung in the famous choir of...
Posing on the steps of the Opera
Last week I was in Vienna for a few days of Easter holiday. We managed to pack in lots of music-related things: a concert at the Musikverein, an evening at the State Opera, a visit to one of Mozart's apartments, a visit to Haydn's house in what was the village of...
A belated review of ‘Out of Silence’
My 2010 book Out of Silence has received a decade-late review in American Record Guide - in the nicest possible way. Their reviewer Bruno Repp had written a long article about lesser-known piano music he thought readers would enjoy discovering. He ended with this...
American Record Guide review of ‘The Piano – a History in 100 Pieces’
I have just been sent an American review of my book The Piano - a History in 100 Pieces. The review actually came out a year ago, but I was not aware of it until now. A pity, as I would have liked to use a quote from it with the other quotes on the cover of the...
Mozart piano and violin sonatas download
This week I've been trying to find out what happened to the album of Mozart piano and violin sonatas that the wonderful Viennese violinist Erich Höbarth and I made in 2012. (That's us in the photo.) It was compiled from live recordings of a concert series we performed...
Channel 4’s ‘The Piano’
I've been watching Channel 4's new series, 'The Piano', in which amateur piano-playing members of the public put themselves forward to come and play an upright piano in the foyer of one of Britain's main railway stations. Unknown to them, watching behind the scenes...
‘Famously opaque world of classical music’
The other day I read a review in The Guardian of a book, 'In Good Hands', by conductor Alice Farnham, about the art and craft of conducting. I haven't read the book, but I was struck by several phrases the reviewer, Caroline Crampton, used when talking about classical...
Favourite books of 2022
Last December my blog post about my favourite books of 2021 was quite popular, so here's another round-up of the best books I read in 2022. Once again it turns out that I read over fifty books, but some were re-readings, which either does or doesn't count, depending...