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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.
‘Nocturnes’ comes out in the US today
Today my Nocturne book comes out in the US. I'm looking forward to having access to an enormous new group of potential readers. Yes, I know it will be of interest only to a certain subset of them - but still an enormous subset! I tell myself that a book like mine...
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Can a piano retain a memory of who’s been playing it?
A friend of mine was talking about his lodger, a very fine student pianist who often practises on the piano in the house. My friend said to me, 'This may sound crazy, but when I play the piano after she's been practising, I often have the feeling that the piano is...
Review of my book on Presto Music
I was on my way to Wigmore Hall in London for my recital a few days ago when this very pleasing review of my Nocturne book popped up on Presto Music. I think reviews are a new kind of offering on Presto Music, so in case readers haven't come across it, I thought I'd...
Signing paperbacks
This week marks the official publication date of the paperback edition of my Yale University Press book The Piano - a History in 100 Pieces, but as usually seems to be the way, copies seem to have been circulating for a while already. At least, at my Cambridge recital...
Advent at King’s College Chapel
Last night I attended the Advent Service in the chapel of King's College, Cambridge. The service, which commemorates the events leading up to the birth of Christ, has a simple and irresistible narrative. At the beginning, the chapel is in darkness. Approaching from...
Paper trail
Last week a friend was showing me how she can call up musical scores on various electronic devices, linking the devices so that she can use whichever best suits her needs at the time. She even had the option of writing in fingerings and expression marks with an...
Playing in the RSNO chamber series for the first in-person audience since the pandemic
It was great to be part of the RSNO chamber series in Glasgow yesterday afternoon in its first 'live' concert for an in-person audience since the pandemic. That's a gap of almost three years! Photo shows (L to R) cellist Pei Jee Ng, me, violist Tom Dunn, violinist...
Kettle’s Yard recital in Cambridge this month
I'm preparing for a solo recital at Kettle's Yard museum in Cambridge on November 24th. Kettle's Yard is a beautiful little museum which began in the 1950s as a personal art collection by Jim Ede, who used his own house as the display venue. It was the first gallery I...
Paperback edition of ‘The Piano’ comes out today in the UK
The paperback version of my book The Piano - a History in 100 Pieces comes out today in the UK. (It comes out in the US on November 29.) One can't take it for granted that a hardback non-fiction book will go into paperback, so I'm grateful to Yale University Press for...
Robert Louis Stevenson’s view of the Scottish temperament
I've been reading Robert Louis Stevenson's Memories and Portraits, published in 1887. RLS, as he's often referred to, is famous for Treasure Island, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Kidnapped and a few others, though in my local library the collected edition...
BBC Young Musician – tonight’s Final
BBC Young Musician 2022 reaches its climax tonight when the winners of five categories - strings, wind, brass, percussion and piano - compete to be crowned 'BBC Young Musician of the Year'. The competition is on BBC4 at 7pm. I think if it were up to me, I'd stop at...
At the Wigtown Book Festival
On Saturday, I appeared at the Wigtown Book Festival in Dumfries and Galloway in the west of Scotland (see photo of me being interviewed by Stuart Kelly). Wigtown is Scotland's 'national book town', boasting an astonishing number of bookshops for a small town which is...
A reunion dinner and some old neighbours
In our student days, those of us studying music (and in fact anyone who wanted to continue their piano studies) were allowed to hire upright pianos and put them in our rooms. Not infrequently there were two or more people on the staircase with pianos in their rooms -...
Traditions of music-making can’t be allowed to fade away
I often tweet about music and related matters. Usually the response is small - I'm thrilled if my tweets reach a couple of hundred people. So my experience yesterday was exceptional. I was watching The Queen's funeral which, as you'll know, had a variety of music in...
A minute’s silence at the start of a concert
I went to a couple of concerts at the Lammermuir Festival - by the excellent Quatuor Mosaiques - over the days since the Queen's death. Each concert started with a minute's silence in honour of The Queen. At the end of the minute, the players arrived quietly on stage...