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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...
Wigmore Hall, 23 July at 7.30pm
My new book The Piano - a History in 100 Pieces comes out in July and I'll be marking its launch with a concert on 23 July at Wigmore Hall, for a long time my favourite concert hall. The programme is drawn from pieces discussed in the book (the photo on the right...
Education via electronic communication
As the university year draws to an end, some of my friends who teach at universities have been reflecting sadly on the experience of doing their job online for an entire year. Many of them did all their teaching without ever meeting their students in person....
A bunch of pianists get together after lockdown
At the weekend a bunch of us, all pianists, got together to be sociable and listen to one another play some live music. One of us had realised that the layout of her house offered the opportunity for us to obey current rules while still enjoying some piano music. Her...
Classical Top Five podcast episode on trios
This week I was the guest on a podcast called The Classical Top Five. During lockdown, a group of critics and broadcasters have been making their way through various 'top five' categories ranging from the serious to the light-hearted, and this week they turned their...
My new book: The Piano – a History in 100 Pieces
I haven’t said much about my new book during the past year. In the midst of such upheaval it seemed unwise to count on things going as planned. But happily it’s not long now until The Piano - a History in 100 Pieces is published by Yale University Press on July 13th....
Piano tuning on the horizon
My poor old piano has not been tuned for almost a year because of the lockdown. As the tuning became less delightful, I have practised 'mind over matter' - a kind of 'fingers in ears, la la la! I don't hear anything wrong' approach. In fact, my piano has held up...
The street is just the street … as time goes by
A year ago, when lockdown happened and all my work was cancelled, I spent a lot of time walking around the streets of my neighbourhood - partly for exercise, partly to pass the time, and partly because we were not supposed to be taking the bus so there was no other...
Felix Wurman’s 1982 video about Domus
This week I came across the video made by cellist Felix Wurman about Domus at the beginning of the group's career. We were trying to publicise our concerts in our portable concert hall, a large geodesic dome which the players assembled out of aluminium tubes, putting...
Reviews of SCO piano quartets/streaming
In the past year there have been almost no live concerts, and therefore no reviews of the traditional kind. But sometimes there are reviews of streamed concerts, and the piano quartets I performed earlier this month with the excellent Scottish Chamber Orchestra...
What would Mozart make of our spaced-out concert formations?
Yesterday I was in Perth, recording Mozart and Beethoven quintets for piano and wind instruments with principal players of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra - Adrian Wilson, Timothy Orpen, David Hubbard and Chris Gough. The performance will be relayed as a Radio 3...
Nice messages
Thank you to everyone who sent me a nice message after last night's streaming of the latest concert in the Scottish Chamber Orchestra's digital series - on this occasion, a programme curated by their principal cellist Philip Higham and presenting two piano quartets by...
This time last year
It's now a whole year since concerts started being cancelled in anticipation of the pandemic. I remember very well that I had been to a birthday coffee party where the extended family sat around a big circular glass-topped table while our reflections ate scones and...