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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.
Friction-maxxing
The other day I was thrilled to come across the concept of 'friction-maxxing'. 'Friction-maxxing' is a term recently invented to describe the conscious attempt to balance the high-tech smoothness of your life with other activities requiring old-school effort and...
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Thinking back to my first time at Wigmore Hall
Preparations are going well for my recital at London's Wigmore Hall on 17 April at 1pm. If you live near London, I hope you might come along. I can't remember if I've told this story before, but I can't track it down in a previous blog post, so here it is, with...
Guardian article online now
To go alongside my new book, The Guardian has commissioned an article from me about the history of the nocturne. You can read the article here and it should be in the print edition tomorrow, Wednesday 1 April. One nice thing about online articles is that they can...
Exploring the Shelves, 18: Antonio Soler’s Fandango
Here's a curious piece from the late Baroque, composed by an 18th century Spanish priest who was a contemporary of Scarlatti. Padre Antonio Soler began studying music at his local monastery when he was only six, and by 14 had his first appointment as a cathedral...
Exploring the Shelves, 17: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s ‘Petite Suite de Concert’
Recently, at a Zoom meeting of my piano club, one of our members played Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Petite Suite de Concert. It was new to most of us, but we were all struck by its charm. I remember being puzzled when I first heard of a composer called Samuel Coleridge...
Zoom music-making and chamber music
Zoom music-making has been a feature of lockdown. Hardly a week passes without someone sending me a link to a recording: Zoom choirs, Zoom orchestras and ensembles, each performer singing or playing away in their own home and on their own little screen. To create a...
Exploring the Shelves, 16: Poulenc’s Novelettes
Francis Poulenc is one of those composers whose personality shows very clearly in his music. Some composers, you sense, enjoy the process of creating a pure compositional line swept clean of their personal feelings. We may know from reading their biographies that they...
Could classical musicians be ‘radically local’?
We're hearing a lot about the days of heedless international travel being over for classical musicians. In today's Guardian, Charlotte Higgins does an admirable job of summing up some aspects of the situation. It's worth remembering that darting about to play in San...
Exploring the Shelves, 15: ‘Rustle of Spring’ by Christian Sinding
Here's a neglected piece! Years ago, 'Rustle of Spring' was a favourite with amateur pianists, often of the older generation - 'Uncle So-and-So's party piece', to be trotted out (possibly in abridged form) at parties. But I haven't seen it on a concert programme for...
Why pianists don’t like being called accompanists
The other night, after watching the last in the category finals of 'BBC Young Musician', I tweeted that I had now watched the wind, brass and string finals and had not once heard them mention the name of any of the pianists who played with the young competitors. My...
Exploring the Shelves, #14: Mendelssohn finds his voice
Volume One of Mendelssohn's complete solo piano music is on my music desk. Mendelssohn was an astonishingly precocious chap and wrote some of his finest music - the Octet for Strings, for example - when still a teenager. He was first and foremost a pianist, so it's...
Exploring the Shelves, 13: Schumann’s obsessions
I have tons of piano music by Schumann and in lockdown I've been working through the volumes. Now, I've always been a huge fan of Schumann, but I have to admit that when you spend a day going through some of his, shall we say, less focused piano music you become very...
Identity
It's been eight weeks in lockdown now. (Photo: Edinburgh Castle with no visitors.) On the whole, I have been coping fine. Long experience of working at home had prepared me for #stayhome. However, it turns out that my peace of mind during solitary periods of...
Exploring the shelves, 12: Dvorak’s Humoresques
Another find in a secondhand book sale was a volume of Dvorak Humoresques. Who knew there were eight of them for piano? I confess I only really knew the Humoresque made famous by Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz and others in arrangements for violin and piano....
Exploring the Shelves, 11: Haydn’s little jazz riffs
I do have some volumes of Haydn piano sonatas, but I confess I didn't realise until quite recently that they didn't contain all his sonatas. In a charity book sale, I came across a slim volume of selected Haydn sonatas which contained a couple of early works I don't...