Blog
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.
Women of older generations
By chance, two different people have spoken to me recently about their late mothers, who experienced difficulties in following their chosen career when they were young. One of those women was born in the 1920s, the other in the 1930s. One was a doctor, the other a...
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Mozart’s birthday (etc)
Today, January 27, is Mozart's birthday. 269 years since he was born! His is the only 'composer birthday' I regularly remember, I suppose because he is still my favourite composer despite stiff competition from about 25 others. I remember his birthday for its own sake...
A competition for concertos
I spent the past couple of days popping in and out of the first round of the Concerto Class held each year by the Edinburgh Music Competition Festival. The Concerto Class is strictly for amateurs; those who get to the final are given the opportunity to play their...
Major-key music for sad lyrics
Last night I watched a very interesting episode of a BBC Arena series about 'American Epic' music, beginning with music from the Appalachian region, featuring the Carter Family from West Virginia who in the late 1920s brought the folk music of the remote hills to the...
An afternoon of piano duets
Bob and I went to a big book sale today and came home with lots of 'four hand' duets to be played by two people sitting at one piano. We spent a chunk of the afternoon going through volumes of Dvorak Slavonic Dances, Brahms Hungarian Dances, and eventually a mad set...
EU music students still waiting for clarity on Brexit
In the course of my teaching and coaching activities I meet lots of young musicians who have come from other European countries to study in the UK. Britain's excellent music colleges and universities are extremely popular with Europeans, who often fund their studies...
Restless audiences vs acoustic instruments
This morning I was making soup and listening to Stephen Jardine's phone-in programme on BBC Radio Scotland, as I often do on a Friday morning. They were discussing whether parents should restrain their children from behaving badly in public places such as cinemas,...
Embarking on Beethoven’s opus 111 Sonata
It's been on my mind recently that I never properly learned Beethoven's final piano sonata. I've been performing and lecturing about the two penultimate sonatas, opus 109 and 110, but when someone asked if I'd like to do opus 111 as well, I had to admit that it isn't...
Seeking a female word for ‘virtuoso’
Yesterday we had a meeting of my piano club, a group of adult amateur pianists interested in developing their playing. The subject of 'virtuosos' and 'virtuoso technique' came up in relation to a piano piece with some fast, technically difficult 'show-off' passages....
Meeting up again with my first piano teacher
A lovely surprise awaited me when I played at the Brunton Theatre on Tuesday. Sitting in the front row was my first piano teacher, Gordon Lindsay ('Mr Lindsay', as I knew him). He taught me from when I began piano lessons at the age of seven until I was nine or ten....
How important is it to perform from memory?
I still have mixed feelings about playing from memory. I find that the memorising is the part of my concert preparation which takes the longest. Even after I've worked out exactly how I want to play something, there's a long extra stage which is mostly concerned with...
Classical Music magazine article
Finally I have managed to track down a copy of this month's 'Classical Music' magazine, which for some reason has become harder and harder to find in the shops. Knowing there was to be an article about me in the February issue, I tried to find the magazine in a number...
Five-star ‘Scotsman’ review of my Queen’s Hall solo recital
I haven't written anything here for a while because I have been busy preparing for a big solo recital programme last Thursday in the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh (and for several 'run-up' concerts in different parts of the country). All went well, and after a very happy...
Ryan Gosling’s piano playing skills
I haven't yet seen the movie 'LaLa Land' (it doesn't open in the UK until tomorrow). But I enjoyed hearing BBC Radio 4's 'Today' item this morning on how Ryan Gosling, who plays a struggling jazz musician in the film, learned to play the piano for it. He does all the...
Christoph Marks, principal cello of the Gaudier Ensemble
Sad news on New Year's Day. The very fine German cellist Christoph Marks has died unexpectedly of heart failure. Christoph (on the right of the photo) was the principal cello of the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hannover, but we in Britain knew him best as principal cello...