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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.
Jeremy Denk mentions my book in this week’s New Yorker
A kind reader in the US (thank you Diana) has alerted me to the fact that my book Women and the Piano is one of Jeremy Denk's choices in this week's New Yorker magazine. New York pianist and writer Jeremy Denk was asked to recommend a few books that deal with the...
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‘Search for a way to make it natural’
The other day I was listening to a pianist playing the fearsome second movement of the César Franch Sonata for violin and piano. The piano part is highly virtuosic and, apart from anything else, a very good proof of the fact that these big piano parts are not...
Music and longevity
I go to quite a lot of concerts given by amateur musicians - partly because there's a big amateur music scene in the city where I live, and partly because I often have friends and neighbours playing in the concerts. Of course my particular interest is piano. It dawned...
Battle of repertoire
BBC Young Musician came to a close last night with the wonderful young cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason being declared the winner after his remarkably mature and thoughtful performance of Shostakovich's first cello concerto. His charming, modest response on being asked how...
BBC Young Musician’s ‘accs’
BBC Young Musician is underway on BBC4, and once again the talent and accomplishment of the young players is absolutely admirable. To watch and listen to them is inspiring and gives one great hope for the next generation of classical musicians. Having said that, I am...
Precision drifting
Last week I was in Rome, where I walked into a church one day to hear a group of about twenty nuns chanting an evening service. (I say 'chanting' because it wasn't exactly singing, nor was it exactly speaking, but some melodious hybrid of the two.) There was a small...
‘Reflets dans l’Eau’ played in the BBC Studio
It's just a week now until my Queen's Hall solo recital on 25 April at 7.30pm. The programme is called 'Pioneers of the Piano' and celebrates some of the composers who wrote in new ways for the piano, or showed it in a different light. I played the programme at...
How to listen to everything
I'm reading Ben Ratliff's 'Every Song Ever', an intriguing guide to how to get the most out of the huge range of recorded music now freely available. If I understand him correctly, he feels that there has been a shift from 'the composer' to 'the listener' at the top...
Status, yes/no
In my travels as a guest tutor I come across post-grad and young professional musicians from lots of different countries. For some time now I've made it a habit to ask them how they're getting on with making their way in the classical music profession - easy or...
Novelty and unusual locations
A young musician announced to me recently that the problem of classical music's dwindling audiences would be solved by moving concerts into exciting new locations not associated with classical performance. For example, she mentioned the MultiStory project, an...
Playing at the Queen’s Hall
A wonderful night on Monday at the Queen's Hall playing Schubert with violinist Erich Höbarth (see photo). We were pleasantly surprised by the size of the audience and even more so by their warmth. After such a long build-up to this particular concert it felt very...
Reviews of the Mosaiques weekend, Perth
A great weekend of music-making in Perth Concert Hall with the Quatuor Mosaiques came to an end yesterday with fabulous five-star reviews in The Herald and The Scotsman. During the residency we had the privilege of staying in Methven Castle with its delightful...
Scotsman article about this week’s concerts
Last Saturday there was a lovely article by Ken Walton in The Scotsman weekend magazine about my upcoming concerts with the Quatuor Mosaiques in Perth, and with Erich Höbarth (pictured with me) in Edinburgh. Here it is for anyone who'd like to read it. For some...
Playing with Mosaiques and with Erich Höbarth
An exciting week lies ahead, with a whole cluster of works - nine, in fact - to perform in the space of four days. I'm doing a residency with the wonderful period-instrument quartet, Quatuor Mosaiques, in Perth Concert Hall (in Scotland, before any Australians start...
Portraying isolation
Today I went to the BP Portrait Exhibition, a favourite annual exhibition. As for some years now, the emphasis was on near-photographic realism, achieved with admirable technical skill but occasionally at the expense of 'suggestiveness' if I could put it like that. By...