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.
Signing paperbacks
Here I am signing paperbacks in Toppings Bookshop in Edinburgh this morning. Whenever I'm in a big bookstore, especially a well-curated one like Toppings, I look at all the tables with their piles of new books on a thousand fascinating subjects and wonder what chance...
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Paperback edition of ‘Women and the Piano’ comes out on May 13
I'm excited about the paperback edition of Women and the Piano coming out this Tuesday. As you probably know, not all hardback books are subsequently released in paperback. It depends on the type of book, on the hardback sales, on the presumed size of the readership....
When is a theme a melody?
I've now finished working my way through the volume of Mozart piano sonatas (a sonata a day keeps the doctor away) and have started playing through Beethoven's again. The early Beethoven sonatas have made me think about what makes the difference between a theme and a...
Who owns ‘perfection’ now?
It's hard to keep up with changing perceptions in the world of music. We classical musicians are used to being the butt of complaints that our concerts are off-putting because of their focus on accuracy and daunting accomplishment. Unfortunately there's no way round...
Celebrity Silence
I have been haunted this week by articles about the New York collaboration between 'performance artist' Marina Abramovic and pianist Igor Levit. You can read all about it here. Basically, Marina Abramovic seeks to 'get the audience into a different state of mind' in...
Life with and without managers
While baking a cake this morning, I listened to an excellent BBC Radio 4 programme, 'The Joy of 9 to 5', about managers. Presenter Lucy Kellaway investigated what managers actually do, and introduced us to some new approaches to management, emanating in particular...
Reaching out to new audiences
I've just finished reading James Rhodes's book Instrumental. Nobody can put down the book without feeling intense sympathy for him and admiration for the way he's turned his traumatic experiences into positive motivation for life as a concert pianist. No-one can doubt...
Next Thursday at Glasgow University
I've been looking forward to performing Beethoven's song cycle 'An die ferne Geliebte' with tenor Jamie MacDougall next week at Glasgow University's lunchtime concert series. Admission to this popular series is free by the way! Unfortunately Jamie has had to pull out...
‘The other classical musics’
Yesterday's Guardian Review carried a fascinating article by Michael Church, editor of 'The other classical musics - fifteen great traditions', a new assortment of essays by Church and other world music experts published by Boydell Press (who also publish my books)....
Talking about Beethoven
On Tuesday 13 October at 1pm I'm giving a lecture-recital about Beethoven's opus 109 piano sonata at the Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh, on the edge of Edinburgh. Preparing for this event has taken an embarrassingly long time. Practising the sonata itself is one...
Home from Prussia Cove
I haven't written anything here for a while because I've been away at the International Musicians' Seminar 'Open Chamber Music' in Prussia Cove, Cornwall. We had a week of rehearsals in Prussia Cove (see photo), and then eight of us did a week of touring, giving five...
Richard Tauber sings Léhar
A reader has reproached me for not including the classic Richard Tauber recording in my previous blog post about different versions of Léhar's aria 'Dein ist mein ganzes Herz'. He points out that the composer actually wrote with Tauber's voice in mind, so mine was...
Léhar’s aria
One of the highlights of Saturday's 'Last Night of the Proms' was Jonas Kaufmann singing 'Dein ist mein ganzes Herz' from Franz Léhar's operetta 'The Land of Smiles' (Das Land des Laechelns). Oh my goodness, what a song! So beautifully constructed, such clever and...
Noisy piano practice
In the admin section of my website, I can see what search terms people are most commonly using. For months now, the most popular search terms have been 'noisy piano practise in apartment', 'neighbour nuisance from piano playing', 'how to stop pianist practising...
LCMS review of my book
Excerpt from a review of my book 'Sleeping in Temples', in the newsletter of the London Chamber Music Society (you can download the whole newsletter from their site). 'I don't usually 'judge a book by its cover', but in this case the cover is a lovely place to start:...