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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.
50 Kingswomen photos now installed in their new home in the College
When I was in Cambridge recently I went to see the photos taken last year by photographer Jooney Woodward to mark fifty years of women undergraduates at King's College Cambridge. Last time I saw these photos, in June 2023, they were in the Chapel (I wrote about the...
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Mr Woods, a friend of Burns
The other day when I was a little early for a meeting I climbed the steps to the Old Calton Burial Ground (see photo) to go and look at the monument to the philosopher David Hume. It's a kind of empty stone cylinder into which the sunlight shines, and is always...
Smetana’s piano music and the use of ‘vibrato’
A little while ago I wrote something about a piano piece by Robert Schumann, in which he had instructed the player to play 'con accurezza' - with accuracy. It still seems an amusing little moment because of the questions it raises. I came across another such moment...
International Piano magazine review
There's a nice review of my new book, Sleeping in Temples, in the Jan/Feb issue of International Piano magazine. I know from my own attempts that it isn't always easy to track down this interesting magazine, so I thought I'd take the chance to reproduce an excerpt...
Freedom to add, change and take away
I've been listening to recordings of pieces I'm currently working on. One is a Moment Musical by Schubert, represented by many different performances, including a YouTube clip of Horowitz playing it in front of a rapt audience in, I think, Carnegie Hall. Horowitz's...
Dame Fanny’s observations
Dame Fanny Waterman, who is standing down from the Leeds Piano Competition she co-founded in 1961, has caused quite a storm with her remarks about the decline of piano-playing in the UK. She attributes this partly to the growing popularity of electric pianos ('a waste...
Balloons
There's been a lot in the press recently about coughing in classical concerts, and whether it's acceptable or not. We classical musicians (and listeners) tend to get upset about performances being marred by loud coughing. However, compared with some musicians, I...
‘Maurice Guest’
Readers who followed my enthusiastic recommendation of 'The Real Charlotte' may be interested in another recommendation from the same period. I've just finished reading 'Maurice Guest', published in 1908 by Henry Handel Richardson, the pseudonym of Ethel Richardson,...
Kyung Wha Chung’s response to coughing
Lots of people have written to me today about coughing. Why? Because of a BBC News report about violinist Kyung-Wha Chung's comeback recital at the Festival Hall in London. She was disturbed by a child coughing in the audience, and remonstrated with the parents. Her...
Classical Music ‘Books of the Year’
My book 'Sleeping in Temples' has been named as one of the 'Books of the Year' by Classical Music magazine. In November it was their 'Editor's Choice' with a five-star review, and now in December it has been upgraded to one of the ten 'books of the year'. What...
Reviews update
Three more mentions of my new book have appeared this weekend: Alex Ross, music critic of the New Yorker and eminent music blogger, includes it in his 'Recommendations'. Frances Wilson reviews it in her Cross-Eyed Pianist blog: 'This absorbing and insightful book will...
BBC Music Magazine review
I'm very happy to hear that my new book 'Sleeping in Temples' is the Books Choice in the Christmas 2014 issue of BBC Music. 'Rare insight. Susan Tomes illuminates at the piano and on the page.' 'Susan Tomes compares her first encounter with chamber music as akin to...
Different degrees of preparation
The current series of 'Masterchef Professionals' has provoked quite a lot of interaction between musicians (mostly on Twitter) commenting on how unprepared the competitors seem to be for the cookery challenges which await them. Time after time, in the 'technical...
Classical Music review of ‘Sleeping in Temples’
The first review of my new book has appeared. I’m delighted to find it is ‘Editor’s Choice’ in this month’s Classical Music with a five-star review: ‘Those bewitched by Tomes’s three previous books (two published by the clearly perceptive Boydell Press) can prepare...
Thinking back or planning ahead?
An interesting discussion the other night with a bunch of student pianists. We were discussing the kind of situation where you have to perform several different pieces in a row without being able to leave the stage. This is sometimes the case in, for example, a...