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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.
Fading before the end of the story
I've finished reading several novels I received as Christmas presents. All were enjoyable, but at least two of them seemed to run out of steam before the end. I won't say which they were, because it doesn't seem fair to books which were very well written overall, but...
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Hallucinations
Historian Tom Holland was guest-editing the 'Today' programme on BBC Radio 4 recently. He spoke about his experience of AI 'hallucinations', that now increasingly well-known phenomenon whereby Artifical Intelligence makes up information in response to a question. Tom...
Edward Greenfield: a word of appreciation
Sad news that Edward Greenfield has died. He was senior music critic of The Guardian for many years, and a longstanding contributor to Gramophone magazine. Although 'Ted' was a professional critic, it always seemed to me that he was determined to accentuate the...
Scottish Journal of Performance: book review
'Sleeping in Temples is the fourth book by the pianist and author Susan Tomes. The book is drawn from the author’s memories, experiences and thoughts about the music she has been intensely and sincerely committed to as a pianist performing at the highest international...
Australian radio interview coming up
I recently did an interview with Andrew Ford of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's 'The Music Show'. We talked mainly about my book 'Sleeping in Temples', but strayed onto other topics such as why it is that, in the last movement of Beethoven's E major piano...
Herald review of Aurea Quartet and me
On Friday I played Mozart's K414 concerto with the Aurea Quartet in the Cottier Festival in Glasgow. Today's Herald carries a delightful review by senior critic Michael Tumelty; as the Herald Online is sometimes tricky for non-subscribers to access, here is the...
Herald review of Friday’s Cottier Chamber concert
Today's Herald carries a review, by senior critic Michael Tumelty, of Friday's Cottier Chamber Project opening night. As the review is only accessible online to subscribers, I'll post it here. Susan Tomes/Daniel's Beard, Cottier's Theatre, Glasgow 'THERE was a...
Peter Cropper
Sad news about the death of Peter Cropper, inspirational first violinist of the Lindsay Quartet. I didn't know Peter so well myself, but always felt connected to the Lindsays because the original viola player of my group Domus, Robin Ireland, moved to become the viola...
Should we promote our own concerts?
There's been quite a lot written lately about the need for musicians to 'be their own promoters' and organise their own concerts. In the face of declining opportunities for classical music, many musicians have embraced the idea of putting on their own concerts and...
Competitions and boringness
Letter from a reader who mentions that he rarely goes to concerts these days because many performers are there as a result of winning competitions, and he finds that competition winners are usually, like Monty Python's celebrated accountant, 'too boring to be of...
Gathering round a new score
I've been rehearsing Judith Weir's 'Airs from Another Planet', a superb sextet for piano and wind instruments (in this case, the wind players of the chamber group Daniel's Beard). It's for the opening concert of the Cottier Chamber Project in Glasgow on 5 June....
Teaching Daisy to use a catflap
Lots of people have asked for news of our rescue cat Daisy (surely her adventures can't be more interesting than my ruminations on phrasing and pedalling?). Daisy's getting on beautifully, but can't understand how to use the cat flap which would let her out into the...
Chamber Music America magazine
The new issue of Chamber Music America magazine has as its endpiece an abridged version of one of the chapters of my book 'Sleeping in Temples'. It's the chapter called 'The Iceberg', in which I contrast the huge amount of time most musicians spend practising and...
The Highland Lady’s memories of practising
I wrote a while ago about the memoirs of Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus, 'the Highland Lady', whose memoirs of life in Scotland in the early 19th century were so popular. Now I'm reading her later volume of memoirs, written when she was married and helping to run an...