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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.
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...
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Tricky fingering resolves itself
I've been gradually playing through the whole volume of Mozart piano sonatas, and the other day I reached the B flat Sonata, K333. This piece holds unpleasant memories for me because when I was doing my O-levels, or Highers, I forget which, I had to perform some of it...
Back story? A new weapon in career-building
A new series of Channel 4's 'The Piano' has begun. Judge Mika is still there, but Lang Lang has left the show and in his place is the multi-talented American musician Jon Batiste. For anyone who isn't familiar with the show, this is the concept: an upright piano is...
Boxes of unsold records
Went to see the new Coen Brothers' film, Inside Llewyn Davis, the tale of a moderately successful American folk singer in 1961, on the cusp of the Bob Dylan era. After the death of his duo partner, Llewyn is trying to make it in Greenwich Village as a solo artist. The...
Lecturing at Deptford Town Hall
Here I am, lecturing to the British Comparative Literature Association yesterday. At Deptford Town Hall! Who would have expected such a grand Victorian building, with a beautifully ornate staircase, and an excellent Steinway concert grand piano in the Council Chamber?...
Malcolm Bowie Memorial Lecture on Saturday
On Saturday I'm giving this year's Malcolm Bowie Memorial Lecture for the British Comparative Literature Association. My subject is 'Music and memory - a musician's perspective'. The lecture is free and open to the public. It takes place at 3pm in Deptford Town Hall...
A visit to Basel
I'm getting ready for a trip to the Hochschule fuer Musik in Basel, where I'm giving three days of chamber music masterclasses on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. If you should be reading this in Basel, the classes are open to the public and take place from 10am-6pm each...
A mention in the New York Times
Friends in America have alerted me to an interesting article in the New York Times of 31 December 2013: 'Maestro at Work: Hold That Cough'. Written by NY Times music critic Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, it's about the tickly - sorry, tricky - issue of coughing in...
Happy New Year – and e-book news
Happy New Year to readers of this blog - and thank you for sticking with me. It is lovely to know that somewhere out there is a circle of readers. Quite a wide circle, geographically. Visualising that circle definitely helps to combat the feeling of isolation to which...
The man in the street
Yesterday I listened to a BBC Radio 4 programme about Henry Cole, the founder of the splendid V&A Museum in South Kensington. They were talking to a curator of the David Bowie exhibition, one of the most successful of the V&A's recent exhibitions. The curator...
Vocabulary
The BBC2 series 'Masterchef' has come to an end with Steven Edwards winning the title. One of the competitors' final tasks was to cook for a roomful of distinguished chefs, well known from Michelin-starred restaurants around the UK. This is always a fascinating event,...
Butterflies
I've been practising Schumann's 'Papillons', a cycle of piano pieces containing various motifs and references which reappear in his later piano music. It seems that for Schumann, butterflies were associated with the novels of Jean Paul, one of his favourite authors,...
Unusual challenges on the platform
I was doing some teaching at Oxford University the other day, and we were discussing the challenges of making a good entrance on to the concert platform when giving a recital as part of your exams. I was discoursing on the need for calm or confidence, and trying to...
Piano practice and neighbours
Several people including a lawyer have sent me a link to yesterday's BBC news story about a pianist in Spain whose neighbour took her to court over her piano practising, alleging 'psychological harm' from having to listen to it. Spanish prosecutors had initially...
Messages out of the blue
Here I am talking with a talented young pianist at the very enjoyable masterclass I gave at Bowdoin College in Maine a few days ago. It was enjoyable partly because of the students and partly because of the audience, which included some townsfolk not used to coming to...