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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.
Trying pianos at Steinway Hall
I was at Steinway Hall in London the other day to try some pianos for a recording project later this year (of which more news soon). Chief technician Ulrich Gerharz had helped me - after discussing the repertoire and the venue - to whittle the choice down to two...
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The stages that lead up to submitting your book to the publisher
One of my blog readers recently asked me what stages I had to go through before my latest book was accepted by Yale University Press. He was surprised by how complex the process was, so I thought others might find it interesting too. I don't know how it is with other...
Different kinds of live music
I was lying awake in the night, with music playing in my head as it usually does when I'm awake in the wee small hours. Sometimes I set the music going consciously, as for example when I'm 'practising' something I'm currently trying to learn or memorise. At other...
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...
Outsider Art
Here I am in conversation yesterday with Professor Mary Hunter in the Studzinski Recital Hall during the Klavierfest at Bowdoin College, Maine. We were billed to talk to the audience about various issues to do with performing, but as many conversations do these days,...
One chord, two chords, three … or more
Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground, who died this week, famously said (tongue in cheek, I suppose) that when you're composing a song, 'one chord is fine, two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz'. I had that quote in my mind last night as I...
City Music Society on 16 Oct
City Music Society, which holds its concerts at Bishopsgate Institute near Liverpool St Station in London, is starting its 'early evening' autumn series on Wednesday night, 16 October, with a piano recital by me. Tickets are free for students under 25 with valid ID....
Ragtime piano hands
I'm preparing an interesting recital programme at the moment for a concert in Salzburg on October 23. Tomorrow I'm trying it out for an invited audience in London. The programme focuses on Billy Mayerl and his favourite composers. Billy Mayerl, the pianist at the...
An open gate at Prussia Cove
I have spent the week down at Prussia Cove in Cornwall at the autumn IMS chamber music seminar, together with 50 musicians from around the world. We battle up and down the cliff paths against the wind. Musicians and their instrument cases loom out of the mist in the...