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.
Admiring swallows on either side of their migration routes
We often walk up past a farm in the Braid Hills where swallows gather each year to make their nests and raise their young. Usually the birds arrive in early May, and until they leave in August for their journey to Africa, we visit the farm regularly to see how they're...
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Jeremy Denk mentions my book in this week’s New Yorker
A kind reader in the US (thank you Diana) has alerted me to the fact that my book Women and the Piano is one of Jeremy Denk's choices in this week's New Yorker magazine. New York pianist and writer Jeremy Denk was asked to recommend a few books that deal with the...
‘Search for a way to make it natural’
The other day I was listening to a pianist playing the fearsome second movement of the César Franch Sonata for violin and piano. The piano part is highly virtuosic and, apart from anything else, a very good proof of the fact that these big piano parts are not...
The 2013 Cobbett Medal
Out of the blue has come a letter from the Worshipful Company of Musicians, telling me that I have been awarded the 2013 Walter Wilson Cobbett Medal for distinguished services to chamber music. WW Cobbett was a successful businessman whose true passion was chamber...
Residency at King’s College, Cambridge
This week also sees my mini-residency at King's College, Cambridge. On Friday 22 Feb I'm giving a pre-concert talk at 7pm and a solo recital at 9pm - music by Haydn, Schumann and Billy Mayerl. On the morning of Saturday 23 Feb I'm giving a three-hour masterclass for...
Austrian Radio interview on Wednesday
Between Monday and Thursday mornings this week, Austrian Radio (ORF1) is broadcasting a series of interviews with classical pianists who are also writers. Stephen Hough, Yorck Kronenbourg and Valery Afanassiev all feature in the series along with me. My own interview...
London Masterclass
I have had a delightful time working with the young musicians who took part in my London masterclasses over the last two days. Thank you, Trio Fournier, Gagliano Ensemble, Trio Minori, Veronika Kopjova and Vashti Hunter! Chamber music is in safe hands if the hands are...
This week’s masterclasses
It's time once more for my own London masterclasses. This Thursday and Friday, Feb 14 and 15, I'll be teaching four young professional chamber groups (see my Concerts and Events page for details). We'll be working on Beethoven (a piano trio and a cello/piano sonata),...
Front and back
Which is the front of a church? At the weekend we had a disagreement about it. We were talking about somewhere we'd been on holiday. I referred to a certain road as 'the one that goes past the back of the church'. Bob's response puzzled me. From his description, he...
Radio 4 ‘Today’ programme, Tuesday
Tune in to Radio 4's 'Today' programme at 8.35am this morning, Tuesday 29 January, when I'll be taking part in a short discussion about coughing in concerts. We'll be discussing the research of Professor Andreas Wagener, who believes that coughing in concerts is both...
When snow stops play
The snow is causing all sorts of disruption. On Friday I went into town to meet someone who didn't arrive because his flight from Austria was cancelled. On Saturday morning, I was supposed to be coaching a young German group, but their violinist was stuck in Germany...
‘Classics’ and the brain
Yesterday I heard on the news that a Liverpool University study had shown the power of literature to boost brain activity. 'Classic texts' such as Shakespeare and Wordsworth appear to catch the reader's attention more than ordinary texts, triggering heightened...
What we call ‘music’
Melvyn Bragg's excellent Radio 4 Series on 'culture' has been a thought-provoking companion every morning this week. Various guests on the programme, talking about 'high art', have commented that older forms of music have been overtaken and overshadowed by the vast...
New Year greetings to you all
A very happy new year to my readers! Here I am on New Year's Day, eating home-made Christmas cake on an outing to Richmond Park, and enjoying a rare and sudden burst of sunshine.
‘Highlights of 2012’
A nice thing to happen at the end of the year: music critic Kate Molleson, who writes for the Guardian as well as the Herald, has mentioned me at the start of her round-up of the year's musical highlights in Scotland. It brought back good memories of my series with...