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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.
A dream of a former home
I woke up in total darkness early this morning and for a few moments thought I was back in my house in London. In the darkness I thought the wardrobe was on my right and the windows straight ahead at the end of the bed, as they were in London. I realised fairly...
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Take 1, 13, 21, 47, 109, 205
I've returned from London, where I recorded an album for Hyperion of piano music by some of the women featured in my book. I had a wonderful recording team. Incredibly, it's now 40 years since I first recorded an album with producer Andrew Keener, now a doyen of the...
Unyoking the horses
Today's blog post is on quite a niche subject. When I was writing a short biography of pianist Sophie Menter (1846-1912) for Women and the Piano, I mentioned some of the extravagant things her fans used to do to show their adoration. When she played in Copenhagen in...
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...
Richard Rodney Bennett
On Christmas Day I was sorry to hear that the composer Richard Rodney Bennett had died in his adopted home, New York. RRB and I had been in touch since I made my Billy Mayerl disc. He wrote to me out of the blue to say how much he liked it. I was thrilled to get a...
masterclasses – save the date
Winter sausages
I always rather dread this time of year, when cold weather makes my hands feel stiff. Before sitting down to play the piano, I often have to run a basin of warm water and stand with my hands in the water for a few minutes. My piano stands next to an unused fireplace....