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.
Different audiences, different reactions
I have been going to events at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival. There seems to be a lot of overlap between the audiences, because I keep seeing the same faces. It's interesting to observe the effects that different performers have on the audiences. Some performers banter...
Search the Blog
Get The Latest Posts
Interested in what Susan has to say about all things classical music? Subscribe below and whenever Susan writes a new blog post you will be notified by email. Simple!
Wimbledon fortnight improves my playing
Wimbledon Championship Fortnight is halfway through and I have spent quite a lot of time watching tennis, with occasional breaks for some piano practice. Whenever I watch a lot of tennis, or more particularly when I listen to a lot of expert commentary, I feel that my...
Professions which have no amateur version
The other day I was talking about piano-playing with some very good amateur pianists. As it happens, they were all high-flyers in other professions. A surgeon was saying ruefully that people don't realise how much work it takes to be a very good amateur pianist,...
Booking me as a speaker
I have joined the roster of speakers represented by the Ed Victor Agency. If you are interested in booking me as a speaker, Visit their Speakers' Bureau and scroll down the alphabetical list until you come to T. I've always enjoyed speaking to concert audiences, and...
Marginalisation
The other day I went to an orchestral concert, at the end of which the conductor held up a hand for silence and made an emotional speech about how this kind of music needs our support more than ever, because classical musicians feel 'marginalised'. He said that young...
Above the frets
Went to hear a consort of viols playing their own arrangement of Bach's Goldberg Variations, which were written for a keyboard instrument. It's such wonderful music that it has inspired various people to arrange it for different instruments - I have heard it done...
Pink garlic from our garden
Last summer we brought back some pink garlic from the French village of Lautrec, where we visited a memorable exhibition of tableaux created using pink garlic cloves as the raw material. When we got home, we divided our garlic bulbs into single cloves and planted them...
Alphonse Silhouette
This morning in the park I was trying to take moody silhouettes of my old friends the Egyptian geese (see photo). 'I wonder where the word 'silhouette' comes from?' I said to Bob. He thought for a moment and replied, 'Probably named after Alphonse Silhouette, the...
Smoking in the air
Yesterday I adjudicated a scholarship whose auditions were held at the Royal Academy of Music. Their Josefowitz Recital Hall is set into the ground at basement level. Half way up the wall behind the stage is a large half-moon-shaped window as wide as the room. This...
The language of the day
Went to the Royal College of Music to see their end-of-year student production of Mozart's 'The Marriage of Figaro'. Whenever I go to see Mozart operas, I'm struck by how one gets to see a side of Mozart not so much in evidence in his purely instrumental music. How to...
Noriko’s translation arrives
Last night I saw the Japanese edition (published by Shunjusha) of my book 'Out of Silence' for the first time. Its translator, the concert pianist Noriko Ogawa, flew back from Tokyo yesterday and very nobly came straight from the airport to visit me, bringing me a...
Negative reviews
On this morning's 'A Point of View' on Radio 4, Adam Gopnik shared some amusing thoughts about how authors deal with negative reviews. He described how many authors write fierce late-night responses and reubuttals, which they're usually dissuaded from sending. He...
Wigmore booking opens for new season
Booking for Wigmore Hall's 2012-13 season opens to the general public today. You can browse the new brochure online or download it from here. This seems a good moment to mention that on the evening of Sunday, September 30, violinist Erich Höbarth and I will be playing...
Does melody ‘lie behind us’?
Adam Gopnik, speaking yesterday on Radio 4’s ‘A Point of View’ about the Beatles, ended his talk with a thought-provoking idea about melody and harmony. ‘Melody lies behind us, and calls us to our memories of a better past’, he said. ‘Harmony always lies ahead… as the...
‘Out of Silence’ comes out in Japanese
Today in Tokyo, the first copies of Noriko Ogawa's translation of my book 'Out of Silence' roll off the press. The cover (see photo) is much the same as the British edition's, but my name appears in Japanese, with Noriko's name alongside it as translator. I feel...