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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.
Concertos from long ago
I was looking through the list of candidates for a concerto competition recently and was struck by the list of pieces they were playing. Mozart (lots), Haydn (several), Beethoven (several), Mendelssohn (several), Schumann (several), Chopin, Brahms (several), Grieg,...
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‘So somewhere in my youth … or childhood’
During the Christmas holidays we watched The Sound of Music on television. Some parts of it will forever be charming, while other parts have not worn so well. No matter - it's still a feast of nostalgia for those of us who remember the film when it first came out. Bob...
Best reads of the year
A reader has asked me to specify my favourite books of the year. I keep a note in my diary of the books I read, and this year I read 42 books in their entirety, plus a few more I didn't finish. Here are my top five favourites: 1. The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth....
The classical music of the sports world?
The other night, Lindsay Davenport and John McEnroe were discussing on BBC TV the poor results of British tennis players in the opening round of this year’s Wimbledon Championships. They agreed that it’s tough at the moment, and not only in Britain, to develop a...
‘Out of Silence’ mentioned in New Yorker
My new book is mentioned in this week's New Yorker magazine by the leading writer on music, Alex Ross. Alex's column in the magazine this week is about ballet and its sometimes vexed relationship with the musical score. Read the article in the New Yorker. Order 'Out...
The power of negative example
I finally managed to sign up for the digital music service Spotify. The first thing I did was to listen to some recordings of pieces I’m currently learning, to see what other artists had made of them. I regarded my mind as being still open on the subject, was...
Expanding in performance
A curious thing happened at a concert of mine last week. We had rehearsed in the afternoon (piano plus string quartet) and when everyone was comfortable with the positions of their chairs and instruments, we marked up the stage with various colours of sticky tape so...
More book reviews
Two more reviews of my book 'Out of Silence' have appeared. As neither is online, here's a glimpse of what they said: ‘In my experience, highly gifted musicians often find it extremely difficult to articulate their ideas about music and reveal the secrets of their...
A kitten steals the show
I played a piano recital the other evening at the home of some friends. It was a lovely evening, and behind the piano, the French doors were wide open to the garden. About ten minutes from the end of my recital, as I was sailing full steam ahead with the final piece,...
The Florestan Festival at Peasmarsh
I’m off to take part in the Florestan Festival at Peasmarsh for the next few days. The festival takes place in a lovely little Norman church in the middle of the East Sussex fields (see photo). This year’s festival, the 13th Florestan Festival, celebrates the work of...
Listen to Australian radio interview
I did an interview yesterday with Australian Radio's 'The Music Show', hosted by composer Andrew Ford for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was broadcast in Australia a few hours ago and is now available via their website for downloading or to listen online....
TLS review of ‘Out of Silence’
An exciting moment this afternoon: a friend called to say that he'd just read a review – the first one, in fact - of my new book in the Times Literary Supplement. I couldn’t find it online, so I ran down the road to the newsagent’s to buy a hard copy. Here’s a snippet...
Read this blog via email, etc
Read the blog via email: now you can sign up to have new blog posts delivered to your email inbox, and as always, you can also subscribe via RSS. You'll find these options in the left-hand column under the Search box. Plus, if you've written a comment on a blog post,...
A tour of living-rooms?
This is my 200th blog post! Here's a photo of me playing for an invited audience recently in someone’s private home. I really like playing (and also going to hear) house concerts, which feel like a variant on the ‘salons’ of previous centuries. Understandably, such...
Better than it sounds
Our cat’s preferred brand of catfood has a disarming slogan: ‘As good as it looks’. The layers of meaning quiver in front of your eyes almost as much as the meaty jelly does when you spoon it out. Obviously, 'as good as it looks' is meant to put positive thoughts in...