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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.
Back story? A new weapon in career-building
A new series of Channel 4's 'The Piano' has begun. Judge Mika is still there, but Lang Lang has left the show and in his place is the multi-talented American musician Jon Batiste. For anyone who isn't familiar with the show, this is the concept: an upright piano is...
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Background music that won’t stay in the background
We went out for lunch yesterday to celebrate the publication of the paperback of Bob's book A Little History of Music. Here's to a whole new bunch of readers! Everything in the restaurant was nice except for the music playing in the background. It was a dreary, drifty...
Growing up without live music
Recently I visited my old college in Cambridge to give a recital. While I was there, I took the opportunity to attend two services of Evensong in the college chapel. As always, hearing sacred music sung in those glorious surroundings (see photo) was a striking...
‘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...
Isabella Plantation, Richmond Park
Once again this year the azaleas of the Isabella Plantation, the botanical garden in the middle of Richmond Park, have all come out at once. In previous years they tactfully staggered their weeks of blooming so that different bits of the park came to life at different...