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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.
Listening bars
In today's Guardian I was reading about the Japanese tradition of 'listening bars', where customers have 'a deep, beautiful, reverential attitude to listening to music'. High-end sound systems, sometimes dominating a whole wall, convey every layer of a recorded album...
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Looking over the list of books I read this year
On the last day of the year I have been looking through the list of books I read during the year. This year I seem to have read 36 books. I used to read books from the library, but the pandemic (when libraries were closed for ages) trained me out of that habit, and...
‘Women and the Piano’ wins a Presto Music award
At last night's Presto Music Awards, my book Women and the Piano was a Book of the Year. I'm very happy to have this recognition of a book that means a lot to me. Thanks again to Yale University Press for commissioning it.
Pitch Inflation
My piano tuner asks whether I'm happy to keep my piano at the usual pitch, A=440. Yes. Why wouldn’t I be? Well, he says, some British orchestras are now asking for pianos to be tuned at A=442 Hz. Now that there’s so much musical traffic between countries, we’re under...
Updating golden oldies
Last night we watched an enjoyable BBC4 programme, ‘The Great American Songbook’. Various artists such as Paolo Nutini, Melody Gardot, Krystle Warren, Gwyneth Herbert, José James and my own personal favourite, Claire Martin gave us their own, updated versions of...
Changing attitudes to recording
At the moment I have seven or eight new pieces on the music desk of my piano. I have to learn them all by the summer. Some are works I’ve never heard played, and in such cases I find it helpful to listen to a recording before I start work. The internet has made things...
Coals to Newcastle (as it were)
An intriguing exchange in Sainsbury’s this morning. Two women were standing at the flour section frowning at a tiny bag of flour which one of them held in her hand. ‘Do you bake?’ she said to me. I nodded. ‘Could you tell me whether I’d get 24 fairy cakes out of this...
Calm before the storm
The weather has turned cold again, and on the day I took this photo in Richmond Park, we had hail, thunder and lightning in the afternoon. By now, the high winds and heavy rain have probably ripped most of the early blossoms off the bushes. So I think I was lucky to...
Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs
Bob and I were arguing over breakfast about the theme tune at the end of ‘Frasier’. We’re working our way through a box set and enjoying the Frasier ambience all over again. But we had rather different memories of what notes he sings to the words ‘tossed salad and...
Is your journey really necessary?
Weekends in London are becoming a nightmare of public transport challenges. Every week we’re notified of which tube lines will be closed or partially closed at the weekend. The list often seems cheekily long. The whole Victoria Line is often closed, the whole Circle...
Signs of spring
Suddenly there are signs of spring everywhere in the neighbourhood (and presumably further afield as well). I wish I knew whether these lovely blooms in our local park are camellias or rhododendrons, though at least I've got that far. 'La Dame aux Rhododendrons'...
Miaowing up the wrong tree?
Our cat remains a popular ‘search topic’ on this blog. So perhaps it’s time for an update. About 18 months ago our 14-year-old cat collapsed and lay miserably for a few days on a drip in the corner of a cage at the local animal hospital. She was diagnosed with...
Unsmall talk
Here I am on one of my favourite sofas in the Friends' Room at the Royal Academy of Arts. Over the years, on this very sofa or the ones next to it, I've discussed all manner of things with friends from near and far. We've met here partly to look at paintings and...
A sudden flash of colour
'If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?' It's funny how the first flowers of the year - crocuses, daffodils, aconites -seem especially vivid in colour. Are they really brighter than other flowers, or do they just strike us that way because our eyes have gradually...
Link to Guardian Review
If you would like to read the excerpts from 'Out of Silence' in today's Guardian, click here.