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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.
‘Fifty Portraits’ at King’s College Cambridge
I was in Cambridge at the weekend to give a piano recital as part of the events marking fifty years of women as undergraduates at King's College, Cambridge. As well as playing a concert, I was also there to see the opening of a special exhibition: Fifty Portraits, a...
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A curved piano keyboard
A friend has sent me information about a new piano, designed with an ergonomically curved keyboard. I have wondered about the feasibility of such a keyboard for a long time, but have never had the opportunity to try one. As a pianist, often required to traverse the...
John Keats and Haydn symphonies played on a rented piano
This week I have been in Rome, where Bob was giving a seminar at La Sapienza University. We added on a few days to turn it into a little holiday. We visited the Keats museum at the Spanish Steps. I have been in Rome a number of times, and have toiled up and down the...
My Billy Mayerl CD resurfaces
People sometimes ask where they can find my 1990 disc of piano music by Billy Mayerl, and I haven't been able to tell them. Since Virgin Classics was bought by EMI, and after parts of EMI were moved to Paris, it's become very hard to follow the fate of a record which...
Active Silence
We're just back from the Florestan Festival at Peasmarsh. What an extraordinary thing a festival is. A few hours before the first concert, the church is completely quiet, the country lanes are empty, and you can't imagine that anyone will really come. You finish the...
Cardiff Singer of the World
Despite this week's rehearsals for the Florestan Festival I've managed to watch several rounds of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition on television (the Final is on Sunday). I've been following this bi-annual competition for many years and always find it...
Roses and thorns
Roses have started to bloom in the garden. There's an old rosebush which has been living here for longer than I have. Its roses are pale pink, but this year for the first time the petals are tinged with the faintest gold. Maybe the weather is different this year, or...
Driving away troublemakers
There's another press report on classical music being used to drive troublesome teenagers away from local shops, this time with a twist. The Co-op store in an Aberdeen suburb has been broadcasting a classical playlist at the front of its shop as a 'deterrent'. But...
Jarred by canned music
Just back from a successful trip to the Echternach Festival in Luxembourg. We played in a very pretty but wildly over-resonant church whose acoustics were only somewhat subdued by the presence of the audience. During the rehearsal, when the church was empty, we...
Link to Guardian article
A couple of people have mentioned that they couldn't immediately find my Guardian article online yesterday, and have suggested I give a direct link. Here it is: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/05/florestan-trio-beethoven-second
Entering into the role
One of the pieces we're playing in Luxembourg tonight is a piano trio arrangement of Janacek's first string quartet, known as ‘The Kreutzer Sonata' after a short story by Tolstoy. The story recounts how the narrator becomes jealous of his wife after she forms a...
Guardian article tomorrow
I've written an article for The Guardian, due to be published tomorrow (Friday 5 June) in the Film and Music supplement. It's about the trio's festival plans to perform Beethoven's Second Symphony in the composer's arrangement for piano trio. This year there are...
Transfer Fees
Over breakfast this morning I heard the sports announcer say that footballer Roberto Kaka is to join Real Madrid for a record-breaking transfer fee of £56 million. This sum is quite apart from the player's own prospective earnings, reputed to be in the region of...
Flowering on one day only
The new little convolvulus plant in our garden has just flowered for the first time. Its six delicate purple flowers will be gone by the end of the day. Bob says there should be new flowers tomorrow. We bought the convolvulus plant in homage to a wonderful sight in...
‘I don’t hear anything’
Today I've been rehearsing a quintet for piano and strings with some very fine players using some very fine old Italian string instruments. I'm never sure if it's good to say who owns what, so I'll just say that these top-league instruments sounded incredible. One of...