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.
‘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...
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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....
Why are most concerts performed just once?
We were discussing the fact that there are so few concert reviews in the newspaper these days. Time was when most concerts in prestigious venues were reviewed the next day. But now there are few reviews. What gets covered? - the Proms, perhaps, and some special visits...
The upside-down piano
I find that Piotr Anderszewski's views on chamber music have begun to prey on my mind. Yesterday I said it was no hardship that chamber music has to be performed in an upright position. Since then I have started to wonder if I was too hasty. Now I suddenly feel that...
The verticality of chamber music
I'm still mulling over a remark made by the marvellous pianist Piotr Anderszewski in a Telegraph interview I read on the plane to Berlin. Asked why he doesn't play much chamber music, Anderszewski replied, 'Well...I'm a solitary person. But also I like to lie down,...
Sunny above the clouds
This morning we flew back from Berlin. Yesterday's thunderstorm had been swept away and the sky was a brilliant blue, with hundreds of fluffy white clouds bobbing about beneath us. Sometimes when travelling by plane, especially on a dull day, the glorious sunshine...
Beyond the Wall
Off early this morning to Heathrow for a concert this evening with the trio in Berlin's Konzerthaus. We used never to travel somewhere far away on the day of a concert, in case of delays. We'd had one or two nasty experiences which made us conclude that we must always...
Handel’s opera stars
Last night we attended the dress rehearsal of Handel's opera ‘Giulio Cesare' at Glyndebourne, thanks to a friend in the orchestra who kindly gave us tickets. Dress rehearsals at Glyndebourne, which are free but reserved for friends, family and supporters' groups of...
A painful index finger
The index finger of my left hand has been painful for some days. I think I whacked the piano keyboard too hard during a phrase marked ‘brutal' in a performance of Messiaen last week. Next morning, I picked up a mug of tea and it really hurt to curl my finger around...
Nonfiction
I'm reading the American poet Mark Doty's memoir about his two beloved dogs. It's a charity shop find in a Large Print Edition, the oversize print giving me the impression that the author is talking to me slowly and in a loud voice. The sensation fades away as I get...
Schubert’s biographer
Practising Schubert's E flat trio for a concert tonight, I remembered a delightful moment in a talk Bob gave about Schubert's chamber music at the Florestan Festival a couple of years ago. He told the audience about the earliest known biography of Schubert, written by...
More on those disappearing reviews
Several people have got in touch about the difficulty of musicians getting their concerts reviewed by the press. They point out that where they live, newspapers are ‘letting go' of their classical music critics and shrinking the team of arts critics generally. The...
A well-deserved award
Last night the Royal Philharmonic Society announced their 2009 awards for music. One result that I found particularly pleasing was the Creative Communication Award to Alex Ross for his book The Rest is Noise, which has already won the Guardian First Book Award. I gave...
Silence in the Press (again)
Last week my trio played two concerts in Wigmore Hall, one of the world's premier venues for chamber music. Both concerts were sold out, with people standing at the back and people being turned away at the box office. Yet there was not a single review in any...
The Stradivarius of Wine Glasses
Passing the time between a rehearsal and a concert, Bob and I walk along Wigmore Street. We spot a shop selling all kinds of accessories to do with wine drinking. We pop in for some vacuum corks. Inside the shop is a display of luxurious wine glasses: hand-blown,...