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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.
‘Con accuratezza’
Tomorrow I'm playing a solo recital at the Lammermuir Festival, a lovely festival which takes place in various locations, sacred and secular, across the beautiful county of East Lothian in Scotland. I have practised my programme to the point of feeling a keen desire...
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The Pianoforte Recital – then and now
The other day I came across an article called 'The Pianoforte Recital'. It was published in The Musical Times in 1911 - over a century ago. The author, Frederick Kitchener (himself a pianist), complained that piano recitals had become far too numerous, and that...
Keyboards for smaller hands
Last night I appeared at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, discussing my latest book with broadcaster Kate Molleson (see picture of me turning away from the piano after playing one of the pieces we were talking about). Conversation turned to the idea of...
Writing in the recession
The Author, the newsletter of the Society of Authors, has just dropped on to the doormat. It's full of doom and gloom about the effects of the recession on writers, particularly freelance writers. Fewer reviews are being commissioned by newspapers. Rates of pay have...
Pill-popping for cats
Our cat is having treatment, and needs a pill every day or two. She's always hated us giving her pills, so we usually ask the vet to do it. But now that pill-giving has become so frequent, we have to do it ourselves - preferably without chasing the cat round the house...
Eye of the Beholder
It's now a week since the Florestan Festival ended, and lots of people have been kind enough to write and say what they thought of it. One thing is very interesting: there's enormous variety in what people enjoyed best. Some relished the things which were new for...
Listening to Art Tatum
Bob has been writing about Art Tatum, the great American jazz pianist of the 1930s and 40s. Bob managed to find some transcriptions of Tatum's piano solos in the library, and has been listening to Tatum's recordings of those very pieces, comparing the recording with...
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...