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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.
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....
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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...
Playing the piano to elephants
On Saturday there was a lovely article in The Guardian about Paul Barton, a man who plays the piano to elephants at an elephant sanctuary in Thailand. The elephants have often been overworked or mistreated before they come to the sanctuary, but it seems that they...
Unsweet Dreams
This morning my trio had a Coffee Concert at the Wigmore Hall. It meant being in central London at 9am for our rehearsal, so last night I went to bed quite early, in the hope of being well rested. But this strategy rarely works, and as well as sleeping badly, I had...
Hushed by beauty
Bob and I stopped work a bit early and drove to Richmond Park to walk in the Isabella Plantation, a large enclosed garden within the park. The first time I ever saw the Isabella Plantation in springtime, someone had tipped me off that I shouldn't miss the sight of it...
Upon Westminster Bridge
The BBC's poetry season included a sweet programme last night about Wordsworth's poem ‘Lines Composed Upon Westminster Bridge'. Presenter and poet Owen Sheers shared his lovely insight that the poem has become more, not less resonant over the years. The surprise of...
Pulses racing in Shostakovich
In my work as a classical performer, nothing beats the feeling of playing to a sold-out Wigmore Hall, with people standing at the back. That was my trio's fortunate experience in London last night. I had invited a friend who doesn't often go to concerts of this type....
Vanishing Bowl
A few days ago I wrote about our cat dragging her water bowl around the kitchen floor. It's a topic I never thought I would mention again. However, last night when we were giving the cat a bit of supper, we suddenly noticed that her pottery drinking bowl had gone. It...
Live on BBC radio this evening
If anyone would like to hear the Florestan Trio playing live on radio and chatting about its Wigmore Hall concerts this week, we'll be on BBC Radio 3's drive-time programme, In Tune, this evening between about 6.15-6.45pm. We'll be playing Beethoven, Shostakovich and...
Haydn among the asparagus
Up at 6am to fly to Frankfurt and then on by road to the Schwetzingen Festival, where my trio is opening a series of concerts celebrating Haydn's wonderful piano trios. Arriving suddenly in Schwetzingen on a Sunday lunchtime makes me realise that I carry my London...
Trio Masterclasses
My trio has just spent two days giving masterclasses to three excellent postgraduate piano trios: the Trio Duecento Corde from Hungary, the Pescatori Trio from Germany, and the Van Halsema Trio who are currently based in London. Each year, the standard of playing...
Dragging her bowl
Our tortoiseshell cat Tashi, now nearly 14 years old, has taken to dragging her water bowl around on the wooden floor of the kitchen. From a nearby room we'd occasionally hear a strange, effortful scraping sound from the direction of the kitchen, as though a small...
A Bengali Romeo
We went to the Tara Arts Centre in Wandsworth to see ‘People's Romeo', a delightful cross-cultural production re-telling Shakespeare's ‘Romeo and Juliet' in a simplified form, as might be used by travelling actors in a Bengali market-place. The performance took place...
Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra
To the Festival Hall this morning with Bob to attend an Open Rehearsal of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra from Venezuela. By the time we got round to asking about tickets for their two London concerts, they had long been sold out. This open rehearsal is our only...
The difficulty of being good all the way through
We went to the Orange Tree Theatre to see the premiere of a play, ‘The Story of Vasco', translated and adapted by Ted Hughes from an original play by Lebanese writer Georges Schehadé. Hughes' adaptation had never before been performed in its entirety; the director had...