Piano
The greatest female composer you’ve never heard of
One of the most intriguing piano concertos of the late 19th century is unknown to the public – and no…
Musings on harmony, melody and rhythm
Every Good Boy Does Fine – a banal phrase that also just happens to be the key to limitless wonder.…
The musical note that can trigger cold sweats and sightings of the dead
Imagine that all the frequencies nature affords were laid out on an extended piano keyboard. Never mind that some waves…
Playing until her fingers bled: the dedication of the pianist Maria Yudina
The 20th century was an amazing time for Russian pianists, and the worse things got, politically and militarily, the more…
The best recordings of the Goldberg Variations
I sometimes think the classical record industry would collapse if it weren’t for the Goldberg Variations. Every month brings more…
Alfred Brendel the Dadaist
How many people are celebrating the fact that, last week, one of Europe’s most inspired writers about music, modern art…
Alan Rusbridger on the joys of four-hand piano
One of the few social activities not yet prohibited under lockdown laws is four-handed piano playing. I don’t mean sitting…
Jonathan Biss: The sadness and euphoria of playing to an empty room
My November was bookended by two characteristic displays of grace. I ushered it in by falling on all fours while…
Why did Balakirev's beautiful, inventive works go out of fashion?
Anyone who invited the Russian composer Mily Balakirev to dinner had to be jolly careful about the fish they served.…
This year, I’m performing all 32 of Beethoven’s sonatas. Here’s why
For the past several decades, little in my life as a professional pianist has been as constant as my relationship…
Why did the Soviets not want us to know about the pianist Maria Grinberg?
Only four women pianists have recorded complete cycles of the Beethoven piano sonatas: Maria Grinberg, Annie Fischer, H. J. Lim…
West Side Story’s flick-knife-to-the-guts thrill never landed its final blow
It was as though Damien Hirst had confessed a secret passion for Victorian watercolours, or Lars von Trier had admitted…
Igor Levit’s Goldbergs were transcendental
Igor Levit has rapidly achieved cult status, as he certainly deserves. He has already reached the stage where he can…
Cringingly vulgar, brainless and lacking heart: ENO’s Merry Widow reviewed
Garrick Ohlsson is one of the finest pianists of his generation. Why, then, was the Wigmore Hall not much more…
What does it mean to be ‘moved’ by something?
Catching a train last week at London’s St Pancras I encountered a man playing a piano. You can do this…
You vote for my pupil, I’ll vote for yours – the truth about music competitions
A young Korean, 22 years old, won the Dublin International Piano Competition last month. Nothing unusual about that. Koreans and…
Remembering one of the best – and bitchiest – pianists who ever lived
I’m unlucky with Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata. Twice in the past year I’ve bolted for the exit as soon the pianist…
The Chinese classical-music revolution up close
On a bullet train out of Shanghai, a nuclear family catches my eye. The father, weather-beaten and wearing an ill-fitting…
Make mine a double
If two concert pianists are performing a work written for two grand pianos, there are two ways you can position…
Millepied’s final spring programme for the Paris Opera Ballet is brazenly American
Paris Opera Ballet plays hard to get. It doesn’t deign to travel all the way over here, thanks to a…
Why I’m glad my piano teacher spent more time chatting than teaching
At the entrance to Marylebone railway station is an old piano that anyone can play. Unfortunately, whoever had this sweet…
Is this 65-year-old British pianist the next big thing in classical music?
Earlier this month the Wigmore Hall was sold out for a Schubert recital by a concert pianist whose only solo…
The drunk conductor who ruined Rachmaninov’s career
Would musical history have turned out differently if Alexander Glazunov hadn’t been smashed out of his wits when he conducted…
Wedding music lives or dies at the hands of the organist
A few weeks ago I was at the perfect wedding. My young friend Will Heaven, a comment editor at the…
‘Ashtray’ Annie Fischer was a piano giant. Why didn’t more people realise this?
This year marks the centenary of a pianist whom London orchestral players nicknamed ‘Ashtray Annie’. Only at the keyboard did…
