Lars Vogt remembered, By Michael Church Can one play vibrato on the piano? Since it’s just a box of hammers, with each making only momentary contact with its string, the common-sense answer m...Read More
Live Prom 1, BBC2 From the Independent, 29.8.2020 “We’re in for ninety minutes of heaven, in this Mecca of live music!” This is the first night of the Live Proms, and Katie Derham is in Radio 3 ...Read More
The First BBC Prom Radio 3 Well, here we are, with the inevitable promotional hype about these Proms-as-never-before. ‘Nothing stops this great festival’ trumpets the presenter, before inviting me...Read More
Fidelio Unbound Clerkenwell, London Live music is cautiously making its comeback, in many ways and in unexpected places. Bidden to a concert at the Fidelio restaurant on busy Clerkenwell Road, I ask f...Read More
Fidelio, Royal Opera House On paper, director Tobias Kratzer’s rationale for his production of Beethoven’s Fidelio made persuasive sense. He started from the premise that Beethoven set his story ...Read More
Piotr Anderszewski, Wigmore Hall In the strait-laced world of concert pianism, Piotr Anderszewski has long been the joker in the pack. He’s capable of delivering a witty bar-by-bar analysis of his ...Read More
Recital round-up No 53 for International Piano Magazine – April 2019 Wigmore Hall: Kirill Gerstein, Feb 24; Garrick Ohlsson, Feb 27 Royal Festival Hall: Angela Hewitt, Feb 26 Barbican: Arcadi Volodo...Read More
Leeds International Piano Competition, 2018 When the redoubtable Fanny Waterman set up the Leeds Piano Competition in 1963, no one could have predicted its longevity, or the effect it would have on pi...Read More
Paul Lewis, Royal Festival Hall, London The British pianist Paul Lewis doesn’t have a wide repertoire, but he focuses on his chosen composers with white-hot intensity. For a while this meant wall-to...Read More
Chineke! Queen Elizabeth Hall Over the last half-century the outbuildings of the Royal Festival Hall have been threatened with one grandiose makeover after another: people have always been ambi...Read More