Steven Isserlis

Since I’m stuck at home in quarantine (having travelled to Madrid for concerts), my didactic side seems to be working overtime; therefore I thought I might as well offer some thoughts on how (in my view) to play a melody – in this case, something almost everyone knows, Saint-Saëns’ The Swan. Read more…

Now, I know that I’ve ranted about this before; but – listening to the radio these days more than I used to during civilian life – I hear the clichés bouncing off the airwaves alive and well, untouched by the virus. Read more…

So Ida has left us – a legend has departed. What a violinist! What a woman! Magnificent, unique, incorrigible – she was a law unto herself. Read more…

Martin Lovett was one of the great characters in British musical life. It seemed to me when I was growing up that almost everyone I met knew him – and that they all loved him. Read more…

Greetings to all my fellow strandees in the music world! Isn’t this a nightmare? Suddenly our lives are filled with double bar lines, tacet signs – silence. Read more…

It is ten days now since the sad news arrived of the death of the cellist Marius May, in Jerusalem. Read more…

“In nothing, no profession, no occupation in the world – except psychiatry– are there so many prigs and humbugs and intellectual scalliwags as there are in the unfortunate industry, craft and art of music. The whole arena is littered with these dreadful asses.”
Thomas Beecham Read more…

Normally one writes an article about a famous figure on the occasion of an important birthday – or in their memory. But I want to write briefly about Ivry, because I’ve just seen him, and I want to pay tribute to him while he’s still here. Read more…

I’m often asked how I go about learning a new piece; so I thought I’d try to set down – more groping around in the dark than ranting this time – my way of doing so. I actually hate the process of note-learning. Read more…

Still reeling from the sad news of the death of this beloved figure, I thought I’d set down a few personal recollections. Of course I grew up knowing his name; and of course, like almost everyone else, I assumed for some time that he was a woman. Read more…