A student of Beethoven’s, Ferdinand Ries, went on a walk with his teacher in the country: Beethoven muttered and howled the whole time, without emitting any definite notes.  When I asked him what he was doing he answered, “A theme for the last allegro of the sonata [the Appassionata] has occurred to me.”  When we […]

Gershwin was often the life of a party, entertaining on the piano.  He said: “The trouble is, when I don’t play at a party I don’t have a good time.” Cited in: Greenberg, Rodney (2008) George Gershwin.  New York: Phaidon Press, p.47.

An artist groping his way forward can open a secret door and never understand that this door hid an entire world. So it is that, if a man who passes for the father of a school, because he determined it, one day shrugs his shoulders and renounces it, that by no means discredits the school. […]

Haydn reached London in the opening days of 1791. He passed his first night at the house of Bland, the music publisher, at 45 High Holborn, which now, rebuilt, forms part of the First Avenue Hotel. Bland, it should have been mentioned before, had been sent over to Vienna by Salomon to coax Haydn into […]

“Working to timings and synchronising your musical thoughts with the film can be stimulating rather than restrictive. Scoring is a limitation but like any limitation is can be made to work for you. Verdi, except for a handful of pieces, worked best when he was ‘turned on’ by a libretto. The most difficult problem in […]

"Human beings, by change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden." Johann Wolfgang Goethe, German writer, philosopher and scientist.

“Art — reaches out to one specific person (even and especially if that person is imaginary.” Todd Brison, “A Warning Letter to All Writers”, Medium, 25 August 2020, https://medium.com/better-marketing/a-warning-letter-to-all-writers-df00d53f8795, accessed 4 September 2020.

The Russian pianist, Vladimir von Pachmann was known for his funny mannerisms: Everyone knows that the Russian pianist has funny ways of his own, which the public tolerate for the pleasure he affords them as an artist. On this occasion, we read, he remarked, first of all, “Too few people; I cannot play. This is […]

As the talented student grows older he must seek within himself his interpretation.  Does he wish to know how to play the cantilena of Beethoven or Chopin? He must feel it himself!  Talent is feeling, the feeling that every player experiences in his innermost consciousness… It takes years of work to understand and think out […]

A general perspective of musical taste in Britain in the 1920s can be seen in the letters to radio broadcasters. In 1926, the B.B.C. (at that time, the British Broadcasting Company) (1) compiled correspondence to the company. In the week ending December 4, of the 7600 letters received, 302 were critical: 125 condemned dance music […]