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Reading Franz Liszt: The Poetry Behind the Piano Music
“I find Roberts’ argument most persuasive” In the introduction to his new book, pianist Paul Roberts recounts a conversation with “an elderly and much celebrated piano teacher” when he was just starting out as the inspiration for a lifetime’s fascination
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Every Good Boy Does Fine
Pianist Jeremy Denk’s Memoir
The title of pianist Jeremy Denk‘s recently published memoir, will be familiar to anyone who had piano lessons as a child. It’s a mnemonic of the notes e, g, b, d and f which sit on the lines of the
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Winter’s Journey: Schubert’s Winterreise on film
British director John Bridcut has made a striking new film of Winterreise, Schubert’s great song cycle, with baritone Benjamin Appl and pianist James Baillieu. It’s all the more remarkable because it was made during the first year of the pandemic,
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The Happy Music Play Book
Cordelia Williams
There’s a lot more to making music with children than singing The Wheels on the Bus or dancing to Baby Shark. Newborn babies can detect the pulse in music and infants respond to maternal speech and singing. Many children have
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The Piano: A History in 100 Pieces
Susan Tomes
It was perhaps inevitable that pianist and writer Susan Tomes would turn her attention eventually to the extraordinarily broad repertoire of the piano – her instrument, and mine, and that of countless others, both professional and amateur players. While her
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The Aria Ballet: Reinhild Hoffmann’s Callas
The idea of Tanztheater (dance theatre) came out of Germany in the 1920s. It started as ‘expressionist dance’ and was reborn in the 1980s in the work of German choreographers such as Pina Bausch and Reinhild Hoffmann. The influences of
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Helmut Deutsch: Memoirs of an Accompanist
The glossy cover of this book features a blown-up photograph of an unassuming gentleman with a deep penetrating gaze. It is quite reasonable to surmise that the subject is an intelligent, astute and empathetic individual, exuding an air of contemplative
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The Self-Isolation Choir – ‘Christmas at Home’
For many around the world, choral music and Christmas go hand in hand, the sounds of choirs reverberating around magnificent churches where audiences flock to soak up the festive spirit. What, then, to do if pandemic restrictions put a halt
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