Make-up for musicians
A friend alerted me to Alex Ross's interesting article in a recent New Yorker magazine about non-existent composers – or rather characters in fiction who write music. The two most famous, of course,...
View ArticleBeef Stroganoff and a bag of bones
I had one day in New York yesterday and was able to get together for dinner with some old and dear friends: the composer, Lowell Liebermann, the tenor, Robert White, and the piano tuner, Tali Mahanor....
View ArticleThe Father, the Son, and the spirit of radio
Sometimes our links to events and people can be astonishing. Last week my friend, the American tenor Robert White, sent me a photograph of a newspaper clipping from 1923 showing his father, Joseph...
View ArticleThe frustration of Samuel Barber
It is well-known that Samuel Barber, having written so many wonderful pieces, was frustrated that only one of them became really popular – his ubiquitous if ravishing Adagio for Strings. My singer...
View ArticleWith Robert White on the Isle of Man
This week I am on the Isle of Man, taking part in the yearly Mananan International Festival of which I am proud to be the Patron. It has some wonderful and extraordinarily varied events during its...
View ArticleJudy Garland, Robert White and the stick of Blackpool Rock
I'm preparing these days to play Rachmaninov's Rhapsody of a Theme of Paganini at the First Night of the Proms and realized that it will be the third time I've played this piece at the Proms over the...
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