Makes an entrance

Let’s start at the peak of the price list. In October last year, Steinway & Sons released the Ultra Black and Ultra White Limited Editions. Produced at the Steinway factory in Hamburg, just 52 instrum

As part of my research for meeting Seong-Jin Cho, I learned that Korean names tend to have specific meanings. But I also found several variants (in translation, naturally) of his own moniker. One of m

‘We’re going to have a tonal centre and tap our feet, and that’s the way it is.’ Steve Reich is in full flow, talking to me from his home in New York. ‘The big break, the knife down the line, was betw

Andrey Gugnin (piano) Hyperion CDA684712 83 mins This album of Russian ballet transcriptions sparkles like a glass bauble hanging amidst the fairy lights. Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky wrote so colourful

Just over four years ago I founded Piano by the Sea, a piano meet-up group for adults in Margate. My then teacher, Graham Fitch, felt it would help me deal with my excruciating nerves. Living in the p

Kammerorchester Basel/Giovanni Antonini Alpha ALPHA1092 76:29 mins The most familiar of the symphonies here, if only because it has a nickname, is No. 55, whose ‘Schoolmaster’ title arises out of the