Some time ago, I was asked a really interesting question. Uncomfortable too : Why don’t you play Bach? I didn’t noticed this lack in my programs, and after having taken a look at my past programs, I indeed found out that Bach was reported missing. However, I’m fond of his music, and, as many pianists do, I grew up with the two books of Preludes and Fugues.

Let’s take a breather today. The following video shows a sketch where the American-Danish musician and humorist Victor Borge with his stooge Leonid Hambro go into a four hands performance of Liszt’s second Hungarian Rhapsody. The Clown Prince of Denmark as he was nicknamed in his adoptive country (the USA), was a very famous entertainer [...]

It’s a topic which interests all pianists: how to work at home when having neighbors? A question which remains thorny, mostly concerning professionals.

Each time I exhume the Chopin’s sonata in B-flat minor, I’m wondering what he had in mind while writing the final movement. Four pages of triplets as fast as possible, pianissimo finishing fortissimo. Strange, but I love it. What I love even more, it’s to take advantage of this final to play an atonal work just after. I don’t know why but moving on to Berio’s Sequenza IV from this nebulous last movement seems to me like the finest delicacy.

All pianists are facing one day back or neck pain or muscular problems located in the neck and shoulders. These quickly become chronic pain: they are solved by different techniques, but as soon as we are back to the piano, these pains are back too. I often say that a musician is like an athlete. It is essential that pianists become aware that they are always using their entire body.