Music and the humans who make it 🌐

  • The War of the Romantics

    The War of the Romantics

    The received wisdom is that Clara Schumann hated Franz Liszt: a rivalry, a grudge, an ageing woman’s bitterness towards a flashier rival. The real story is far more interesting: a friendship that curdled slowly, alongside an ideological war in which Clara was a combatant in her own right – not…

  • Remembering Ethel Leginska

    Remembering Ethel Leginska

    History has a reliable habit of erasing women who made their mark – and the history of classical music is no exception. Some were too inconvenient to remember. Ethel Leginska was one of them. One of the most famous pianists in the US in the 1920s, she conducted major orchestras…

  • Women Pianists: A Personal Journey

    Women Pianists: A Personal Journey

    My fascination with women pianists didn’t begin as an academic interest. It began at home, in childhood: my earliest musical influence was my eldest sister, a concert pianist. Watching her practise and perform shaped my sense of what it meant to be a musician, and turning pages for her during…

  • Barbara – France’s Best-Kept Secret

    Barbara – France’s Best-Kept Secret

    Iconic French singers are often known worldwide. Even those unfamiliar with the music will likely recognise names such as Édith Piaf, Serge Gainsbourg or Charles Aznavour. But who has ever heard of Barbara? In her homeland, Barbara was – and remains – a legend. During the 1960s she stood alongside…

  • Agi Jambor – A Forgotten Pianist

    Agi Jambor – A Forgotten Pianist

    I first encountered the name Agi Jambor in 2009, when a man called Stephen – one of her friends – uploaded several of her recordings to YouTube. I was stunned by the beauty of her playing, and fascinated by her life story – one worthy of a Hollywood movie. The…