The pianist David Wilde died on 23 October 2025. Although I never met him, I owe a great deal to him (as the video explains). See also this blog entry David Wilde, ‘magnificently berserk’ pianist and composer of The Cellist of Sarajevo Billed as ‘the 10-year-old Boy Prodigy’, he performed the Grieg Concerto at Blackpool, and broadcast it that year on the BBC Telegraph Obituaries 12 November 2025 ​David Wilde, who has died aged 90, was a thoughtful and dazzling pianist, thou

Jorge Bolet by Alan West-Durán: "Pianista luminoso" For those who read Spanish (or can use Google Translate), here is an unusually full article on Jorge Bolet by Alan West-Durán (La Habana, 1953), a Cuban poet, essayigst, translator and critic. He is a Profesor at Northeastern University (Boston). It's nice to read what a Cuban thinks of his compatriot. https://rialta.org/jorge-bolet-pianista-luminoso/ "Cuban musician Jorge Bolet achieved a unique and recognizable style. His

​ On 6 March 1983, Gilels performed in London's Royal Festival Hall: Brahms    Variations on a Theme by Paganini Opus 35 (Book 1); Fantasias Opus 116Schumann    4 Klavierstücke Opus 32; Symphonic Studies Opus 13 Jorge was in London to record Liszt's Années de pèlerinage: Suisse  S160 during 8-11 March 1983 in Kingsway Hall, which would constitute volume 5 of his Liszt series for Decca. Peter Wadland, JB's producer for DECCA, remembers Bolet & Russian pianist Emil Gilels (1916

New website (link): Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995)

Santos Ojeda (January 18, 1917 – May 27, 2004) was a Cuban-born American classical pianist and pedagogue. His early years remind me of...

In a BBC television interview in 1968, Bernard Levin asked Rubinstein if it helped for the audience to have a technical knowledge of the...

Res Gestae: The Stony Brook School Yearbook 1955 records a rectal by Jorge at his old high school on Long Island (Class of 1934) on 14...

The great Austrian pianist, Alfred Brendel died at his home in Hampstead, north London on 17 June 2025. I was privileged to hear him many...

A very incomplete list, which I've just started. Feel free to add - using the Contact page (I've excluded those students in masterclasses) Jacobs School of Music, Bloomington, Indiana Francisco Rennó (Venezuela) Gary Thor Wedow Glenn Winters (1970-76) Curtis Institute, Philadelphia Meng-Chieh Liu (Kaohsiung, Taiwan) Ira Levin Ju Hee Suh (South Korea) Makoto Ueno (Japan) Anthony Padilla Graydon Goldsby Wonmi Kim (South Korea) Studied with JB (privately) Teresa Escandon Henry

In 1983, I was in the audience of a masterclass in what was then called the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). The pianist David Wilde was in charge of proceedings. I recall he wore a dark blue double-breasted suit jacket. Born 1935 in Manchester, as a boy he had studied with Solomon and his pupil Franz Reizenstein, who had also studied composition with Hindemith and Vaughan Williams. Wilde shared with cellist Jacqueline du P

What about the notes the composer wrote on the page? "I have been criticised for saying something like this; butI still. believe it:...

I'm not just a fan of Jorge Bolet. Another great interest is Alfred Brendel, who today on 5 January 2025 is celebrating his 94th...