Susan Tomes is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning pianist specialising in chamber music as well as solo repertoire. Here she talks to Stephen Brown about her musical origins in Edinburgh, what it was like being the first woman to read music at King’s College Cambridge, how she built her performing career starting from a single room in Crystal Palace, and the transformative influence of working with the violinist Sándor Végh at the Prussia Cove seminars in Cornwall. She talks about sensitivity and reciprocity in ensemble playing, about communicating with audiences and the mysteries of how a musical phrase sometimes sounds exactly right. She has written seven books to date. The latest, "Women and the Piano: A History in 50 Lives" was published in March 2024 by Yale University Press.

Participants:

Susan Tomes, pianist and writer https://www.susantomes.com/.

Stephen Brown, composer, cellist and former neuropsychiatrist http://www.cornwallcomposers.com/stephen.htm.

Amazon link for Women and the Piano

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-Piano-History-50-Lives/dp/030026657X

The recording of the Faure Piano Quartets has been reissued by Hyperion and is available here.

https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA30007

Music: Extract from Faure Piano Quartets, with permission, reissued by Hyperion and available here.

https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA30007.

Brainland the oepra website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk

Sketch by KB.

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