Petrushka

After two lockdown cancellations, Simon and I finally played Victor Babin’s highly virtuosic two-piano transcription of 3 movements from Petrushka, in a BBC Radio 3 lunchtime recital from LSO St Lukes in January 2022. Also in the concert was Rachmaninov’s two-piano version of his enchanting Symphonic Dances.
Watch the video

The most luminous, heavenly-sounding celeste I’ve played, by some margin,
with resonance and projection I never knew was possible. Sheer joy!
On tour with COE,
Kronberg and Bonn, September 2023
With Simon Crawford-Phillips and producer Jens Braun at the end of a 4-hands recording project of Schubert masterpieces and Bach-Kurtág transcriptions.
Konserthusets Vänner, Västerås
September 2023
Team keyboard (the typing pool) for Turangalîla with LSO at EIF and on tour.
This extraordinary piece first hit me when I heard it live at the Free Trade Hall as an 11-year schoolboy, and I’ve never forgotten the impact of those sounds from another universe.
Is there a greater expression of joy in all of music?
Backstage at Usher Hall with Cynthia Millar, Peter Donohoe, Liz Burley, August 2023
First time in with Sinfonia of London and very happy to be here!
Snape Maltings Concert Hall, June 2023
LSO rehearsal for Trafalgar Square concert in the baking sun, June 2023
Film cameras at the Roundhouse Chalk Farm and a London orchestra in attendance…
that’s all I’m allowed to say for now
June 2023
Update August 2023: now I can reveal
Elbphilharmonie Hamburg looking gloriously resplendent in the spring sunshine… this is what can happen when there is the vision and political courage to create something spectacular for the arts!
COE tour, April 2023
not your average piano dressing room
RFH rehearsal with London Sinfonietta for the brilliant Reich/Richter, April 2023
On set for filming of Belgravia, February 2023

A morning off in Köln with RPO, January 2023
My youngest grabbing some piano time in the lunch break at Abbey Road, during recording sessions with the Colin Currie Group, November 2022
Carnegie Hall with Colin Currie Group, November 2022
in rehearsal
Sharing the tarmac at Stansted with Air Force One, on a charter with LSO the day of the Queen’s funeral.
September 2022
Relaxing with LSO percs after the final concert of the tour, Lucerne September 2022
Excited to play the colossal organ at the Berliner Philharmonie in Miraculous Mandarin, September 2022
In rehearsal with COE at the iconic Wiener Musikverein, June 2022
A sunny morning stroll in Santa Barbara with Catherine Edwards during LSO California tour, March 2022
Reich Sextet at Elbphilharmonie with Colin Currie Group, October 2021
Singapore with London Sinfonietta
November 2019
Morning hike in Santiago Chile, at end of an utterly memorable South America tour with LSO, May 2019
A much-appreciated bear hug from SSR, after my LSO debut playing Petrushka.
Barbican, September 2017
Petrushka, Barbican, September 2017
Recording Peter Maxwell Davies with the wonderful Zoë Beyers, Edinburgh August 2017
With CCG at the newly-opened Elbphilharmonie (cost 866 million €)
No idea I’d packed the perfect rehearsal shirt!
May 2017
the frustration
Backstage at Opera City Tokyo with the great man, March 2017
Kirkwall Harbour just before midnight – the end of a Hebrides Ensemble stint at St Magnus Festival.
Little had we guessed that the next day would usher in such a new and difficult dawn…
(23 June 2016)
Happy faces, having finished recording Quartet at AIR Studios, May 2016
Post-concert wind down with Huw Watkins and Simon Crawford-Phillips
Rotterdam, May 2016
CCG at Helsingin Musiikkitalo Finland, August 2015
US premiere of Quartet, NY October 2014
Backstage antics before Crumb Vox Balaenae, with Hebrides Ensemble at Queen’s Hall.
November 2011
Note to self: never move a rehearsal piano which doesn’t have an A-frame. Whoops! Orkney, June 2008
(we did get asked back)
Sultry Central Park NY with Huw Watkins, playing Stravinksy with Michael Clark Company, June 2008