Susan Tomes – författare

A fascinating history of the piano explored through 100 pieces chosen by one of the UK’s most renowned concert pianists  “Tomes . . . casts her net widely, taking in chamber music and concertos, knotty avant-garde masterworks and (most welcome) jazz.”—Richard Fairman, Financial Times, “Best Books of 2021: Classical Music”  “[One of] the most beautiful books I got my hands on this year. . . . About the shaping of this maddening, glorious, unconquerable instrument.”—Jenny Colgan, Spectator, “Books of the Year”  An astonishingly versatile instrument, the piano allows just two hands to play music of great complexity and subtlety. For more than two hundred years, it has brought solo and collaborative music into homes and concert halls and has inspired composers in every musical genre—from classical to jazz and light music.  Charting the development of the piano from the late eighteenth century to the present day, pianist and writer Susan Tomes takes the reader with her on a personal journey through 100 pieces including solo works, chamber music, concertos, and jazz. Her choices include composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Gershwin, and Philip Glass. Looking at this history from a modern performer’s perspective, she acknowledges neglected women composers and players including Fanny Mendelssohn, Maria Szymanowska, Clara Schumann, and Amy Beach.

An engrossing history of the music of twilight and sleep, from the nocturnes of Field and Chopin to Max Richter  In an insomniac age, ambient and sleep music have become increasingly popular. But our association between music and sleep is not new: lullabies may be the oldest form of music, and are instantly recognisable across peoples and cultures. Why does the night hold such musical fascination for us, and what forms do its sounds take?  Susan Tomes explores the story of the nocturne, and the music of nighttime in the classical tradition. From John Field’s pioneering, lyrical nocturnes composed in the haunting atmosphere of St Petersburg’s midnight sun, to Chopin’s emotionally complex mastery of the form, composers and musicians have endlessly produced music about the night, in which the piano plays a central part. Tomes offers us a rich cultural history of this expressive, often melancholic, fascinating genre—which has gone on to inspire not just musicians but generations of artists and writers.

Women are an essential part of the history of the piano—but how many women pianists can you name?  Throughout most of the piano’s history, women pianists lacked access to formal training and were excluded from male-dominated performance spaces. Even the modern piano’s keys were designed without consideration of women’s typically smaller hands. Yet despite their music being largely confined to the domestic sphere, women continued to play, perform, and compose on their own terms.  Celebrated pianist and author Susan Tomes traces fifty such women across the piano’s history. Including now-famous names such as Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn, Tomes also highlights overlooked women: from Hélène de Montgeroult, whose playing saved her life during the French Revolution, to Leopoldine Wittgenstein, influential Viennese salonnière, and Hazel Scott, the first Black performer in the United States to have a nationally syndicated TV show.  From Maria Szymanowska to Nina Simone, and including interviews with women performing today, this is a much-needed corrective to our understanding of the piano—and a timely testament to women’s musical lives.

This is a book to appeal to a wide range of readers - pianists of every level from beginner to professional, piano teachers, musicians of all kinds, and the broader community of music-lovers.In Speaking the Piano, renowned pianist Susan Tomes turns her attention to teaching and learning. Teaching music encompasses everything from putting a drum in a child's hands to helping an accomplished musician unlock the meaning and spirit of the classics. At every stage, some fundamental issues keep surfacing. In this wide-ranging book, Susan Tomes reflects on how her own experience as a learner, in different genres from classical to jazz, hasinfluenced her approach to teaching. She tells us how her performing career has given her insight into what young performers need to know, and how discussions with students have fed into her own practice. She describes the brilliant and intriguing teachers whose masterclasses opened her ears to the many ways in which music can be brought alive and communicated. This is a book to appeal to a wide range of readers - pianists of every level from beginnerto professional, piano teachers, musicians of all kinds, and the broader community of music-lovers. In a passionate contribution to the ongoing debate about the place of music in education, Susan Tomes argues that this most inspiring of arts can play a unique role in personal development.This is a lovely, wise, elegantly written book, filled with tips and anecdotes which could be helpful and encouraging for any pianist, whether a beginner or aprofessional. Above all it is a book in which one senses constantly the deep love the author has for music itself, for its ability to inspire, touch and, indeed, change lives. STEPHEN HOUGHSUSAN TOMES is a multi-award-winning pianist whose career encompasses solo, duo and chamber music playing; she has been at the heart of the internationally admired ensembles Domus, the Gaudier Ensemble and the Florestan Trio. Her lecture-recitals have enabled many listeners to engage with the classics on a new level. She is the author of four acclaimed books about performance: Beyond the Notes (Boydell Press 2004), A Musician's Alphabet (Faber, 2006), Out of Silence (Boydell Press, 2010), and Sleeping in Temples (Boydell Press, 2014).

We knew from her recordings that Susan Tomes is a superb chamber player; now we know that she's a superb writer too. Michael Church, INDEPENDENTIn this widely acclaimed volume, Susan Tomes, a rare example of a leading musicianwho writes about the craft of performance, describes her experience of twenty years of rehearsal, concerts and recording.We knew from her recordings that Susan Tomes is a superb chamber player; now we know that she's a superb writer too. Michael Church, INDEPENDENTShe is as sensitive an observer and as subtle a writer as she is one of our finest chamber musicians...This is a book that should be read by practising musicians and music-lovers alike: here's one performer who really can communicate in words as well as music. JAMES JOLLY, GRAMOPHONE Susan Tomes's bookgives you an intensely illuminating picture of the life of a pianist...she is a brilliant writer...Just as she magnetises with her playing, so too with her words. EDWARD GREENFIELD, GUARDIANIn this widely acclaimed volume, Susan Tomes, a rare example of a leading musician who writes about the craft of performance, describes her experience of twenty years of rehearsal, concerts and recording. Her performing life has been centred on chamber music and the need to communicate it fully to an audience hungry for meaningful musical experience. She was a founder member and the pianist of both Domus and the Florestan Trio, award-winning groups at the top of their field. Part One is a series of diaries describing their travels and performances: Domus in the 1980s with its own portable concert hall, struggling to create the conditions for informal but intense concert performances, and the Florestan Trio, currently one of the world's finest piano trios. Part Two is a collection of thought-provoking essays about teachers, making records, practising and rehearsing, audiences, earning a living, and the particular challenges of being a concert pianist. Beyond the Notes gives an unusually candid view of the complexities of a life in music.SUSAN TOMES, alongside her packed concert schedule, is a frequent contributor, on music and other subjects, to a number of publications.

The author of Beyond the Notes demonstrates how a working musician draws energy from the events of daily life, and sometimes seeks a refuge from them in music.Out of Silence is a diary of a year in Susan Tomes's life as a performer. Taking as its inspiration Schumann's remark that 'I am affected by everything that goes on in the world, and I think it all over in my own way', it aims to show how a working musician mulls over and draws energy from the events of everyday life.We follow this internationally renowned pianist as she prepares for concerts and performs, both as a soloist and as part of a chamber ensemble; we experience the highs and lows of practising and the challenges of live performance, we see her planning masterclasses and interacting with both musicians and audiences. She casts her mind back to her childhood - practicing before school on cold Edinburgh mornings, playing 'Danny Boy' for a relative - and reflects on paintings, dance, books, sport and gardening.'A delight and a revelation...She writes with Schubertian intimacy, modesty and grace,' said the Independent of her first book, Beyond the Notes. Here Susan Tomes strives to unlock the secrets of great music and to understand its place in the wider world.SUSAN TOMES has won a number of awards for her recordings of chamber music. For fifteen years she was the pianist of Domus, and for another fifteen she has been the pianist of the Florestan Trio, one of the world's leading piano trios. She is the author of Beyond the Notes and A Musician's Alphabet. She writes occasionally for the Guardian and on a blog on her own website, www.susantomes.com.