The Souvenir Programme of my Bach World Tour is now on sale on the Bach World Tour website. It is a 64-page book that in fact is much more than a programme. Including many photos from my personal archives that have not been seen by the general public before, it has in fact become a major retrospect of my life so far, The Preface is written by acclaimed novelist, Ian McEwan. It can be purchased separately or along with my Bach DVD for a special price. To purchase your copy, please go to:

http://www.bachworldtour.com/programme.php

The DVD "Bach Performance on the Piano" can still be purchased separately on the same website.

The pace at the moment doesn't stop. Before I left Dublin, I gave a masterclass and then performed the second of the two Bach concerts (this time with much better lighting!), and left with the desire to return soon. A Fazioli was very generously loaned to me for those concerts from a private Fazioli owner in Belfast who allowed it to travel to Dublin for the occasion. As there was no other Fazioli concert grand in Ireland, that was hugely appreciated. Then it was back to Manchester and the second concert there, for which I woke up in time! Returning immediately to London, I then threw myself into festival preparations, and this week gave two private performances in a lovely barn in Kent (just made for music), rehearsing two of the festival programmes: my solo recital, and the one with the New London Chamber Ensemble (see photo). It was great to meet up with them, and I think the festival-goers are in for a treat with that concert.

The link to my "live" performance of parts of Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier from Manchester is now visible on the web. To view it, please go to:

http://www.classicfm.co.uk/hearhere/Article.asp?id=752072&spid=

You may also hear the CBC radio programme I did last month with Eric Friesen on the CBC website. That was the one where I speak about my Bach DVD, and highlight excerpts from it.

http://www.cbc.ca/studiosparks

It has been a busy week, to say the least. After several days at home in London (they are the worst, because it means catching up on so many things that have piled up when I'm away), during which I worked like crazy on all the repertoire coming up in my Trasimeno Music Festival, I went to Manchester for the first of two concerts on consecutive Sundays. Something happened which has never happened to me before: the alarm on my mobile phone didn't work, and I almost missed the concert! It started at 11 a.m., and it was already past 9 when I looked at the clock. I had to race to get ready and get to the hall! But I made it, and many people turned out on a Sunday morning (that wasn't my idea for the concert start time, I can tell you). In fact it was evidently a record attendance for that hour. Hopefully you will be able to see some of it on the internet before too long. After the usual CD signing, and lunch with my cousin from Yorkshire, I went back to the hall and practised for another 4 hours on festival stuff. The next day was more of the same, except that I also gave a masterclass at the Royal Northern College of Music, one of the best schools in the country. The students were Ukranian and Spanish. Then on Tuesday, I flew back home to London just to rehearse with baritone Gerald Finley for our recital coming up in Italy. That was a huge pleasure, and I look forward to the concert which has a terrific programme. Then it was back out to Heathrow the same evening, to fly to Dublin, where tonight I performed Book I in the National Gallery of Ireland (photo). A full house welcomed me very warmly, in true Irish fashion, and they were totally quiet throughout. It got so hot under the spotlight that was right on me, I thought I would die. It is actually better for concentration to be cold rather than hot. Hopefully for Book II we can find another light!

To read a longer (or at least different) version of my week, you can pick up London's Daily Telegraph on Saturday, where I will be featured in a column entitled just that: My Week.

I returned to Bristol last Monday night to give the second concert in my Well-Tempered Clavier cycle. That was one that had to be postponed last December when my mother was in her final illness and I had to return to Canada. St. George's Brandon Hill is always a terrific venue to play in, and the warmth of the audience was felt from the beginning to the end. They couldn't help applauding after several of the Preludes and Fugues in Book II, which actually didn't bother me at all at this point. I was happy they wanted to express their enthusiasm!

On the next two Sunday mornings (beginning at 11 a.m.) I will perform the complete cycle again in Manchester's Bridgewater Hall. These concerts are featured in the joint venture of the Royal Philharmonic Society and Classic FM entitled "Hear Here!" It is an effort to try to get people listening to music with more awareness, and to understand what it takes. The concert of Book I this Sunday will be filmed by Classic FM and available on the Hear Here website for a month afterwards (I will give details later on). For the moment, you can read more about it on:

http://www.classicfm.co.uk/hearhere/Article.asp?id=725220

The people in Pretoria, South Africa, gave me a wonderfully warm welcome for my debut performances on this continent. It certainly is a long way away, but it was worth coming, and they were so grateful that I came. My first appearance was during a masterclass when I taught Bach to five students (photo) in the concert hall of UNISA (similar to the Open University with 250,000 students worldwide, and also home of the Pretoria International Piano Competition). For the concerts of the Well-Tempered Clavier, many people came from Johanessburg as well, and they were a completely attentive audience. I had hoped to also play in Cape Town, but that didn't work out. Hopefully next time it will! I'm afraid I haven't had any time to sight-see, although tomorrow morning, before leaving, I will be taken on a tour of the city. You can't do everything when you have to play 48 Preludes and Fugues.

In memory of my mother, I decided to begin an annual scholarship as part of the Ottawa Kiwanis Music Festival. The $2000 Senior Scholarship, given to a young musician of exceptional talent, was awarded for the first time this month to 17-year-old Ottawa pianist, Suren Barry. I had the occasion to present it to him during the interval of one of my Bach recitals in Ottawa (photo). It will be nice to follow his progress, and we wish him all the best. It seemed fitting to have something in my mother’s name associated with the music festival in Ottawa as she spent so many hours preparing me for all the classes I entered over the years.

The second concert in Glasgow was just as moving as the first (see reviews on the press page), and I hope to return there before too long. Now I’m working full out on the repertoire for my Trasimeno Music Festival which begins 28 June. If you would like to receive a leaflet, please e-mail the festival office at info@trasimenomusicfestival.com

Who said the Scots were a rowdy lot? The very large audience last night in the Glasgow City Halls for my Book I of the WTC wins the prize for the quietest audience yet on this tour. It was quite remarkable. From the very first note there was a stillness that was palpable, and a tension in their concentration. Thank you Scotland! I hear it's not always like that up here, and that other pianists have had terrible problems recently, but I didn't and it made me very happy. There were none of those annoying coughs in between the Prelude and the Fugue (a moment which is always precisely timed for the best effect) and even better none of those coughs that many let loose before I've taken my hands off the keys at the end of a piece. So you see--it's possible! Despite my jet-lag (right now it's after 3 a.m. and I'm still awake), it went extremely well. I absolutely never play only 48 hours after crossing an ocean, but with the change of date for the Ottawa concerts, I had no choice. The Fazioli piano that I played recently in London's Royal Festival Hall was sent up by Jaques Samuel's for the occasion. At the end of the evening, however, the audience let loose and there were many whistles from the crowd. After a celebratory glass of champagne in my dressing room with members of staff and some friends (Taittinger was one of the sponsors for the concert!), I returned back to my hotel and saw the youth of Glasgow out on the streets on a Saturday night. Now that's a different story...!!!

By the way, the series of piano recitals in Glasgow this year was called "Piano Legends" (and included performances by Alfred Brendel and Sokolov--although the latter cancelled). Good heavens! I don't want to be a legend just yet!

My week in my hometown of Ottawa was jammed packed with events. The two concerts of The Well-Tempered Clavier, presented by the Ottawa Tulip Festival, were sold out within 48 hours, and the audience in St. Andrew's Church was wonderful. The concerts were done as a fundraiser for the Godfrey Hewitt Memorial Scholarship Fund organized by the Royal Canadian College of Organists, Ottawa branch. We raised the incredible amount of $50,000 to go towards helping young Canadian organists. Thank you to all of you who made this possible, including Merriam Music of Oakville who brought the Fazioli piano to Ottawa for the concerts. Our patron was Mme Aline Chrétien, but she was unable to come to the second concert because of illness, so she sent her husband (former Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien) in her place. The photo is perhaps not the best of either of us, but is good of the flowers! The Tulip Festival also presented me with their International Friendship Award at the ball held on Saturday night. The British High Commissioner opened his beautiful residence, Earnscliffe, to Patrons of the event, and we had an early evening reception there on my day off. Earlier that day I had also visited the new Piano Pedagogy Laboratory at the University of Ottawa which is able, among many other things, to teach children in the Canadian North using an online link-up. So that kept me busy, and I'm afraid I never even got a photo of the tulips!

A very quick news entry from the airport where I have 5 minutes before boarding the plane! Tomorrow, Thursday May 15th, I will be interviewed for almost an hour by Eric Friesen on CBC Radio Two's "Studio Sparks" at 1 p.m. EDT. I will be talking specifically about my DVD "Bach Performance on the Piano". To listen, click on the link below, and then on "Listen Live" in the navigation on the left of the screen.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio2

With hardly a moment to catch my breath after my London recital, I was off again to Munich, this time to make my debut there. The hall was the famous Herkulessaal in the Residenz Palace where many a wonderful recording has been made by the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra and many others. Under the watchful eye of Hercules, whose heroic deeds are illustrated in tapestries around the hall, I performed Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier (which seems to get better all the time). The audience was fantastic, and warmly appreciative at the end--with some members standing up (not a common thing in Germany in my experience!). I hope to return again very soon. I also did an interview for the Rundfunk, and was photographed by Michel Neumeister who carries on the studio established by his father Werner, one of the most famous photographers of musicians in the last century.

On another subject, single tickets to my Trasimeno Music Festival (June 28 to July 4 this year) are now on sale to the general public. I will perform in seven concerts in seven days in various formations with artists of my own choosing. If you are interested, please go to the festival website, where you can make your bookings or contact us. Although it is no longer necessary to be a friend in order to book tickets, donations are still welcome and indeed necessary to keep the festival alive! Thank you to all those who have donated so far this year.

http://www.trasimenomusicfestival.com