A reading room of articles, liner notes, and interviews gathered across twenty years of recital work, recording sessions, and the occasional late-night score study. Filter by category, or simply wander.
A long-form reflection on the peculiar discipline of preparing Szymanowski's Mazurkas for a late recital in Warsaw — the way time bends when the hall is nearly empty, why a single bar of Op. 50 No. 4 can take an entire evening to land, and what the metronome can and cannot teach you about rubato that breathes.
Long-form pieces, program notes for recent recitals, and occasional interview transcripts. Drawn from the last several seasons of work.
Stępień looks back at two decades of jury work, the shifting politics of national piano competitions, and what he has learned from listening to the same pieces a thousand times.
Read interviewHow a single late-Romantic étude project became three years of work, why the Liapounov concert études deserve a place next to Lyapunov's better-known transcriptions, and the engineering choices behind the dry, close-miked sound.
Read program noteHess's wartime concert programmes at the National Gallery are some of the most thoughtful recital arcs of the twentieth century. A practical look at her sequencing principles and where they still apply.
Read essayOn the strange vocal quality of the three late Brahms intermezzi, what the phrase marks actually demand, and why the second piece in the set is so often misread as a lullaby.
Read score studyThe conductor and pianist reflects on decades of working with singers, the difference between accompanying and collaborating, and the value of a slow second half.
Read interviewA personal account of working through both books of the WTC in performance order over four years — what it teaches you about architecture, memory, and the discipline of leaving a piece alone.
Read essaySix threads run through the archive. Most entries live in more than one; the counts below reflect the primary tag.
The archive is updated most weeks. If a particular piece, period, or composer interests you, the concert diary is the best place to see what is being prepared next — and the recordings page holds liner notes for the rest of the catalogue.