cath schofield

@StevenIsserlis So true (especially the Bach)

Looking at the slow mvt of Beethoven's last cello sonata: the three pinnacles of sublimity in the cello repertoire (I think) - this, Bach's 5th Sarabande and the slow mvt of the Schumann concerto - all have very few notes. How to explain their magic? Impossible - simply miracles!

@JamesMelville Really, really ?? Is that the best you can come up with ?? Pathetic

From 3 seconds onwards, he keeps his fingers in the same weird position for the entire duration of his speech.

@StevenIsserlis Mmm don’t think I quite ‘get’ that. Love AP though fabulous musician

Interesting thought from André Previn (d otd 2019): “The basic difference between classical music and jazz is that in the former the music is always graver than its performance – whereas the way jazz is performed is always more important than what is being played.”

@StevenIsserlis @Iberia @Finnair Do you ever feel like throwing in the towel and just playing in UK. Diabolical that in 2026 you should even have to wonder that. As if being a performing musician isn’t stressful enough !

Ah, more joys of travel… @Iberia still not returned my luggage - and I had to leave again for Heathrow. My original @Finnair flight cancelled - and my cello wasn’t properly rebooked on the replacement flight. So - waiting again… though somehow I have more faith in Finnair…

@StevenIsserlis @F1Annie @Iberia 😂

@F1Annie @Iberia Thanks so much. I've just spent almost an hour on the phone with someone at the airline who made Manuel in Fawlty Towers seem like Einstein...

NO reason that anyone (except me) should care about this: but @Iberia are just incredible. My luggage was sent; but nobody rang the bell (we were here), and it was either delivered to the wrong address, or taken away. And Iberia have taken 40 minutes to say they can't trace it...

@StevenIsserlis @Iberia OMG what a total fiasco

@rowenamezzo @StevenIsserlis They’re super choices.

@StevenIsserlis His Desert Island Discs is fascinating! He loved beautiful melody in so many forms: from a Fauré Barcarolle to a Brahms Serious Song via Ferrier/Quilter, Julian Bream/Tarrega, Souzay singing a Brazilian song Azulão, & his favourite: Beethoven Spring’s Sonata. I loved his choices!

Actor/comedian Kenneth Williams b 100 years ago today! A strange, complicated, tortured, quirky man, his (usually barbed) wit often uncomfortable; flamboyantly gay at a time when homosexuality was illegal - a classic tragic comedian, in fact. But also - frequently hilarious...

@StevenIsserlis Had a break from Twitter as it’s become so toxic, but I really, really miss your posts and those of the other good people on here ! Handel I adore so great re-start

Georg Friedrich Händel/George Frederick Handel b otd 1685. What a master! The grandeur of his conceptions, his uniquely powerful mastery of characterisation, his glorious fount of melody - extraordinary. In Beethoven's opinion: 'Händel is the greatest composer that ever lived'.

@StevenIsserlis Happy new year Steven

A little New Year greeting (sorry - recorded on my phone, so sound is awful). An etude in major (ie happy) and minor (sad) by Kabalevsky; but major triumphs. Happy New Year to all!

@HewittJSB Wow, fabulous (although I already have most of them 😁)

Yes! I think it’s 27 CDs in all.

@elonmusk Not before the one being created in the USA

Civil war in Britain is inevitable. Just a question of when.

@MarkHeath45 NO NO NO

Are you in agreement, that we should leave the ECHR??

@DrGM73 @grosvenorpiano @southbankcentre Exactly what I was thinking !

@grosvenorpiano @southbankcentre Beautiful left hand!

Trying out one of the QEH (@southbankcentre) pianos with the piece that demands the most from it - Ravel’s Scarbo, a fiendish creature flitting through darkness and moonlight, its shadow growing, taunting, vanishing. A nightmare brought to life at the keys.

@ianpacemain Well I love Barton and the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste is fabulous !

@StevenIsserlis First one 😂😂😂

A very happy 70th to the brilliant Rita Rudner! "When I eventually met Mr. Right I had no idea that his first name was Always." "Neurotics build castles in the air, psychotics live in them. My mother cleans them." To attract men, I wear a perfume called 'New Car Interior.'

@Acyn Dear god, what a disgrace he is

Reporter: Do you think it would have been fitting to lower the flags for Melissa Hortman who was killed as well? Trump: Uh, I’m not familiar, who?

@AlexeyZiskin Yes !

Revisiting a Schumann album I haven’t listened to in quite some time. Yes, it’s studio recording & I’m certain that it would’ve been more spontaneous in a live recital. But in this case, it hardly matters. What an irreplaceable artist Radu Lupu was!

@trekchick72 Best podium ever 😂😂

@CathSchofield podiums with sausage dogs.🤣

@StevenIsserlis Absolutely love that first one - brilliant

Two eternally relevant truths from Hegel (b otd 1770): “We learn from history that we do not learn from history.” “When liberty is mentioned, we must always be careful to observe whether it is not really the assertion of private interests which is thereby designated.”

@StevenIsserlis Oh to be born with that much talent

Inspiration from Leonard Bernstein (b otd 1918): "Every artist copes with reality by means of fantasy. Fantasy, better known as imagination, is his greatest treasure, his basic equipment for life. And since his work is his life, his fantasy is constantly in play. He dreams life."