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Introducing Facing the Music

The book began with Beethoven….

Around 20 years ago, I caught the first movement of his ‘Spring’ Sonata for violin and piano on Radio 3 one morning, and was struck by the freshness and optimism of its opening theme. There is something wonderfully youthful about this music: an openness, an eagerness, a sense of possibility, as if everything still lies ahead.

The other spark for the book was my rediscovery of live music, after a period when I was occupied with looking after my young son, in particular via good friend who was a regular at London’s Wigmore Hall. I developed a deep affection for that venue and grew more and more interested in its history, together with a fascination with the people who make music and the particular intensity of live performance. This was some years before I started my blog The Cross-Eyed Pianist, but even then I was interested in what it means to be a musician, though my notion of artistic identity was at that time rather vague. I also wanted to write about music from the point of view of a practising musician as well as a listener, and to explore both the physical and emotional experience of playing certain pieces.

From there, an idea for a book began to emerge featuring two gifted young musicians – a pianist and a violinist. I imagined them playing the ‘Spring’ Sonata together, and gradually their musical partnership became a friendship stretching back to their schooldays. They were talented and ambitious, young people for whom music was not simply something they did but an essential part of who they were. So I started to write and found a narrative emerged surprisingly easily…

I started playing the piano seriously again in 2008, after an absence of some 20 years, and the novel, by now around 180,000 words (!), was set aside as I found an outlet for my writing through this blog and concert reviewing. Over the past 16 years, the many encounters and conversations I’ve had with musicians through concert attending and reviewing, the Meet the Artist interview series, and this site has given me an increasingly rich insight into the musician’s life: the importance of teachers, mentors and colleagues, the routines of practice, the deep preparation and exhilaration of performance, the doubts and disappointments, and the extent to which being a musician is not simply a profession but an identity.

A conversation with a good friend in Spring 2026 and the publication of a new history of the Wigmore Hall set me thinking about those 180,000 words which were lying dormant on a hard drive or memory stick somewhere in my home. At first, I couldn’t locate the files and I convinced myself they were gone for good, and that it didn’t really matter…. But when I did eventually find them again and I started to read the text, I felt there was something worth revising.

Facing the Music follows the activities of two young musicians: Theo Browne, a pianist, and Jonathan Lane-Fox, a violinist. I imagined them in London in the summer of 1914, talented, ambitious and standing on the threshold of successful professional careers. They have been friends since school and their friendship has been forged, above all, through making music together, the ‘Spring’ sonata being their ‘signature piece’. They understand one another through music in ways they cannot always express in words. And then I began to wonder what would happen if music were taken away from them…

I’ve been fascinated by the First World War and its literature since my teens, and have visited the Somme battlefields several times. But I didn’t want to write a conventional war novel. Rather, the war offered an extreme version of something that has come to interest me greatly: what happens when circumstances over which we have little or no control disrupt the life we thought we were going to lead.

This became particularly resonant during the Covid pandemic. In conversations with professional musicians during the lockdowns, I was struck by the sense of dislocation many experienced when concerts and live music disappeared. At first, some welcomed an unexpected period in which to rest, practise without the pressure of engagements, and learn new repertoire. But as the months passed, without the focus of concerts, for many musicians spare time became an affliction rather than a gratification, and they felt bereft without the opportunity to perform and share their music with live audiences. For someone whose sense of self is so closely bound up with making and sharing music, being unable to do so can feel like losing part of one’s identity. That idea found its way into Facing the Music, though in very different circumstances.

Music is therefore not simply a backdrop to the novel. It is embedded in the lives of its characters. Beethoven, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Bach, Schubert and others accompany Theo and Jonathan through the narrative, and certain works acquire different meanings as their lives change. Music becomes a repository for memory: of people, places, friendships and former selves.

The other important landscape of the novel is Dorset, a county I have been associated with for nearly forty years through my husband and his family – and is now my home. The cliffs, beaches and open skies of the area around Studland and the Isle of Purbeck provide a counterweight to London and, later, the Western Front. For Theo in particular, Dorset represents freedom, sanctuary and continuity – a place to which he can return both physically and in memory.

At the centre of everything, however, is the deep platonic friendship between Theo and Jonathan. Their relationship stretches from schoolboy music-making through youthful ambition and into experiences neither could have anticipated. It is affectionate, occasionally difficult, often humorous. Most importantly, it is inseparable from their musical partnership. Perhaps this is why writing the novel began to feel like a natural extension of the subjects I have explored on this site for so long. The Cross-Eyed Pianist has given me the opportunity to talk to hundreds of musicians about their lives and work: their ambitions, doubts, routines, teachers, friendships, successes and disappointments. Facing the Music allowed me to explore some of those same questions through fiction.

And there was one question to which I kept returning:

If music is part of who you are, what remains when circumstances make music impossible?

I don’t think Facing the Music offers a simple answer. Nor did I want music to function as a sentimental cure for suffering. Music cannot undo experience. But perhaps it can preserve something of who we were – and help us discover who we might become afterwards.

The title has more than one meaning. There is the literal act of facing the music in practice and performance, but also the more familiar meaning: accepting the consequences of choices, circumstances and experience. For Theo and Jonathan, ultimately, it means both.

Explore the music of Facing the Music here

Facing the Music by F M Wilson (AKA The Cross-Eyed Pianist) is published by Nine Barrow Press and is available in paperback and e-book editions.

Author’s note: I am profoundly grateful to the many musicians I have encountered over the years, in person, through their concerts, and via my Meet the Artist interview series. Their insights and reflections on practising, performing, teaching and living with music have greatly enriched my understanding of what it means to be a musician. While none of the characters in the novel is based on any one individual, their experiences have informed many aspects of the story.

Photographs by F M Wilson

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Big regrets: One in three adults wish they’d kept going with music, as A-level Music entries continue to fall

  • New research finds 34% of UK adults wish they had continued making or studying music when they were younger — rising to 45% among 25–34-year-olds
  • Final figures show 4,555 A-level Music entries in England in 2026, down 6.1% year on year and 51.9% since 2008
  • Just 3% wished they had kept going with subjects including law, engineering or accountancy

One in three UK adults — the equivalent of almost 19 million people — wish they had kept going with music when they were younger, according to new research released as A-level Music entries continue their long-term decline.

The nationally representative survey of 2,000 UK adults, commissioned by chamber orchestra London Concertante, and conducted by OnePoll, found that 34% said they wished they had continued with at least one form of music, whether learning an instrument, singing, studying music as a subject, being in a choir or playing in a band, orchestra or ensemble.

Respondents were asked: “What, if anything, do you most regret giving up when you were younger? Select all that apply.”

By contrast, just 3% said they wished they had kept going with engineering, accounting or finance, economics, business studies or law.

The findings come as final figures published today show just 4,555 entries for A-level Music in England in 2026, down 6.1% from 4,849 last year, even as A-level entries overall increased by 2.7%. Music entries have more than halved since 2008, when there were 9,465.

Among adults overall, 21% wished they had kept learning a musical instrument, while 9% wished they had kept singing, 7% studying music as a subject, 7% being in a choir and 6% playing in a band, orchestra or ensemble.

Nearly half of young adults already wish they’d kept going with music

The research suggested the feeling was particularly strong among younger adults. 43% of 18–24-year-olds and 45% of 25–34-year-olds said they wished they had kept going with some form of music.

Among 18–24-year-olds specifically, 14% said they wished they had continued studying music as a subject, twice the national average of 7%.

There were also significant regional differences. Londoners were the most likely to wish they had kept going with music, at 45%, followed by people in Scotland at 41%.

Chris Grist, Artistic Director of London Concertante, said: “These results show a huge contradiction in society. Music is increasingly undervalued in education, yet it is also the number one thing people look back and regret giving up. People really do value music — it holds an incredibly important place in their lives. For years, we’ve placed enormous emphasis on STEM subjects. Of course they matter, but so do the arts.

“The whole ecosystem of classical music — the players and singers on stage, everyone working behind the scenes, and the audiences who come to listen — is built on foundations that are partly laid down at school. We need brilliant teachers and schools that give young people the chance to discover music in the first place.

“The Government has promised change, but after years of decline, what matters is whether that ambition actually translates into more young people studying and making music. This is an existential issue for our industry, and we urge the new Prime Minister and his Government to treat it with the seriousness it deserves.

“But it doesn’t end when you leave school. We see thousands of adults coming to London Concertante concerts in their forties and fifties who have never been to a classical concert before. Our mission is to give people a route back in — through music they already know and love, performed by world-class musicians. Nothing beats hearing great music performed live.”

The Music NET comprises respondents selecting at least one of the following: learning a musical instrument; singing; studying music as a subject; being in a choir; or playing in a band, orchestra or ensemble. As respondents could select more than one answer, individual categories should not be added together.

A-level Music entries in England have more than halved since 2008

Final JCQ figures published on 13 August 2026 show 4,555 A-level Music entries in England, compared with 4,849 in 2025, a year-on-year decline of 6.1%. Across all subjects, A-level entries increased by 2.7% in 2026.

Music entries have fallen from 9,465 in 2008 to 4,555 in 2026 — a decline of 51.9%.

Source: Joint Council for Qualifications, A level by subject, age, sex and country, 2026 (Table 1); Ofqual, A-level outcomes in England historical data.

JCQ results: https://www.jcq.org.uk/exam-results/

Accessed 13 August 2026.

Population estimate

The around 19 million figure extrapolates the 34% survey result to the UK adult population using ONS population estimates.

Source: ONS, Population estimates for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates

London Concertante tours extensively across the UK and Ireland, performing in cathedrals, churches and historic venues, with programmes built around music audiences want to hear. Its audience-led approach is designed to make classical music feel less like a closed world and more like something people can return to at any point in their lives.

Source: press release

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Guest post by Frances Jones

In the days before self-service machines, when library books were issued by hand and date-stamped, I would feel sorry when I opened a book to see it last stamped more than a decade before. I thought of the volume standing slightly lop-sided on the shelf, waiting for a person to stop and take it home. I’ve been feeling a similar way recently, as I take down off my shelf music that I haven’t looked at for years. One such collection is Francis Poulenc’s Three Novelettes, speckled with a scattering of pencil markings and an old PIN for a bank card. So last year I sat down and learned the first of the Novelettes, playing it in an informal concert for my students (they are very forgiving of my significant lapse in regular practice).

Even as I discover more of Poulenc’s piano music, Novelette No. 1 remains one of my favourite works by this French composer. Written in 1927, when Poulenc was about 28, it’s a joyful piece and full of character. The opening melody is serenely beautiful, and it always gives me a sense of calm. Enjoy this for its own sake, it’s saying; just listen, and stop rushing around. It floats over an arpeggiated bassline in C major and although there are discords, they are so subtle as to pass almost unnoticed. There’s then a minor section, where the discordancy becomes more obvious, but it’s over with quickly and after a lyrical passage we’re into a bawdy dance; I can just imagine drinkers stomping round the bar in days gone by. A reflective passage follows and we head away from the party back into the peaceful serenity of the opening theme, with the thick chords near the end sounding bell-like in their brightness.

Novelette No. 2 is, on first hearing, very different. It brings to mind, for me, a company of elves, cavorting around a woodland fire. The upbeat tempo, staccato articulation and use of the piano’s range helps conjure up this image. The melody is so dance-like, but light and quick, suggesting something other than even the most agile of human dancers. Introduced to this revelry is a stately tune that threatens to calm the festivities, but it lasts merely a few bars before tumbling down and jostling with the opening pixie theme, eventually succumbing in a ff glissando. The opening music returns, and the elves dance away into the night, sans relentir.

There is a third Novelette, which was written many years later, in 1959. For me, it feels like a separate piece; it’s based on a theme by Manuel de Falla, and is beautiful, yes, but also nostalgic and reflective with a tinge of melancholy. To me, it’s another example of Poulenc seeming to make the task of composition so easy. The melody soars above the bass and then appears in the middle of the piano before flying up again and ending at peace, or so I like to think.

I was introduced to Poulenc’s music through the ABRSM; Improvisation No 13 by Francis Poulenc was on the Grade 8 piano list around the turn of the millennium and I still have the collection. Written in 1958, this Improvisation is wistful and yearning; a composer looking back, perhaps. Poulenc had a playful nature, but there was a deeply serious side to his character, which is evident in so much of his work (his piano pieces are just a small part of his output). Poulenc’s writing is so expressive, and although there’s a melancholy air scattered across his piano music, somehow I always find it uplifting (with the possible exception of Mélancolie itself, written in 1945). It’s the ability to seemingly pluck a melody out of the air that I love; his writing is both graceful and perfectly formed, and with bursts of humour that show a different side of his personality.

Replaying the Novelettes has spurred me on to find more of Poulenc’s piano music. I love the first Nocturne but haven’t looked properly at the other seven, nor learnt the Impromptus. Despite the fact that attempting any of the above will be a challenge, I can’t wait.

Frances Jones read music at York University followed by a PGCE at Cambridge. She teaches piano in SW London.

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The Collection (2015-25) by Fly On The Wall is a landmark 10-year documentary project by musician and filmmaker Stewart French.  This unique online exhibition offers an unfiltered glimpse behind the scenes with some of the world’s finest classical musicians – including Angela Hewitt and Marc-André Hamelin – captured raw and uncut. 

The Collection presents 56 curated films drawn from more than 300 behind-the-scenes shoots, including never-before-seen footage from the project’s extensive archives.  The final project presents a compelling collection of video portraits, documenting musicians doing what they do best – performing live – up close and under a microscope.

From early music ensembles to cabaret trios, classical guitar quartets to percussion collectives, the exhibition showcases over 40 artists across a broad stylistic spectrum. It’s a vivid portrait of classical music in the UK and Europe today, authentic, contemporary, and alive. Featured names include The King’s Singers, Steven Isserlis, Alina Ibragimova, Richard Goode, The Choir of Clare College Cambridge, La Nuova Musica, Colin Currie, and Boris Giltburg.

Filmed in a signature single-camera, handheld style, French’s approach brings viewers inside rarely seen spaces — iconic concert halls after dark, locked recording studios, and private rehearsal rooms.  Locations such as Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Henry Wood Hall, and Ehrbar Saal emerge as characters in their own right, where inspiration, discipline, vulnerability and genius converge.

Accompanying each film is a written narrative offering behind-the-scenes insight and context, untold stories from deep within the creative process.

Blending cinematic long-take storytelling (think Sam Mendes’ 1917) with the intimacy of portrait photography, Stewart French’s films reject flashy edits in favour of immersive, emotionally charged moments. With over 20 years’ experience as a classical musician, producer, filmmaker and writer, his goal is to create a deeper connection between digital audiences and the visceral experience of live music.

French explains: “As a performer myself, I’ve always been drawn to the raw, unfiltered magic that happens behind closed doors — moments of focus, anticipation, creative flow.  With The Collection, I wanted to capture those flashes of vitality that sit at the very heart of music-making.”

Originally launched as a Classic FM series in 2016, Fly On The Wall has grown into one of the UK’s leading classical film producers.  Its work has been featured by BBC Newsnight, The Times, Gramophone, and BBC Music Magazine, with recordings featured in Apple Music’s front-page editorial.

Access the online exhibition at: https://theflyonthewallcollection.org

(Source: press release)