I recently came across the torn and battered copy of Mozart's D minor Piano Concerto from which I learned the piece as a young teenager in Edinburgh. It contains the pencilled remarks of my then piano teacher, Michael Gough Matthews. It's always interesting to be reminded of the advice your teacher gave you years ago, and chastening to discover that sometimes it makes more sense to you now than it did then. Or perhaps it did then too, but you didn't yet know quite how to pick up that particular ball and run with it.

In the middle of the serene slow movement of Mozart's D minor concerto, there's a stormy passage. The mood suddenly changes, and the pianist breaks out into anguished, jagged arpeggios. Evidently my piano teacher had become frustrated with my inability to sense the required atmosphere of this passage. He had written ‘dev'essere drammatico!’ over it.

Seeing these Italian words many years later, I couldn't help wondering what on earth I would have made of them at the time. There I was, a shy Edinburgh girl who had hardly ever been outside of my home country. I didn't speak Italian, as my teacher no doubt knew because he had to explain to me the various Italian words (allegro, andante cantabile, vivace, etc.) which Mozart was in the habit of using to indicate the speed and character of his music.