In the last year or two I have started to notice concert reviews which mention that the performer brought an iPad or other electronic gadget on stage, put it on the music stand or on the music desk of the piano, and read from it during the performance. Because this possibility is so new it still seems to carry the cachet of technological novelty; people are fascinated by the fact that it can be done at all. I haven't detected a note of disapproval in the way such events are written about – rather the reverse. It's ‘cool’ to read the score from an iPad on the music desk, especially if it employs the very latest technology which enables the musician to turn the pages without actually touching the screen with their hands. It links classical musicians to the ‘now’ in a pleasing way and perhaps makes everyone feel that classical music is investing in its own future.

When I read about this kind of thing, I find myself wondering, ‘Where has it gone, all the time I spent on memorising things for concert performance? Can I have it back?’ – because memorising things has occupied a huge proportion of my private practice, as it does for most of my colleagues who do any kind of solo performing.