Mark Pentleton

A real treat today! The perfect Gershwin harmonies in Bess, you is my woman now are just beautiful and I’ve always loved playing this song. I wanted something just perfect to play today to welcome my new little niece into the world. She doesn’t have a name yet, but many congratulations to mum Morag, dad [...]

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I was trying to think of something appropriate to play today given it’s the World Cup Final (and my mum and dad’s wedding anniversary!) so I tried to come up with something which ticked all the boxes: rather than a Spanish or Dutch song, I went for the operatic theme associated with football – at [...]

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I hope I’m not tempting fate by playing this song too early in the summer! This weekend we’ve had beautiful weather and it really feels like summer has arrived. I’ve recorded Gershwin’s Summertime from the musical Porgy and Bess, written in 1936 and, as I’ve just found out today, based on a Ukrainian folk melody [...]

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My previous operatic performance (on the piano!) seemed to go down quite well, so I thought I’d do something else operatic with the Intermezzo from Mascagni’s opera Cavalleria Rusticana. It conjures up Italian countryside on warm summer evenings! Hope you enjoy this!
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So far on 365songs I’ve steered clear of classical pieces, mostly because I tend to improvise when I play and there is not as much opportunity to do that when playing a classical piece. It’s too long since I’ve played most of the classical pieces I used to play and I don’t think I’d do [...]

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