In 2002 this dedicated disciplined and intensely private musician has promised herself a

In 2002, this dedicated, disciplined and intensely private musician has promised herself a kind of sabbatical year. “I want to study and also to play the piano just for myself – to play pieces for fun. The only performances which are fixed points in my diary are both for birthday boys.” She smiles, eyes shining. “For such special celebrations, it’s not such a big deal for me to crawl out and play a concerto. One is for Sir Colin Davis, when he turns 75, and the other is for Mr Kurt Sanderling, who will be 90. You know, Mr Sanderling has declared that he will stop conducting outside Berlin. That is something I shall miss so much.”She is, she says, laughing, greatly looking forward to having next year all to herself.

For Mitsuko, the freedom to work by herself – “though never before 9am, because I hate getting up in the morning” – is vital “Having my own space is incredibly important. I hardly ever meet people during the day, because I want the possibility of being able to work without time-limits or intrusions.”Meanwhile, there is this year, which, for London audiences, includes two concerts at the Royal Festival Hall. On 3 April, Mitsuko plays Mozart with the Brentano String Quartet. On 24 January, there is her much-awaited recital.”Whenever I choose programmes, the music has to be right for the hall, meaningful for me, and not too much of a deterrent for the audience,” she jokes. “So I have chosen some early Schubert, Debussy preludes and the Chopin SonataNo 2 in B flat minor – all glorious pieces Just imagine. What if somebody turns up who doesn’t know some of this music and says, afterwards, ‘Wow! Look what I’ve been missing!’ Wouldn’t that be fantastic?”Mitsuko Uchida, Royal Festival Hall, London SE1 (020-7960 4242), 24 January & 3 April. What is a nice, merry, middle-of-the-road rhyme for “exorcism”? Once you’ve discounted “cataclysm” and “circumcision,” the field is not wide.

And how about “Medium”: what word could a lyricist match with that? “Tedium” seems to be the front-runner. All of which suggests that it would be no doddle making a musical version of Blithe Spirit, the classic Noel Coward comedy in which the hero becomes a kind of “astral bigamist” when Madame Arcati, an eccentric medium, conjures up the subversive ghost of his deceased first wife. What is a nice, merry, middle-of-the-road rhyme for “exorcism”? Once you’ve discounted “cataclysm” and “circumcision,” the field is not wide. And how about “Medium”: what word could a lyricist match with that? “Tedium” seems to be the front-runner.

All of which suggests that it would be no doddle making a musical version of Blithe Spirit, the classic Noel Coward comedy in which the hero becomes a kind of “astral bigamist” when Madame Arcati, an eccentric medium, conjures up the subversive ghost of his deceased first wife.
This did not stop those intrepid spirits Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray from having a try. First seen in 1964, their adaptation is revived now in a witty, well-cast, and attractively sung production by Raymond Wright. There’s a lovely moment in Coward’s play when the aggrieved second wife says that if they aren’t careful, Madame Arcati will materialise an entire hockey team. In my dream musical of Blithe Spirit, such a team would appear in a fantasy sequence, all sticks and stamina, to perform a bouncy ballet of spectral bullying-off.If you think that sounds far-fetched, you should witness some of the things that Martin and Gray actually did introduce to “open up” Coward’s comedy. Take the scene where the chorus of between-the-wars camp young things from Madame Arcati’s (newly invented) “Inner Circle” coffee shop try to exorcise Elvira. The number the medium sings contains the immortal lyric: “My beads are all a-jangle/My heart is in a spasm/I’m finally going to entertain/A genuine ectoplasm.”But Kate Graham’s archly mischievous Elvira and Sarah Payne’s beautifully sung Ruth, in fine form as wives one and two, get all the best numbersCoward’s diary for 1964 contains this bizarre entry: “The Japanese wish to do an all-girl production of High Spirits in Tokyo.