Play It Again

<p>In 2010 Alan Rusbridger the editor of the <i>Guardian</i> set himself an almost impossible task: to learn in the space of a year Chopin&#146;s Ballade No. 1 &#150; a piece that inspires dread in many professional pianists. <br><br>His timing could have been better. <br><br>The next twelve months were to witness the Arab Spring the Japanese tsunami the English riots and the <i>Guardian</i>&#146;s breaking of both WikiLeaks and the News of the World hacking scandal. <br><br>In the midst of this he carved out twenty minutes&#146; practice a day &#150; even if that meant practising in a Libyan hotel in the middle of a revolution as well as gaining insights and advice from an array of legendary pianists theorists historians and neuroscientists and even occasionally from secretaries of state. <br><br>But was he able to play the piece in time?</p>