Bach Isn’t Boring!

An interview with Beate Toyka

This week’s blog post features an interview with Beate Toyka. Raised and trained in the heart of the German classical tradition, Beate is an active performer, accompanist, teacher and principal tutor at the Piano Teachers’ Course, UK. She is also the creator of our Step into ‘The 48’ series on the Online Academy which features (24 at the time of publishing this blog post!) video lessons and performances for the preludes & fugues of JS Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background as a pianist and teacher?

I grew up in a large family where music and languages were a way of life. We all learned instruments and most importantly sang together while doing the washing up, around the table and out of doors. For some reason my little sister was handed a violin and I started on piano, after playing the Glockenspiel. I loved the feel and sound of the keys even then.

My very first piano teacher, Adelheid Kroeber came to the house to teach all the children and was also a harpsichordist and organist. She talked about Bach all the time – in fact she talked too much and I remember as a child always being impatient and wanting to play more and listen to her less! But somehow her obsession with Bach left its mark on me!

The teacher that as an early teen shaped me most was Czech pianist Drahomir Toman, steeped in Russian pianism, who had escaped to Germany following the crushing of the ‘Prague Spring’ of 1968. He strengthened my hands and fingers with studies and repeated moves. He chose great pieces, challenging me all the time and telling me exactly how to play them, marking the score with strong strokes. I was also later taught for 3 years by Else Schmitz-Gohr in Cologne who insisted on me memorising Preludes and Fugues as part of my repertoire.

I entered the Cologne Conservatoire on the teaching strand. Teachers in Germany are very respected and being a piano teacher is seen as a certified and respected job. Some teachers even have brass plates on their doors like doctors and lawyers! I loved it but at the end of my 3 years wanted to do more performing and came to London where I ‘found’ the Royal Academy of Music and the wonderful Hamish Milne. My life definitely branched out from then on…

What inspired you to create a series of video lessons and performances for The Well Tempered Clavier?

The year 2000 being 250 years since Bach’s death was marked all over the world. Because I had learned so many Preludes and Fugues right from when I was a youngster, I decided I wanted to perform all the 48 that year and did so on the last 2 days of the year, December 30 and 31 in a freezing cold Derby Cathedral (I repeated this a few more times in the following years, also in warmer places)!

When the pandemic hit I began to give online concerts, playing to audiences all over the world on Zoom. I felt I enjoyed the presence of a camera in the room and combining this with my love of teaching, the idea of ‘Stepping into the 48’ was born.

I wanted to encourage others to find the joy of playing Bach too. Ryan Morison, Informance founder and Bach lover, simply said “what a good idea, let’s go for it!”. Together we developed the format of the series and it turned out to be an exciting and all-consuming project.

Can you tell me how you learn a new piece. What do you actually do? And are there any particular tools or techniques you use for leaning contrapuntal music?

I need to have an overview of a piece before I learn it, whether it is a fugue or a sonata movement. I listen to recordings, preferably with the score in front of me to decide if I really like it and want to commit time to learning it. I also need to understand the form, what happens in the middle and the ending.

I am a good sight-reader because of many years as a chamber musician and accompanist. Therefore I read through a piece early on, not minding mistakes, to get an idea of its overall character and how it feels under my hands. Then I set to work on sections that I know are important or especially difficult. I don’t mind practising these out of context as I know how frustrating it is when you repeatedly fall on your nose when you come to a difficult bit that you have NOT practised enough.

I love and need careful fingering, especially in Bach. And as I discover new things in pieces I THOUGHT I knew, I change my fingering frequently which often gives new and better musical meaning. I practise with separate hands a lot and in fugues I practise two strands with two hands. I have recently adopted working with an iPad and love the flexibility it brings, the clear picture and the ability to bring my score to life by highlighting in colours.

Do you use slow practice? If so, perhaps you could tell us at what stages of preparing a work for performance slow practice features in your day-to-day routine.

I absolutely need to go back to slow practice even for pieces I think I know very well. I can literally feel how this cements the knowledge of a piece into my hands and ear, consolidates the fingering and gives me confidence. Slow is good, it is not second best, and I try and discipline myself to play at a steady slow speed, avoiding hesitations. There needs to be “flow-in-slow” and the music will take on another beautiful character.

Different speeds can be inspiring and give new ideas and insights. I love repeating things and get sometimes into a state of Zen (!) with repetitions when they carry a good element… I have found again and again that a piece gets better the more often you take it back to slow practice.

Do you use the metronome and if so, how?

I keep track of metronome marks on my score, often with dates and so I know roughly what I am aiming for and then alter these speeds a lot during practise. I am often surprised to read that my speed now is slower or faster in some cases than it was a few years ago. Have I discovered more? Got older and wiser? I think it is something to do with becoming more ‘mindful’ about details and wanting to show more. I am hugely inspired by the great Angela Hewitt. She is a dancer at the keyboard and plays some fugues with fantastic speed and brilliance. Having learned from her I have become a bit more daring and push my speed forward in some fugues.

I have at times really struggled with keeping a steady speed in tricky fugues and was slowing down when things became dense and difficult. I remember just not being able to maintain a stable tempo in a longer fugue in one of my earlier recordings. Every time I listened back, I realised I slowed down here and there and then didn’t pick up speed again.

To resolve this, I suspended recording, practised with metronome, first slow then gradually increasing tempo before returning to the recording. When I found, on listening back, that the tempo still tripped me up I tried playing with a discreet metronome cable in my ear while recording as I was getting desperate! I won’t tell you which fugue it is as I think it actually remedied the situation!

Your videos are full of wonderful imagery and anecdotes…how do you find imaginative ideas that engage players into music that is not overtly programmatic?

I have various books on Bach and the wonderful CDs from Angela Hewitt and a Sheffield pianist, Peter Hill, and Schiff’s online recordings and other recordings, too many to name.  All these sources are hugely inspiring and informative.

I sometimes come across stories from Bach’s household and most of all I know what it is like to live in a big, noisy family. Conversations around the Bach table must have been lively to say the least! So, when I am engrossed in a particular set and enter its world, images from Bach’s life often come up in my imagination.

It often feels as if a particular piece was born out a real-life situation. Bach, despite all his brilliance, was made of flesh and blood and had joys and frustrations just like we do. So, while I let the music speak I try to sense what could possibly have gone through his mind at the time of writing it and share this in my introductions.

Are there any new realisations or pearls of wisdom you’ve gained from this project?

Every single time I play these Preludes and Fugues I am gripped by a sense of awe and wonder, discovering new musical phases with each rendition. Because the metronome wasn’t invented yet and performers were trusted much more, Bach didn’t give tempo indications. I am often surprised at how versatile these pieces are. They sound beautiful in different, and sometimes opposing speeds. Contrary to the conventional view, a minor key can be bouncy and a major key also tragic. I also love discovering baroque dance forms, especially in the fugues. I feel these pieces take ME on, change me, enrich me, rather than me taking the lead, making decisions…

How would you encourage someone who shies away from playing Bach?

I would say start with the ‘Little Preludes and Fughettas’, 2 and 3 part Inventions and some dances from the French Suites. Find pieces that aren’t too challenging and find the outer and inner space where you can truly enjoy spending time with them. Forget any opinions you may have, play slowly, just listen into the lines and harmonies.

If you have a favourite recording listen to it, play one hand along, read the music, enter the spirit. You can try to sing along one line, play the other. Imagine Bach sitting there writing, with herds of children bouncing around outside his study. Imagine Anna Magdalena and then Maria Barbara copying his music, the two of them checking and discussing – will this suit our Friedemann, or better our Carl? Will our friends be able to play this? Which instrument will I use to play it and to whom?

You must have a vast repertoire of pieces you have performed over the course of your career. Could you share with us how you bring back an old piece you might not have played in some years?

I don’t have a huge repertoire compared to some pianists, but I find that the pieces I learnt when I was young sit deepest – this is of course common knowledge and is supported by research into muscle and other memory. I love looking at my old music and markings of teachers, my own markings and fingerings – and then changing them! I feel I have a base there from which to develop and make things better. To use a cooking analogy, it is as if I have a pastry there, all ready rolled out and can have fun with the filling now!

Further links & resources

• A listing of Beate’s gradings for the complete Well Tempered Clavier can be downloaded here and Beate shares her thoughts on her project and approach to grading the works in this blog post.
• Click here to view the introductory video for Beate’s Step into ‘the 48’ series and an index of the available works. The resources for the B-Flat Major Prelude & Fugue from Book 2 can be viewed here without subscription.
• Visit Beate’s YouTube channel for performances of the Well Tempered Clavier and many other works.
• Click here to find out more about Beate’s online presentations on Bach and the Suzuki method for our PTC Live series.