Saturday 22nd October 2022
Our second London Piano Course took place on Saturday 22nd October with a similar format to our first event , but with a focus on Baroque music. In this day of workshops and presentations, Graham Fitch showed how repertoire from this period can be played stylistically and expressively on the piano.
As with our September event, the day also featured a performance workshop and a Q&A session. This gives in-person participants an opportunity to present Baroque pieces (or part thereof) and to work on them with Graham. There will also be an opportunity for both our in-person and online audience to ask questions pertaining to learning, interpreting and performing Baroque music.
The event took place at our new studios in central London and was also recorded and streamed to an online audience (please see details on ticket options below).
Sessions & format
Presentations – Having a knowledge of historical performance practice is essential for approaching Baroque music pianistically and with confidence. In a set of four presentations, Graham drew upon his background as a harpsichord student and pianist to explore how one might achieve this:
- Style in Baroque Music: Ornamentation & Embellishment – Drawing upon detailed treatises on the subject from the Baroque period, Graham provided several basic principles to simplify ornamentation and embellishment.
- Playing Baroque Music Pianistically: Dynamics, Pedal & Tone Colour (10:30 – 11:00am) – In this session, Graham demonstrated creative approaches to playing Baroque music with personal authenticity – expressively and pianistically.
- Style in Baroque Music: Articulation (14:00 – 14:45) – Following on from the first presentations, this session explored how a variety of different touches can be used to add articulation and bring the printed page to life.
- How to Learn a Fugue (14:45 – 15:30) – Graham demonstrated several practice methods which can be applied to fugues and other contrapuntal music.
Performance workshops – In the practical sessions, five pianists presented pieces of their choice and worked on aspects such as tempo, interpretation, practice methods and technical challenges with Graham. Our audience was treated to performances of three fugues and a selection of movements from three of the Partitas.
Ticket options & prices
If you missed this event, you can still purchase access to the recordings to watch at your convenience. The videos for the sessions have been created from the footage recorded in the studio and therefore are significantly better quality than the streamed versions. The set of videos for the full day costs £80 (£48 for Online Academy subscribers) and can be purchased here or you can purchase the videos for the presentations only for £60 (£36 for Online Academy subscribers) here.