Adaptation of the Harpsichord Idioms of Baroque Music on the Modern Piano.

Raisa Isaacs presented DVD presentation Adaptation of the Harpsichord Idioms of Baroque Music on Piano at the World Piano Conference in Novi Sad, Serbia on July 3, 2015

The goal of the presentation was to introduce listeners to the main aspects of authentic Performance Practice of Baroque keyboard music based on baroque treatises of the 17th-early 18th centuries and modern researches. Attempts of absorption and justification in application of baroque style performed on harpsichord to modern keyboard instruments (piano) were emphasized. The presentation was accompanied by live performance on harpsichord and piano, thus listeners were introduced to the real sound of the authentic instrument in comparison with the modern one. The possibilities of the creating adequate results on the piano were discussed in the context of introducing to piano and harpsichord instruments’ features.
Following problems of the adaptation were discussed during the presentation: articulation and rhetoric; baroque instruments dynamic limitations, contrasts, texture and dynamics, tempo and dynamics, adequate quality of legato, non legato and different types of baroque staccato marks and combination of stacc. and legato on piano; baroque fingering on piano; eliminating Bach’s music technical difficulties using authentic articulation-shift positions approach; rhythmic baroque deviations (Baroque”rubato”) adjustable and non-adjustable to piano; pedaling (clarity and sonority of the harpsichord and damper pedaling, “vibrato” pedaling, “finger” pedaling)