I'm Erica Worth and welcome to this festive edition
of the Pianist Podcast. We've been taking a look
back at our podcasts to date, that's 22 inspiring
episodes, and we have decided to re -release
the episode with someone who is much admired
by pianist readers. That's our very own Graham
Fitch. If you missed his conversation with me
some months back, here it is again, and it's
full of priceless advice for aspiring players.
That was an excerpt from Czerny's Variations
on a Theme by Rode and it was played by Graham
Fitch. I'm Erica Worth and welcome to this Pianist
Podcast. Today I am catching up with a highly
respected pianist and teacher, Graham Fitch.
Graham, it's great to have you on this podcast
today. Lovely to see you, Erica, and to be here
with you. You're very welcome. Many listeners,
of course, will know you for your amazing masterclasses
in Pianist Magazine and your amazing video lessons
from Steinway Hall in London. But I'm sure they'd
like to hear about your background as a pianist.
Ah, my background as a pianist. Yes, well, I
started quite late by most standards in my early
teens. We didn't have a piano at home, but I
was desperate to play. So from the very early
years, I can remember going up to neighbours'
homes who had pianos and my grandfather had a
piano. And I'd sit there, instead of playing
out in the street like most kids, I would just
sit there for ages and experiment on the pianos.
And I realized that all of music could come out
of those 88 notes. But I just didn't know how
to find the music. And then it took a while for
me to get lessons. And as soon as I started lessons,
I was completely single -minded and ended up,
you know, going to the Royal College of Music
in the late 70s. You know, ended up winning the,
well, a very nice piano competition at the Royal
College of Music, the second prize in the Chapel
Gold Medal. And then I ended up on a Fulbright
scholarship to America. And I had a year at Peabody
studying with Anne Shine, the most wonderful
pianist. And then I ended up weekly in Leon Fleischer's.
which was one of the highlights of my musical
education. As you know, I went from Baltimore
to New York to do a master's degree, which is
where we met. That's right. Isn't that amazing?
All those years ago, we met in the lobby of Manhattan
School of Music, where we were both studying.
Yes, happy days. I was only there for a year.
I think you'd just come over from London, hadn't
you? um yes and we we had very many happy happy
memories of of chatting and you know them connecting
at the manhattan school of music that's right
and i think at some point we both had the same
teacher yes i mean i i studied there with nina
svetlanova for um a number of years yes when
i looked back i ended up as one of her teaching
assistants at manis college of music But Nina
was quite an influence on me. Yeah, absolutely.
And her influence, you know, she passed away,
as you know, a couple of years ago. But her legacy
lives on in her students and which is a wonderful
thing. Absolutely. Many have gone on to do great
things. It's wonderful. I mean, your teachers,
you've had some amazing, amazing, amazing teachers.
And now you yourself. are a teacher and you teach
all different types of pianists tell us tell
us how you became a teacher yourself and how
much you love it obviously yeah you know it is
my vocation to to to be a um a teacher it always
was i can remember being interviewed for the
peabody uh conservatory magazine i think it was
or newsletter i'd won a competition there and
they asked me you know what what my ambitions
were and i always wanted to be a teacher i thought
it was one of the most fantastic things to be
a piano teacher so it's in my blood to do that
um And yes, so that was, I started, I think,
when I was in my late teens teaching in the neighborhood,
I suppose, and then started to get a reputation
as a teacher and ended up teaching specialist
pianists at the Purcell School. This was when
I got back from America, got back from New York.
So I was teaching specialists at the Purcell
School. And nowadays I'm working not only with
I work with a lot of piano teachers who want
to up their game. And I also love to work with
adult amateurs. Yeah, I mean, that's such a broad
spectrum there of the types of pianists that
you teach. Tell us about your involvement then
in dealing with teachers, teaching teachers.
Is that the Piano Teachers Course? Well, that's
part of it, yes. So the Piano Teachers Course
UK is... i can't praise it enough if there are
any piano teachers out there who want a little
bit of a refresher or if there are any people
who want to learn teaching skills then the piano
teachers course uk is the place to go it's a
um how do i describe part -time course that has
a couple of maybe two or three now, residential
weekends. It happens to take place at the Purcell
School. But there are also online components.
And it's a rigorous course, but there's a lot
of attention given to each. We don't call them
students. We call them tutees. So I did that
for a number of years. back down a little bit
and i'm now a a guest tutor so i go in a couple
of times a year and talk about my special subjects
which are practicing um memorization what else
do i do there baroque period we have a harpsichord
there and we explore a little bit i also tutor
the romantic period pedaling so there's a lot
of input into the piano teachers course but it's
also piano teachers who know me will come for
lessons with me um and discuss teaching as well
as their own playing they they pick my brains
about you know how to teach this particular thing
or how to how to teach pedaling so it comes up
um in not only on the piano teachers course but
also in my private lessons That's amazing. I
mean, you're obviously so dedicated to being
a teacher. Why didn't you go on the path of the
performer? You know, it's a very good question.
I have done enough performing in my life, high
profile performance in various, you know, on
various continents. And I think a lot of it has
to do with having the stomach for it, the temperament.
for for that and i've as i've got older i realized
i have less and less uh interest in putting myself
you know out on a concert stage too often i mean
i do play and i you know every year we'll do
do something it's just that when you're teaching
at a high level and you don't really have as
much time to practice as you would wish a little
foolhardy to then you know present yourself with
big solo programs. I have done this in the past
and I feel like I can now do a little bit of
playing, but I dedicate myself now to my teaching,
my writing, various other things, other projects
that are piano related. I mean, when you see,
absolutely, you've got to be so dedicated as
a performer. You and I, before we got on air,
we're talking about... piano competitions like
at the moment the Clyburn is going on and the
Queen Elizabeth I mean these students how do
they do it I mean you need that phenomenal all
-round mindset as well I mean it's yes you know
I think what it is Erica it's a combination of
neurology you know the words what people would
call technique but it's it's more the absorption
of music because you'd have to learn a huge amount
of repertoire and you have to learn it quickly
most of the time and you have to learn it thoroughly
that's one thing having the confidence to produce
that and you know on a regular basis under pressure
that's another thing and having the passion to
actually sit at the instrument for hours a day
and sacrifice other things so i i don't think
people choose to be concert pianists i think
it chooses you i totally agree you have to want
and you have to want to do it more than anything
i mean the dedication um but anyway going on
to you and your teaching you have of course your
own online academy uh yeah tell us a bit about
that Right. Well, many years back, I decided
I wanted to write a blog because I thought there's
a lot being talked about, about mechanics of
piano playing, you know, what people call technique.
But for me, technique is a much bigger area.
Technique embraces practice know -how, practice
method. So I wrote a blog called Practicing the
Piano and published, started to publish that.
And it got quite a lot of attention fairly early
on. And then I teamed up with a former student
and we set up the online academy, which aimed
and still aims to be the ultimate resource for
pianists, piano teachers. And we've now got a
team of experts who we work with. So the online
academy is jam packed with video walkthroughs
of repertoire. with articles, with workshops
and classes, and it's really got very big. So
we have quite a lot of subscribers who are very
dedicated to what we're doing and join in on
our online workshops and events, have access
to a huge library of resources. We've built up
gradually over the last, I've forgotten exactly
how long, but it's about a decade. Obviously,
it's very trustworthy because, I mean, a lot
of online lessons, you're not quite sure. But,
you know, with you at the helm, Graham Fitch,
the famous at the helm, one does seem to trust,
one should trust this. Oh, well, we've got people
like Fred Karpoff and William Westney and Lucinda
McWeth -Young. We've got lots of people who have
put their, entrusted us with their work. effectively
and we've now got this it's it's an online platform
it's a digital platform and it's very in -depth
you know if you want to discover for example
how to cover jumps at the keyboard this is just
one example that comes to me there's a huge amount
of information on there that is clearly described
in video form so you don't have to wade through
great text a lot of it is video based um so which
is then you can watch it over and over again
and it's some of them are fairly long the videos
but usually carved up into you know chunks that
are easily digestible that's good because i mean
learning the piano you really do need that visual
thing you know you have to see yes and we don't
aim i should say this we don't aim to be a substitute
for a teacher um so i would stress that there's
no substitute for a one -on -one teacher. But
we're in the 21st century, you know, digital
resources are all over the place. And so we do
contribute to that area. And I think what we
offer is a supplement to a teacher. I totally
understand. I mean, let's talk about your...
videos and articles for Pianist Magazine. I mean,
you've done so many, I don't know how many years
you've been doing those, but the viewings of,
it's years and years and years, but the viewings
of your videos on the Pianist Magazine YouTube
channel and YouTube in general, hundreds of thousands,
well, thousands, over 100 ,000 on some of them.
Why do you think they're so popular? Goodness.
Well, I'm glad that they are popular. I often
do get emails from people saying how much it's
helped them watching a particular video. I think
maybe people find that what I'm saying is clearly
presented. um so there's a certain clarity that
i that i think comes across there and and i sometimes
look at the comp well i very often look at the
comments and and people say that i i demonstrate
a lot so i'm not just talking and and i'm demonstrating
and i like to think that i'm presenting the information
um that will actually help people to solve problems
or to to gain access to a little bit more depth
in their practice because practice is so so often
neglected in piano lessons teachers don't tell
students how to practice you know absolutely
and i can tell i sit there and i watch you in
in live in person and i can tell you've really
prepared for them and and some of those demonstrations
that you do are pretty hard i mean you know you've
obviously really taken a lot of thought into
it and prepared well you know what's the most
challenging about that it's having to talk and
then play and then often one thing kind of overlaps
so i'll be playing and talking so you know my
full concentration really ought to be on the
playing when i'm playing but it's often not it's
often on what what it is that i'm wanting to
illustrate so that that would be the challenge
for me very interesting yes You're right. They're
really fantastic. And I urge listeners to delve
in and watch them all the way back. But again,
another thing that you do is you're a tutor at
some of the big piano courses in the UK, abroad.
Obviously very important to you as well. If you
could tell us a bit about those. yes well so
the ones that i do on a regular basis finchcox
which is the most amazing place a 300 or 300
year old stately home in kent um with the most
quirky rooms but luxury it's a real luxurious
piano course and it's you know lots of different
pianos but everybody has their own grand piano
to practice on for the um for the weekend or
for the week we do long courses there as well
and that that course attracts as as do the others
the one at stowe this is the summer school for
pianists and now the the newest one which is
not now that new we've been running for four
years in blownay in switzerland um most beautiful
place is switzerland most generous hospitality
and gorgeous surroundings That's my point. Yeah,
you've just come back from there, haven't you?
We've just done one and that attracts people
from all over Europe. The course happens, it
takes place in English. I mean, we speak English,
but there's a lot of French speakers and German
speakers there. And pianists from, amateur pianists
who are incredibly serious about what they're
doing. They may be a lot of medical people we
find on piano courses. and and they just dedicated
really dedicated to their piano playing and they
come together to share that and also to to work
with me in class formats i don't like the word
master class but performance workshops you know
where we where we discuss the music we discuss
um practice method we discuss how how to improve
the playing of a particular piece and we're all
sitting around in a group these are all relatively
small um you know setups we don't want to we
can't have too many people on on it's about maximum
12. sounds fantastic how how often is blown a
then the switzerland course so yes blown a is
twice a year we do one in the spring and one
in the autumn and they get booked up really quite
far in advance um and you know you can read about
all of these on my website uh grahamfitch .com
brilliant and with these people Do you liaise
with them afterwards? Do they drop you an email
saying, I'm having a problem with this? Do you
stay in touch with your students? Yes, well,
we usually have the same group come back. They
come back each year. But we do have a WhatsApp
group. I've got many of them now from various
piano courses, WhatsApp groups. Lots of sharing
of photos and memories and discussions. And yes,
and then if there's something I have mentioned
on a course, they will WhatsApp me and say, oh,
you mentioned such and such. Can you share a
link? And so I will then share a link. It could
just be, you know, a publication or an idea.
So there's a community. from the well the the
the i'm sorry the summer school for pianists
at stowe yes running for 40 years so it feels
like a family there's one particular lady that's
i think been coming every single year for 40
years who still comes oh my goodness Yes. And
so you meet up with people that you see each
summer, the same people come back and we get
new people as well. And it's the most wonderful
feeling of, you know, like a piano family. That's
how I would describe it. Absolutely wonderful.
What a wonderful way to spend a holiday or spare
time. I mean, what a great hobby for these people.
Yes, and I would say that it's more than a hobby.
It's a passion that is just as important to them
as breathing air. Music, as we both know, we
couldn't live without music, could we? It's part
of our nourishment. And so people who do this
on an amateur basis often have more passion for
their playing than professionals. There's more
at stake if you're a professional and you tend
to get a bit more jaded, I think. But if you're
an amateur, that passion stays alive and the
love for music and the commitment to practicing
very much. Do you find that there are people
there that have been very highly trained in music
school? Could be somebody like myself who now
doesn't take it as seriously, dropped, spent
some years away from the keyboard, but they were
so well trained. Do you find when they come back?
and they study with you that they find it frustrating
that they weren't as good as they used to be
ah now that's a really good question we do get
one thing i would say is that we get a real mixture
of ages and levels at the piano courses and it's
absolutely fine if if somebody doesn't feel that
they're super confident to you know play late
Beethoven sonatas they don't have to they can
bring shorter pieces but to get back to your
question we we often do get people on the courses
who clearly at the age of 18 when they had to
make a decision whether to do music or or something
else made what i would call a more sensible decision
you know not not to devote them their career
to being a pianist but could have could have
done they had very good training and and some
of them are superb yes absolutely but i don't
know that they would be frustrated so much because
they've kept their playing going years you know
there may be high -flying medical people surgeons
doctors psychiatrists um lawyers but who still
managed to find time to devote to their piano
and piano playing and always have done that is
amazing good on them i mean wow but you also
adjudicate at festivals yes this is one of the
happiest memories of my early days as a piano
student as a teenager, the British and International
Federation of Festivals run festivals throughout
the country where you get to perform on a nice
grand piano in front of a professional adjudicator
with a built in audience, not just for kids.
Also, adults can do this. And I had some of my
most positive memories from being a participant.
So when it came time for me to you know the shoe
was on the other foot i really wanted to be able
to give back a little bit and so i do usually
one festival a year adjudication and most recently
i did the oxford festival most beautifully run
festival dedicated teachers put their pupils
in and i heard some fantastic piano playing and
it was just a total joy to to be doing this so
yes i love doing my adjudication i think actually
that's most probably how i got into loving the
piano so much because i used to do the nottingham
fest the nottingham music and drama festival
which i don't think is anymore actually but but
i think it's so good for people to do it because
if they win they feel fantastic it's something
to work towards isn't it when you're starting
the piano absolutely and it's if you think about
the alternatives the alternatives are examinations
uh which have associations of you know, being
a bit scary, but a festival is a performance.
So you're actually performing to a room full
of people and you get wonderful feedback from
the adjudicator. It's a very positive experience
for everybody. Yes, I think we both seem to have
happy memories of our festivals. It's very supportive,
absolutely supportive environment. But you're
such a busy person doing all of this. Do you
find the time to practice and perform yourself?
I mean, obviously, no, you've decided to, you
know, you really want to spend most of your time
teaching. obviously you need to practice still
don't you oh yes yes yes well for for example
i'm i'm performing schubert's winterizer this
summer um so i'm busy working on that with with
the with the singer um i until fairly recently
did a chunky recital every year you know a full
solo recital and um you know i've been known
to get how many performances of the goldberg
variations given over the years i've i've lost
count but it must be about 20 30 maybe even more
um and so you know i i have done all of this
uh concerto playing chamber music and i still
do quite a lot of practice because you know i'm
recording videos that require me to do walkthroughs
of pieces. So I have to know these pieces. And
of course, I'd love to get to the piano and play
and do a bit of practice as often as I can. It's
just that I haven't got hours a day to be doing
that. So, yeah. Do you ever think, oh God, this
piece, I just have to learn it. Why haven't I
learned it yet? oh there's so much you know if
i had a let's say i had a sabbatical year which
which won't happen but if i did then there's
repertoire that i would just love to come on
tell me about oh goodness well i always wanted
to learn the hammer club here never never got
it i've taught it a couple of times i never learned
it and that would be a massive kind of you know
immersion project and maybe one of the books
of the well -tempered Clavier, just to immerse
myself in that for a while. But the amount of
time that would take, I wouldn't be able to do
my other work. No, you're absolutely right. A
sabbatical sounds wonderful. But what I'm going
to do is ask you now, and I think I have the
answer to one of them. I think I know your answer.
I'm going to ask you a couple of little lighthearted
questions. Okay. Off the cuff. I'd like to know
what your answers will be. So the first one is,
if you could play only one composer from now
on, who would it be? Right. I mean, my first
response would be Bach, because I don't think
you'd ever get bored or, you know, there's so
much room for creativity and the music itself
is jaw -dropping genius in terms of its construction.
often just amazed when i look at a score about
how did he do it and how did he do everything
that he did but it would be very difficult not
to add chopin to that list as well and i'm i
love schumann's music i mean i'm so passionate
about schumann but if i had to have one it would
probably be bach i know it's a silly question
really isn't it Yeah. And because every day we
have different tastes, don't we? It's just like
food. One day it's Chopin, the next it's Schumann,
you know. Exactly. Yeah. So, OK, then. One pianist,
dead or alive, you travel long and far to hear.
Well, of course, Sokolov is unbelievable. Of
the past, Ignaz Friedman. I think is some of
the most incredible piano playing. You know,
the late E -flat Chopin Nocturne. I'm talking
to your listeners now. If you haven't heard that
recording of the E -flat Nocturne, you can find
it on YouTube. It's absolutely breathtaking piano
playing and amazing piano playing too. What's
special about it? Oh. it's magical what he does
is it's full of magical moments that actually
make you gasp because they're so beautiful what
he does is so beautiful he makes it sound like
he's got more than two hands and he just does
things that are so personal and incredible control
of sound an incredible imagination and yeah just
rush off and listen to it if you haven't heard
it okay Absolutely good advice. You yourself,
do you have any technical struggles at the piano?
Oh, I think nobody finds playing the piano that
easy, do they? I'm trying to think, you know,
it's tempting to say, oh, no, there's nothing
that I struggle with. I suppose if I had to narrow
it down, octaves are somehow uncomfortable in
my hand because my hand is... on the large side
and if you've got let's say you want to be have
really good octaves it's quite helpful if the
hand is at its full stretch so for me an octave
is is not my full stretch and so to keep the
hand in that position and do you know big forearm
octaves is has always been a challenge for me
That is remarkable because a lot of people I'm
sure listening most probably jealous of you for
saying that it's so easy for you to overreach
an octave because a lot of pianists have got
small hands and they find it very difficult to
reach an octave so you know that stretch can
cause stress on the hand. Yes yes well there's
problems on both sides if your hand is too big
you can get stuck in between the black keys or
you can just generally find that your fingers
are a bit too long or or sausage -like to nicely
on the keyboard and similarly if you've got a
smaller hand but some of the the great pianists
alicia de la rocha apparently had a very small
hand and you'd never know that from listening
to the most phenomenal pianist you're absolutely
right can you with an octave do a one one three
uh i wouldn't advise i i wouldn't advise i don't
know we probably don't have time to talk about
this but what we want to avoid is is twisting
at the wrist um one three is likely to twist
at the wrist so that's the the number one thing
to avoid otherwise we get injured fine fine uh
and last question here what would be your advice
to an amateur pianist about how to improve oh
the first thing is to understand to appreciate
the difference between playing something through
an actual practice um because a lot of people
as i say don't know how to practice uh have lessons
take lessons find a teacher who in your area
who's successful you can do online lessons i
mean i teach a lot of online lessons um you don't
need special equipment go on piano courses um
research you know go on pianist magazines youtube
channel and there's tons of wonderful stuff on
there so you know yeah Yeah, that would be my
recommendation. Learn how to practice. Very good.
Very good. Well, I think we've almost come to
the end. Yeah, I know. That was a quick half
an hour. Yeah. Tell us what you're up to. Obviously,
when this comes out, I reckon we're talking summer
2025. You will be doing a lot of your courses.
Yes. Well, I will be doing the Stowe course at
the Summer School for Pianists, at which I shall
be performing Winterreise by Schubert. and tutoring
my my wonderful group of people and just being
involved in the stowe piano family um i'm also
wrapping up writing a book for oup oxford university
press on practicing on practice method with a
co -author professor adina mornell um we're collaborating
together on that um what else i'm planning to
take a little holiday at some point and um but
i do love my work and each week is slightly different
from from the next and and so you know i i keep
busy Yeah, well, you seem like a very happy,
positive person every time I see you or speak
to you. So it obviously your life is doing well
with what you're what you've chosen to do. I
feel very blessed doing what I'm doing. Yeah,
absolutely. Yeah. Oh, oh, great. Well, it's been
wonderful speaking to you. I think it's a lovely
time now for us to stop. Yeah. Thanks, Erica.
I've enjoyed chatting as well. Yeah. Thank you.
You're very welcome. And listeners, you know,
get out there, search Graham. He's done so many
wonderful videos for Pianist Magazine and search
out his courses and his online academy. There's
a lot there for you to go and research so you
can improve. That was an excerpt from Czerny's
Variations on a Theme by Road, and it was played
by Graham Fitch. Pianist podcasts are free, and
a really good way to support what we do is by
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