109: Enrico Baiano

Nikhil Hogan Show

My guest today is Harpsichordist and Fortepianist Professor Enrico Baiano. An award-winning international performer, Baiano has extensively recorded works by JS Bach, Johann Jakob Froberger, and Domenico Scarlatti to name a few.

He has published a method for the Harpsichord in 2010 and with Marco Moiraghi, published a book called “The sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti” in 2014.

00:48 Beginnings 2:25 When did you start playing keyboard instruments? 2:53 What made you decide to make music your career? 3:41 Did you get a teacher to learn the harpsichord? 6:57 How long did you study the harpsichord at the beginning? 7:37 What age were you while studying composition? 7:51 How did you learn composition? Was it the old tradition or new? 11:26 Did you listen to other styles of music growing up? 12:41 How you learned contrasted with the partimento approach 14:30 How extensively did you study with this older teacher? 14:53 Were these private lessons or at the conservatory? 15:43 Did you learn the modern methods of analysis like function theory and roman numerals? 17:09 Were you one of the few students improvising? 18:10 When did you get acquainted with partimento? 19:39 Italians not feeling proud of their heritage 20:36 Learn Fenaroli in 1982 21:49 Was there anything new in the partimento that you didn’t already know? 22:59 Are you able to distill music in the repertoire down to their basic forms? 24:24 Did you work on written counterpoint in your studies? 27:20 What is the difference between harmony and counterpoint? 28:46 What’s the difference between learning composition today vs back in the 18th century? 33:15 On the concern about the listen-ability of modern, contemporary music 36:35 the link between older music like Domenico Scarlatti and later composers like Brahms 38:56 Beethoven being very familiar with Scarlatti 43:35 What do you think about hexachordal Italian solfeggio system? 45:33 How should someone learn partimento? 46:33 On Durante, Zingarelli and others, having more difficult partimenti than Fenaroli 47:37 How should someone learn counterpoint? 48:34 What do you mean by Fux being “too late”? 51:17 Do you need a teacher to learn counterpoint? 51:42 Is figured bass still relevant in the modern age? 54:03 Chord Invertibility/Fundamental bass vs Counterpoint 57:45 On the question of certain chordal inversions not being equal 59:02 What do you think of Glenn Gould’s interpretations? 1:03:42 What’s the balance between learning repertoire and improvisation/composition? 1:05:50 What do you make of the amazing surge of interest in partimento and other older methods of learning music? 1:09:29 Do you use these older methods when looking at music like Ravel or Debussy? 1:13:07 Top 3 Pianists 1:13:32 Top 3 Partimenti composers 1:14:00 Top 3 Domenico Scarlatti Sonatas 1:16:59 Top 3 Pieces from Bach’s WTC 1:19:59 If you could meet any musician from history, who would it be and what would you talk about? 1:20:38 Do you play non-classical music for fun? 1:21:58 Upcoming projects and Wrapping up