Learning Path | Piano | Piano Technique & Musical Perfection
for Advanced Pianists
Build technical prowess across a range of challenges and refine the interpretive and collaborative skills needed to excel as a concerto soloist with orchestra.
Instructors
Gülsin Onay
Oxana Yablonskaya
Jean-Bernard Pommier
Ricardo Castro
Guillermo Scarabino
Duration
6 hours and 45 minutes
5 Chapters / 35 Videos
Course description
🎹Difficulty Mastery: 5 Major Piano Concertos for Advanced Pianists
Each of these masterclasses delves into a major concerto that is difficult in unique ways – from poetic lyricism and classical clarity to Romantic grandiosity and modern virtuosity. Through this 5-part course, an advanced pianist would build technical prowess across a range of challenges and refine the interpretive and collaborative skills needed to excel as a concerto soloist with orchestra.
The piano masterclass selection spans the Romantic era and early 20th-century repertoire, providing a comprehensive training in deep virtuosity and the art of concerto performance.
Click on Chapters to Enter the Learning Path
CHAPTER 1 - Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 11
CHAPTER 2 - Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
CHAPTER 3 - Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30
1st and 2nd Movement
CHAPTER 4 - Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No. 1 in F♯ minor, Op. 1
1st movement
CHAPTER 5 - Beethoven – Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37
This course offers a high-level journey into the art of the piano concerto, guiding advanced pianists toward full artistic maturity as soloists and collaborators. Through masterclasses devoted to concertos by Frédéric Chopin, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Sergei Rachmaninoff, participants engage with some of the most demanding and meaningful works in the repertoire—where technique, poetry, and orchestral awareness converge.
Key topics explored in the course include:
- Cantabile tone and lyrical projection – learning to “sing” at the piano, inspired by Chopin’s poetic Romanze
- Nuanced rubato and dynamic shading – shaping musical time with flexibility and expressive purpose
- Refined pedaling and tone control – enhancing color and atmosphere without blurring clarity
- Rhythmic coordination and fingering strategies – managing complex textures and simultaneous rhythms
- Concerto professionalism – understanding the soloist’s role within the orchestra
- Soloist–conductor dialogue – tempo choices, cueing, balance, and ensemble leadership (Beethoven)
- Structural awareness and stylistic clarity – navigating Classical rigor and early Romantic drama
- Romantic virtuosity and stamina – building power, endurance, and velocity in Rachmaninoff
- Voicing within dense textures – revealing inner melodies and orchestral layers at the keyboard
- Long-phrase architecture and emotional pacing – sustaining intensity across large symphonic forms
- Expressive clarity under extreme technical pressure – especially in Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto
Taken together, these masterclasses form a comprehensive cultural and artistic training in the concerto tradition, spanning early Romantic intimacy to 20th-century virtuoso monumentality. This course cultivates that excellence—preparing pianists not only to meet technical demands, but to communicate, collaborate, and lead with musical conviction.