In this RHS-RCO Masterclass, Matthew Martin discusses the practicalities of performance of the French Classical Repertoire – from registration and articulation, to the fingering for ornamentation and the application of inègale.

Simon Williams presents a masterclass in hymn playing at the organ of the Royal Hospital School, Holbrook, Suffolk.  He advises on registration, playovers and console management for hymns, how to match your hymn playing to the organ and the acoustic, and how to encourage confident singing from the congregation. 

Anne Page demonstrates methods that pianists use to learn fast passages of music with accuracy, which could be a helpful addition to your own practice techniques.

In this video, Richard Brasier investigates how Fernando Germani’s Organ Method offers advice on, and exercises for, acquiring a secure and articulate pedal technique. He discusses four key areas of pedal technique – attack and release, foot positioning, ankle flexibility and foot substitution.

Andrew Forbes discusses the nature of virtuosity, and how to overcome the frustrations of mastering a piece which is on the edge of your own current capabilities.

Max Reger’s great first compositional period ended with his Second Sonata for Organ, Opus 60, written in 1901 at the time of his move from Weiden to Munich. It is a good introduction to his work, because it is concise, but has a lot of variation of form and technique.

On his move to Munich in 1901, Max Reger’s music, even by his standards, became more involved and difficult, and the signature work from this time is his set of variations on a theme by Bach, one of six great sets of variations he wrote. This work was written for piano, but conductor Ira Levin, using Reger’s own orchestration of his Beethoven Variations as an inspiration, has orchestrated the work.

This documentary film attempts to prise open Reger’s music, to equate it with his biography and the context of his life, and to combine discussion of his music with footage of performers playing excerpts from major works in many forms – lieder, orchestral and instrumental works, and the organ music from his great Weiden period of 1898 to 1901.

Richard Brasier discusses the performance of the organ music of the Classical period: repertoire between the Baroque and Romantic that is often neglected.