Piano Forum

I was told by an ABRSM examiner that "they want to find out what you know, not what you don't know."   So the more you have to talk about the better. A good strategy is to read up on the pieces you are playing: when where they written, what else did the composer write around the same time; what other composers were around, what did they write, etc etc.  (In my viva I was asked about the kind of instrument they were written for: in your case the Scarlatti sonatas were for harpsichord, but e.g. for the Mozart: what was the range of his piano, and how did it differ from a modern grand?) Presumably you will have researched some of this information for your Programme Notes.. one "trick" I used was to include some statements that could lead to questions that I had good answers for.

They usually start with easy questions like "how did you choose your pieces?" (so you should definitely have a good answer ready for that - preferably not "my teacher chose them for me") and move on to harder ones, but remember they're not trying to catch you out (unless, for example, you've included obviously plagiarised material in your Programme Notes that you don't really understand) so basically just try to have an intelligent conversation about your pieces - and music generally - and you should be fine.