This article presents the results of a pilot study whose aim was to characterize three different interpretation styles of the works of J.S. Bach in the context of a research creation process. Based on a study of baroque music performance in the 20th century, a pianist performed an excerpt of Bach’s Partita in C minor (BWV 826) according to three contrasting styles (Romantic, Modern and Rhetorical). The pianist’s performance was captured and recorded on midi data format using a Yamaha Disklavier DC7X piano. A verbal description of each style has been provided by the pianist through a self-explicitation exercise. Each audio recording was then presented to an expert auditor, specialist in piano recordings, which provided an external perspective on the interpretations. These qualitative descriptions were then compared with a quantitative analysis of performance parameters such as tempo, the speed of key descent and legato.