Two Steinway concert piano improvisations (in the style of JSB and Maurice Ravel) - David Briggs

Two concert piano improvisations (in the style of JSB and Maurice Ravel) - David Briggs plays the recently-restored 1895 Steinway Piano (Model C) at First Lutheran Church, Brockton, MA

In truth, I enjoy playing the piano just as much as the organ. You can do so much with the line, the voicing and the phrasing. When I was young I was instilled with the overriding ethos never to put anything on the organ before you can play it pretty well on the piano - I still live according to that gentle edict! The 1895 Steinway Model C at First Lutheran Church, Brockton, MA has recently been fully-restored by John Potter, a Massachusetts-based piano restorer and on Sunday 29th June I had the great pleasure of re-opening it. The pastor of the church is my great friend Jeff Johnson, who incidentally was one of the first people I ever met in the US, when I came over to direct the RSCM King’s College Course in 1995. A couple of years ago I gave the ‘closing’ concert on the piano and so it was marvellous to be invited back to re-open it. Jeff and I played the hugely-fun Poulenc Two Piano Sonata - there’s also a rather nice Kawai Grand in the church - and I decided I’d improvise a couple of pieces, one in the style of J S Bach (a Prelude, a binary form Sarabande and a rollicking Gigue), and in the second half of the concert an impressionistic piece, not a million miles from Ravel’s ‘Gaspard de la Nuit’ (which has always been a total favourite of mine). The concert took place in the middle of a heat wave and the only air-conditioning in the church was in the parlour, where we retreated for lavish refreshments after the concert. My digital thermometer showed 92f on top of the organ console (that’s 33.3c!) - mind you that was in the direct sunlight. In the body of the sanctuary it was a mere 84f (29c)! The piano is still settling down and of course the temperature elicited some slightly out-of-tune notes, at the last minute. Nevertheless I hope you’ll enjoy these two spontaneous offerings. I’ve had a lot of fun adding some suitable pictures (Köthen and Villandry) to suitably enhance the live footage.

Wherever you are, I hope your summer is refreshing and rejuvenating, and that you are not having to endure temperatures in the mid-90’s!
A member of the audience was celebrating his 85th birthday that day - that explains the (not-so) subtle reference in the Ravelian piece... 😎🎂🥂