Reviews
Concert Review - Christchurch, New Zealand
'Phantom of the Opera' at Christchurch Town Hall, New Zealand: ...
Of course improvising music to silent films was for many years a quite unremarkable event, but to modern audiences the whole thing is exceedingly strange on many levels…..
Any reservations were silenced though by David Briggs superbly imaginative playing... So indeed we saw, and heard, a ball, a chase, romance, escape from apparently certain death, spine-chilling terror, seduction and cold-blooded murder. Offenbach, Gounod, Mendelssohn and the Marseillaise all got a look in. David Briggs' uncanny feeling for atmosphere was hard to fault and his timing, at moments of suspense, or when bringing the whole thing to a thundering conclusion was very impressive
Christchurch Gazette, New Zealand (March 2002)
Trier, Germany
Concert given in the Konstantin Basilika, Trier, Germany
Right at the beginning of the concert Briggs made it clear that this evening would not be boring …. Here was a technician at work who knew how to thrill his audience, but also the musicality that one frequently misses with great virtuosos did not go short with David Briggs… He explored the tonal potential of the organ profoundly and gave his very numerous listeners a musical event that unfortunately one has not so often.
Gerhard Kluth, Trier Gazette, Germany
Symphony Hall, Birmingham
"Formidable Pedal Power
Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition' … was brilliantly executed by Briggs and made a formidable impact. His registration deftly highlighted the mood and texture of every movement, especially the Promenade in its different forms, the subtly-coloured Old Castle and the awesomely loud Great Gate of Kiev
Most impressive of all, actually, was the improvisation Briggs gave on a theme from the audience (a mobile-phone ring tone of all things), which resulted in a dazzling series of variations, plus mock-Bach fugue, and a blistering concluding toccata where hands and feet seemed to fly in every direction
Birmingham Post, UK, 20 Feb 03
St Paul's Hall, Huddersfield, UK
25th Anniversary Recital: St Paul's Concert Hall, Huddersfield, UK:
…with Liszt's Prelude and Fugue on BACH the recital soared into the stratosphere. To breathtaking technical accomplishments he added a wonderful grasp of the work's essentially improvisatory character. No surprise, really - for Briggs is renowned for his brilliant improvisations, as he proceeded to demonstrate in a display based on two submitted themes connected with Huddersfield. ….. bristling with an endless succession of melodic, harmonic and contrapuntal ingenuities, not to mention self-inflicted technical challenges surmounted with brazen nonchalance. As for the organ itself, no better vehicle for highlighting its tonal qualities could have been devised than Keith John's transcription of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. I n Briggs' hands the instrument's wide range of colours was brilliantly exploited - and indeed extended. The hour was late, but an encore inevitable. French music is clearly Briggs' inspiration and he sat down at the piano to deliver a Debussy-style improvisation, technically and structurally even more impressive than his organ piece. What a musician!
Huddersfield Gazette, UK
Knoxville, Tennessee
'King of Kings' was a stroke of genius. The feedback has been great. People loved it...one lady today, (first saying she had no idea what to expect) called it a 'life changing experience'....so explicit in the story line...having NO spoken words made it all the more powerful
Jim Rogers (Church St United Methodist Church, Knoxville TN)
University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale, USA
Your concert was splendid, and the improv. at the end was stupendous. I knew that I had heard and seen it with my own sense organs, but I do not believe it
Shirley Clay Scott (Dean of Liberal Arts, University of Carbondale, IL, USA)
International Organ Festival, St Alban's, UK
"It was a tremendous thrill to have our organ christened with such masterly panache - you had us all spellbound. … As for the 'Phantom', the entire audience was on the edge of the seats from start to finish."
Mark Venning (Managing Director, Harrison and Harrison, Durham, England)
Creation
"A lovely concert last night in wonderful circumstances. Your cantata was a triumph and you must be very proud! - I certainly was. It was Messiaen, Poulenc, Ravel, Debussy - all these with a strong English accent all your own. I was glad you didn't go in for too much birdsong or hindu rhythms! The orchestration was lavish in colour, the choir was in good form. It was the best part of the millennium."
[Richard Popplewell, recently retired from the Chapel Royal, St James Palace, as organist and composer to the Queen]
"Thank you so much for the tickets for Saturday's concert. We enjoyed it tremendously, especially your most impressive Creation. I loved your harmony and orchestration, and the way you had written for Ruth Holton. Congratulations on a lovely evening and work… "
[Patrick Gowers, composer]
"Bravo! the other evening, David. We enjoyed 'Creation' very much, particularly 'the Birds'. Your chords have moved on from 'PG' to 'X Certificate' - if you develop any further chromatically, your performances will only be allowed to be performed to one consenting adult!!"
[Ian Venables, composer, Worcester]
"Speaking as a Three Choirs veteran of 28 years, I can honestly say that 'Creation' was streets ahead of any of the Festival commissions during my time - I think we had all realised that it was clever, but now we know how deeply emotional it is as well... "
[Bernard Day, TCF/GCS bass, and Chairman of the GCS]
"It's just like Ravel, reincarnated…
[Ann Wessell, 2nd Flute]
"This piece certainly deserves a London performance a.s.a.p."
[Principal cello - a London freelance]
"Many congratulations on your stunning piece last night. I was captivated by the harmonies and the amazing orchestral colour -'the Birds' were fantastic. What a triumph. I'm sure you must be very proud. You deserve to be."
[Dr John Sanders, OBE, Organist Emeritus, Glos. Cathedral]
"Just a brief note to say I've really been enjoying listening to your
Creation work - very impressive indeed - beautiful orchestration."
(Francis Grier, Composer)
"Gloucester Cathedral was riveted by the blazing world premiere of David Briggs' "Creation"...
The revelation among these new works was David Briggs' "Creation'. The texts - a Sikh cosmogeny set beside Genesis, Kathleen Raine, John Clare, Arabic poetry, and a lovely 1940s sonnet echoing Yeats' "An Irish Airman foresees his death" - were chosen by Nicholas Bury, the Dean of Gloucester, and seemed to have just the right ingredients for this oratorio...
The languid, mesmeric opening is a beautifully judged piece of writing, and the deft interplay of sun and light in the Genesis passage, with pirouetting muted trumpets and rippling cellos, is a 'jeux des vagues' that plays Debussy at his own game. The cascading birdsong movement is an inspired piece of word-setting. Above all, the high-riding passages for solo soprano, skilfully hoist above the orchestral textures and crystal-clear, were stunningly sung by Ruth Holton. The chorus was top-notch.
(Roderic Dunnett, in 'The Church Times')
"Now discovering your 'Creation' was a wonderful way to start my week. The melodic lines, the forms, the harmonies, the orchestration, the contrasted poetical characters, all the music a grandiose hymn to the Creator of the stars! I am very admirative. Bravissimo! and thank you for sharing this recording with me....Great art out of a humble heart!..."
(Maitre Naji Hakim, Titulaire des Grandes Orgues, l'Eglise de la Trinite,
Paris)
'Sounds French' - Cathedral Music: Issue 2/04
SOUNDS FRENCH David Briggs plays the organ of Blackburn Cathedral Two Cochereau Improvisations Franck Choral No1 Briggs Symphonie en Improvisation,-Langlais Messe Alme . Pater,-Incantation pour un jour Saint Demessieux Attende Domine,-Dupré Allegro Deciso (Evocation ()P 37) Lammas LAMM 164D TT: 67.47 Improvisation is essentially composition 'on the wing and by definition cannot be repeated, unless the medium of sound recording is involved. For fifteen years Pierre Cochereau's virtuoso improvisations on the 5-manual Cavaille-Coll in the Paris cathedral of Notre-Dame where he was titulaire were recorded. This has enabled David Briggs to transcribe and thereby play many of them, including the two which open this stunningly good programme. Briggs himself studied with Jean Langlais in Paris and developed the great talent for improvisation which enables him to sit down at an organ and improvise a four movement symphony, such as he does here. The result is a very satisfying musical experience. Without being at all derivative, it has immensely evocative qualities and one does want to hear it again. Clearly the listener to an improvisation is not always seized with this desire! How fortunate that this Symphonic was recorded inJune 2003 and can now be heard by a much wider public. Briggs the interpreter is also represented with distinction; he gives the most expressive and sensitively controlled performance of the Franck Choral No1 of all the many that I have on disc, with finely judged tempi and authentic registration. All the organ works of Franck should be recorded on [he Blackburn Walker, it is the ideal instrument for it. It is equally suited to the works of Langlais, Dupré and the latter's pupil, Jeanne Demessieux, the titulaire of La Madeleine, who was an important figure in the Paris organ world until her untimely death in 1968. Briggs gives a highly charged reading of her hauntingly beautiful Attende Domino and then ends with a taut rendering of one of Dupré's best known works. The recorded balance on this magnificently rebuilt organ does it full justice, set off by the cathedral's natural reverberation time of six secs. Roger Tucker