Enjoying a spectacular workout

David Briggs is eager to try out the Auckland Town Hall organ.

David Briggs is keen to share with audiences the colourful aspect of the organ and dispel the notion it's just for staid performances of hymns on a Sunday.

David Briggs, in town for an Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra concert and a solo recital, knew he was destined for the organ loft when he was just 6.

"I was fascinated by the technology of its stops and pedals, as well as by the sound," he says. "And it's not just its power. It's so colourful that only a symphony orchestra can compete with it."

Briggs is based at Toronto's St James Cathedral for half the year, spending the rest on the road as a concert organist.

"My main goal is to introduce the organ as an instrument that can move people and really change their lives," he says. "Too many still think that organs play grey music on a Sunday, which you talk over during coffee after church."

However, Poulenc's 1938 Organ Concerto, which he plays with the APO next Thursday, is "a fantastic piece", he says.

Originally written for the American-born Princesse de Polignac to play in her salon, it grew to full symphonic proportions and is "almost a musical snapshot" of Poulenc. "He was a bit of Jekyll and Hyde character," Briggs says. "He'd write very intense sacred music one minute, and then be a bit of a lad having fun the next."

All this is in the concerto, ranging from "razzledazzle stuff, very fast and showy" to "some incredibly poignant and lyrical pages where it's almost like looking into Poulenc's soul, the music is so emotional and deep, almost sensual".

He likes the "very organic nature" of the music. "It just grows from itself in a very natural way," he says.

"You never quite know what's coming around the corner, which is nice for the audience."

Above all, Briggs is eager to try out our Town Hall's splendidly refurbished instrument, not only with the orchestra but solo, three days later.

Each organ is different and he likes to have one or two days at the venue before the concert.

"It's not to learn the notes, but to bond with the instrument. Your ears and feelings have to respond to what the instrument is trying to tell you. Then it's a matter of adding your own musical voice in a sort of two-way osmosis."

Briggs' Sunday afternoon recital is titled The Art of Transcription with music ranging from Vaughan Williams' Wasps to Ravel's La Valse giving the organ a spectacular workout. He enjoys transcription and ruffles when people call them "reductions".

"They're not reductions, which implies a lessening. They're recastings. If I'm playing Tchaikovsky or Mahler, I even like to think of the composer looking over my shoulder. In a way I'm a kind of salesman for the composer."

Three months ago, Briggs was thrilled to premiere his own transcription of Mahler's Second Symphony in New York's Cathedral of St John the Divine.

"The building added so much that you'd never get in a concert hall," he says.

"The ending, with soloists, a choir of 150 and a 10-second acoustic, was unforgettable."

Next Sunday Briggs signs off his concert with a unique "symphony" improvised on the spot from themes given to him by audience members.

His passion for improvisation comes from lessons with the great French organist Jean Langlais.

"He always made you feel so good about your own talent.

"Seventy per cent of improvisation is having the guts to get up and do it.

"Langlais used to maintain that improvising in public was like sitting at the organ console with no clothes on. It's like living dangerously, but this is just what makes it so exciting."

What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Who: David Briggs in recital
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Thursday at 8pm