Two brothers, both in black, sitting with their backs to each other: one, Thomas Scott, at the keyboard of the Steinway grand with the lid defiantly open, and the other, Jonathan, almost hidden from view, commanding the magnificent Harrison organ with its two keyboards, its array of pedals, its fifteen stops and its towering assemblage of pipes. It was as though battle was about to commence.
In the Overture to the Barber of Seville by Rossini, the piano provided the life and bustle and the organ the colour of the orchestral instruments.
Debussy’s Claire de Lune is a luminous descriptive piece for piano, a pellucid watercolour. In Tom Scott’s arrangement, which married the piano with a responding organ, the piece became a rich oil painting, with a deeper, denser colouring.
Pietro Yon was the organist at St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. The final movement of his Concerto Gregoriano is a magnificent virtuoso showpiece for organ and orchestra. The organ played its part brilliantly with several showy pedal glissandos and the piano concluded the piece with a triumphant glissando of its own.
Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite is programme music at its most evocative. The combination of tonal colours in the Death of Ase was sad and moving and the organ provided an ominous tread to the march of the Trolls in the Hall of the Mountain King.
The Overture to The Magic Flute by Mozart opened the second half and was followed by Schubert’s Ave Maria where organ and piano played and accompanied the melody in succession with an attractive contrasting effect.
In Tom Scott’s own Unknown Destination organ and piano challenged each other rhythmically until they reached their tumultuous conclusion.
The climax of the evening, however, was a superb performance of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, arranged, as were all the other pieces except the Yon, by Tom Scott. The organ played the orchestral part and the piano played itself and both brothers revelled in the life and vivacity of the music from the famous opening clarinet glissando to the pounding conclusion when organ and piano spoke as one. And that Harrison organ, only ten years older that the Rhapsody, threw off its clerical robes and seemed to swing down the aisle.
Siblings in rivalry? No, quite the opposite. A case of brotherly harmony in which both Tom and Jonathan delighted in displaying the contrasting qualities of their instruments with a zest and enthusiasm that the audience found infectious.
Steve Matthews