This one-off concert, part of a series from St Andrew’s and St George’s West, was held in the Royal Overseas League in a room cooled to such an extent that the air conditioning started to drip. Samberg took the stage without introduction, said that he was pleased to be there and then played eight of his own piano compositions. He did not speak to introduce them until the last, for which he only gave a brief explanation. This was an oversight as an introduction might have helped the audience understand what he was trying to do.
The pieces themselves were almost identical and followed a formula. They started in the left hand, had a quiet phase and then raced up and down the keyboard before ending with the left hand. They all had names but these seemed to bear no relation to the pieces. It all had a Groundhog Day feel to it, but nothing was changing for the better. The playing was good, though his undone cuffs were flapping about which was distracting. Samberg’s playing is far better than his composition. This was borne out by an unexpected bonus piece, ‘The Girl with the Flaxen Hair’ by Debussy which was dedicated to one lady in the audience, most of whom seemed to know Samberg. It was beautifully played, laden with emotion, and made the previous hour even harder to understand.