From ‘E.T.’ to ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Jurassic Park’ – great music from the movies for solo piano. Austrian jazz pianist David Helbock plays music by multiple Oscar and Grammywinning American film composer John Williams.

“I’ve done all kinds of things with John Williams’ music,” says Helbock. “I’ve re-harmonised it, I’ve used different time signatures and much more, so that my own voice can flow naturally into it. But despite all the alterations, the melody always stays the same and remains recognisable. Much of the process of adaptation was done intuitively, driven by the emotions that the films sparked in me. So I wrote down the main melodies, I watched the films, before finally developing my improvised versions on the piano and slowly extending them.”

The music of John Williams for solo piano seen through the prism of jazz – it all fits together well and in several respects: the film composer himself has jazz roots. During the time he was studying piano at the Juilliard School in New York, he also played jazz in bars. That influence can still be heard today, for example in ‘Moonlight’ from the film ‘Sabrina’, which is a genuine jazz tune. And there’s another thing: “Of course Williams quickly developed into a classical orchestral composer, but for me, the piano itself is an entire orchestra with a panoply of possibilities in sound. Even more so when I use various techniques of going inside the piano, i.e. damping strings with my hand, playing chords directly with my fingers on the strings, or using the piano frame as a percussion instrument.” Helbock shows here that the piano and the orchestra don’t have to be as unlike each other one might think they are.