This is a valid point. He is very good at playing pieces from the scores. That's so true for many of us.
I remember having started playing piano at the age of 7 and organ at the age of 16. Then at the age of 18 I had my first experience in improvisation at the Lithuanian Academy of Music.
My piano and organ technique was quite reasonable at that time but when it came to improvisation which is composing at the moment of performance, I was a total beginner.
I simply didn't have a clue how the pieces were put together.
And yet it was always fascinating for me to watch other people improvise. Although I had my fair share of doubts whether or not it's OK for me to improvise.
Luckily, I didn't give up and litle by little I started playing more serious music spontaneously.
But before I did that, I played my first few attempts in public. Oh how rotten they were... I actually memorized everything myself so it would sound like it's a written out piece.
That's OK. That's how many people start. Only after many years of practicing and failing and being OK with making mistakes I felt at ease when playing music which I was creating in my head.
I felt free. I felt myself.
This sense of freedom is what intregues me the most about improvisation.
Sure, I will never play like Herr Bach or other old masters. But that's not the point.
There already was Bach on this planet and he created music that he wanted to create.
I'm still living and I think I still have something to say. To tell musical stories.
That's why I continue to practice improvising on the organ. On the good day I start my organ practice this way.
And I would encourage anyone who feels inadequate or thinks they don't have good skills to try to play something interesting for 10 minutes using just 4 notes, like CDEF or DFGA or FABC or any other note combinations.
At first you will discover that you are playing nonsense, your mind will scream at you, tell you to stop but if you continue playing something interesting with those 4 pitches, 10 minutes will pass quite quickly and you will feel actually quite proud.
Proud that you didn't stop which is the second most difficult task in improvisation.
Do you want to know what is the most difficult task in improvisation?
It's sitting down on the organ bench...