As early as 1960, Browning had already emerged as a featured soloist in the prime-time CBS Television network special Spring Festival of Music.

His appearance with the conductor Alfredo Antonini and the Symphony of the Air featured a virtuoso performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto, which was noted for its musical excellence and its imaginative visual presentation on television.

[4] In 1962 he gave the premiere of Samuel Barber's Pulitzer Prize-winning Piano Concerto, which was written for him, in connection with the opening of Lincoln Center.

In 1993 Browning won a second Grammy Award for best instrumental soloist without orchestra for a disc of Barber's solo works on MusicMasters.

John Browning is remembered for his penetrating, intellectual interpretations of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Scarlatti, among others, and for his many recordings of the works of these and other composers.