Album DescriptionRevolutionary showcases an artist who is not only breaking ground, but who runs a musical gamut that any musician would be extremely hard-pressed to match. There are only four organ works included. Three are major pinnacles of the organ repertoire (the blistering, nearly unplayable Etude in Octaves by the French modernist Jeanne Demessieux; Prelude and Fugue in B major by Marcel Dupré; and Bach's deeply moving chorale-prelude Now Come, Savior of the Gentiles, while the fourth is the world premiere recording of Cameron's suggestive Love Song No. 1 (2008). The album's major departures, though, are found in Duke Ellington's Solitude (wittily combined with Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze); Liszt's Mephisto Waltz, and Vladimir Horowitz' Carmen Variations. Here are two of Chopin's Études in versions so convincing that they might have been organ music; and Cameron's Evolutionary Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, an outrageous survey of the various instrumental arrangements that made Bach's work famous. All this is recorded not on a pipe organ, but on the equally revolutionary Marshall & Ogletree Virtual Pipe Organ at Trinity Church Wall Street in New York City - an organ that, rising out of the destruction of Trinity's pipe organ on September 11, 2001, continues to challenge the status quo of the pipe organ and the artistic possibilities of organ playing in general.
What Others Say
Nearly drove off the road
I hadn't heard this Carpenter CD, yet. Tonight Jim Svejda (KUSC FM, L.A.) played three selections, the Chopin, Ellington and Carmen. I was on the way home from Thanksgiving dinner, and I really had to concentrate on the traffic while this outrageous, inventive, screamingly virtuosic avalanche came at me in the car. The Chopin was not just showoff, it was a conception of marvelous invention. Rather than being dazzled by the obvious pedal work, I was taken most by the coloristic slicing and dicing going on in the manuals; just scintillating.
Carpenter has a genuine feel for the laid back, off the beat playing that the Ellington demands. This wasn't ersatz jazz knock-off; this guy was in the moment completely. The Carmen fantasy was ... Read More
Not as written.....but as felt.
I too have a degree in Organ Performance. All instruments have been improved over the decades and centuries. Playing Mozart on the piano today does not sound like Mozart during his own time. I love the fact that Mr. Carpenter is taking advantage of modern technology and his own musical sensibility. Say what you will....a talent like this is rare....and only comes along every 100 years or so. I hope he does become a star....then the organ will become a star as well. He does not play with Bach's emotion...he plays with his own. Bravo.
Revolutionary [Includes Bonus DVD]
Loved the CD and the bonus DVD.
Such a talented guy. You'll love this recording if you like organ music.
A Quick Thrill
Not much has changed since Cameron's last CD, Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition [Includes DVD]. Once you get past the wow factor of his technical prowess there's not much else. Style without substance.
After the first listen it becomes rather boring, and judging by the number of used copies for sale in the amazon.com marketplace, time to put up for sale.
amazing!
I first stumbled across this artist on YouTube and his live performance of "Stars and Stripes" was so tremendous, I emailed the link to all of my musical friends. I am a concert pianist and have played and heard many, many concerts in my life and I have to say that we need more Cameron Carpenters breathing new life into classical music. Most organ recitals are yawnsville but his playing is a long, long way from the pedantry of many organists' precious interpretations of Bach and others. Yes, he is brash and somewhat over the top in places, but he plays with such amazing virtuosity, such sensitivity to color and phrasing, that he creates some of the most compelling performances within memory. His playing is in the tradition of Franz Liszt (and ... Read More
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