Revolutionary [Includes Bonus DVD]

Revolutionary [Includes Bonus DVD]

Revolutionary [Includes Bonus DVD]

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CD Details

Composer: Frederic Chopin
Composer: Cameron Carpenter
Composer: Duke Ellington
Composer: Jeanne Demessieux
Composer: Franz Liszt
Composer: Marcel Dupre
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
Composer: Vladimir Horowitz
Performer: Cameron Carpenter
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2008-09-23
Music Label: Telarc
Soundtracks:

Chopin: Ã?tude, Op. 10, No. 12 in C Minor "The Revolutionary"
Bach: "Evolutionary" Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565 WORLD PREMIERE
Solitude
Demessieux: Octaves, from Six Ã?tudes, Op. 5
Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No. 1 (The Dance in the Village Inn)
Carpenter: Love Song No. 1 (2008) WORLD PREMIERE
DuprÃ©: Prelude and Fugue in B Major, Op. 7, No. 1
Chopin: Ã?tude in C Major, Op. 10, No. 1
Bach: Chorale Prelude on Nun komm, der heiden Heiland, BWV 659, from the Great Eighteen Chorales
Horowitz: Variations on a theme from Bizet's Carmen
Carpenter: Homage to Klaus Kinski WORLD PREMIERE

Music reviews of Revolutionary [Includes Bonus DVD]

Music Review: Technique, 5 stars----Integrity, 1 star
Rating: 3 Stars

Cameron Carpenter (formerly Taylor Carpenter) possesses what is arguably the most advanced organ technique on the planet, and quite possibly the most advanced ever. His ability to play three manuals simultaneously, his amazingly nimble pedal technique, his complete command of the instrument's every resource, are nothing less than awe-inspiring.

Mr. Cameron has plainly stated that his goal is to make himself a star. He believes organ performances should be all about the performer, not the instrument, and that historically-informed performances should never stand in the way of putting on a spectacular show. Therefore, his approach to the organ's repertoire is understandably controversial. He plays Bach in a way that Bach would never have played. He uses tempos, registrations and dynamics in direct contradiction to what the composers indicated in their scores. For those who don't know better, it makes for the sonic equivalent to a trip to Disney World, worthy of fireworks and laser shows; for those who do know better, it makes for a gaudy, narcissistic display of arrogant disregard.

Since I have a degree in organ performance, I can't help but "know better." I would much rather watch Mr. Carpenter improvise than butcher the greatest pieces ever written for the organ. He certainly proves himself a phenomenal performer, but the great disservice he inflicts upon those time-honored composers is hard to ignore. Mr. Cameron is an expert at improvisation, he could put on an equally spectacular show simply improvising on given themes or popular tunes. Why choose pieces from the organ repertoire and perform them in such a way? Why not play a stack of synthesizers instead of the organ? The simple answer: to get the attention of people who know better. Yes, his goal is to make himself a star, and there is no such thing as bad publicity.

There is, however, such a thing as a "flash in the pan," and I suspect Mr. Cameron might be just that. The clothes, the makeup, the attitude, the quotes from interviews...this is a "look at me" personality in full bloom, and just like a group of junior-high kids at the mall, it can become annoying very quickly. Perhaps Mr. Cameron will grow out of it before his audience grows out of him.

The accompanying DVD made me laugh. It looks like it was filmed on the set of American Idol and edited by the people who edit daytime soap operas. It's a shame every track on the CD wasn't filmed the way Mr. Carpenter's concerts at Trinity Wall Street were filmed. In fact, this CD should have been a DVD. If Mr. Carpenter is to become a star, it will be because of his stunning technique and unusual attire, not his sensitive and scholarly musical insight. Mr. Carpenter can't become famous if we can't see him, no more than an actor can become famous by only doing voice-overs.

More Revolutionary [Includes Bonus DVD] free music reviews:
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Description of Revolutionary [Includes Bonus DVD]

Revolutionary 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.

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