The Organ and Showmanship
David | Houston, Texas, USA | 06/10/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This album came to my attention by way of a promotional email; I have a couple of other recordings of Cameron Carpenter playing the Marshall and Ogletree Organ, Opus 1 at Trinity Church Wall Street, New York and decided to give it a try. It's intesting to note that the two disc set featuring Mr. Carpenter playing "Pictures at an Exhibition" is shown in the first Special Feature.
After playing through both the CD and the DVD I've devised a plan of attack for these two discs; I suggest you first watch the Special Features section of the DVD and get to know a little about Mr. Carpenter. He comes across as a friendly sort of guy who likes people and wants them to like him and the organ. Mr. DeGeorge points out in his review the similarities with Virgil Fox and that is certainly evident. Play next the rest of the DVD and then follow that up with the CD. I was impressed with the sonics on the CD; it is a full range recording that will give your entire system a good workout.
Mr. Carpenter is an extraordinary talent and seems to delight in sharing his talent with an audience; the third of the Special Features is a video of Mr. Carpenter playing Chopin's Revolutionary Etude using his feet to play the part normally assigned to the left hand that was impressive to me.
There is no question that Mr. Carpenter inserts his personality into his performances with results that can vary from inspired to doubtful. On balance I believe I found the scales to be slightly tipped in favor of inspired. I am a fan of the Widor Organ Symphonies and am sorry to have to say that his interpretation of the Toccata from the 5th Organ Symphony left a great deal to be desired; I shall probably skip that part in the future.
All told these two discs provide an interesting departure from traditional organ performances and do so with flash and style. They could be an excellent way to introduce your friends to the whole realm of organ performance."
Blurry Bach & Scintillating "Sparks"
D. DEGEORGE | Ellicott City, MD USA | 06/08/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Cameron Carpenter is an intelligent, well-educated musician; and I am fairly confident that he knows all the rules of how to play Bach, or at least what constitutes the bounds of good performance practice; and I believe that he set out to break them all.
Well, maybe a fresh approach is just what the doctor ordered as the audience for classical music seems to be aging and dying off. I wish that Carpenter could give organ recitals a new lease on life with a young audience; and I'll try to remain optimistic about that prospect. On the other hand, this may signal the final death throes of classical-organ performance. Adventuresome listeners, enter herein; traditionalists, get as far away from this as possible.
It is unavoidable to compare Carpenter with one of his idols, Virgil Fox, who was controversial enough in his own time, even before he started giving flashy organ recitals at Fillmore East and such venues. Fox's erratic tempi, liberal use of swell boxes for Baroque organ pieces (heresy!), and general over-Romanticizing were considered by many to be outside the bounds of good taste back then; and Carpenter goes even farther than Fox.
I did enjoy this album, as I think it's a good thing to just loosen up and have some fun; and even though in many respects these interpretations are travesties, one can hear things in these familiar favorites that one never knew were lurking in the music. I suspect, however, that this is going to be an infatuation without an ensuing love affair. To listen to Bach purely for fun is simply to miss to much of its potential. Bach both amazes and nourishes the soul, and I am afraid that a more "serious" performance is necessary for the music to have its full miraculous effect.
I have to mention one piece in particular: the Prelude & Fugue in D Major, "The Great." I still remember seeing Virgil Fox perform this live, some 45-plus years ago; and I was aghast at his tempo; how in the world were his feet going to be able to move fast enough through the treacherous fugue? Fox did make it through, and now Carpenter has done him one better--whatever else one may say, Carpenter is an astounding virtuoso.
The P&F in D serves as a good example of what is right and what, at least from a traditional viewpoint, is wrong with this album. The plus side is Carpenter's virtuosity, sense of fun, and high spirits. The negative side is that most of the piece is tossed off with much of the melodic line buried by the registration, the performance venue, and the recording technique. Clarity has to wait until almost the very end, when trivialization suddenly turns to bombast.
The sound quality is something of a mixed bag. Most pipe organ recordings try to achieve a balance wherein the melodic lines are clear, while the overall sound has enough bass to provide weight and richness; but they are not necessarily what one would hear in the cathedral. This recording deserves praise for realism even as it sabotages clarity. I would also note that it works best at high volume--just be careful that you don't blow out your woofer(s).
The DVD: lots better because it gives Carpenter a chance to justify his interpretations, and it is visually stunning, with a white organ console against a white background played by an organist all in white and silver (except for the last piece, in which he appears in a black tanktop (eye candy for women and gay men!)). As to the interpretations, from a purist's standpoint some are grotesque; however, I appreciate that sometimes a performer simply needs to be a performer and put his or her own highly personalized stamp on the music, as is the case here. Sometimes I think we are revering classical music to death, literally; and this is welcome relief. Furthermore, many of the pieces on the DVD, unlike Bach, were written as playful pieces to begin with (e.g., "Étincelles ("Sparks") by Moskowski), so why not let the performer take a different playful tack? Mess around with Bach, though, and you lose the benefit of his genius.
In spite of the attention that Carpenter calls to himself by his flamboyant attire and flaunting of his physique, his commentary is that of a serious musician, as is his demeanor for the most part. His Serenade and Fugue on B. A. C. H. (on the CD) shows excellent compositional skill.
A couple of technical notes: I cringe at the often-made assertion that upconverted DVD looks almost as good as Blu-ray; at less than 1/5 the resolution this is physically impossible; but the video on this DVD is so skillfully managed (thanks largely to a bias toward close-ups) that I find myself in the unexpected position of saying that this DVD indeed rivals a Blu-ray. This assessment, however, does not apply to most of the special-feature clips, which barely exceed VHS quality. The 5.1 surround sound on the DVD is impressive, if a bit too bassy.
The printed program notes are skimpy, excused mostly by the inclusion of ample commentary on the DVD; however, I did not see any indication of where or on what organ the Bach Prelude and Fugue No. 5 from the Well-Tempered Clavier was performed the first time on the DVD (it reappears in an alternate performance from Berlin, in which that venue is identified). The feature on "the making of" the Cameron Live CD was helpful in appreciating the context of the recital.
In spite of my reservations, especially concerning the Bach performances, I found this a valuable addition to my collection."
A serious music lover's must have recording
L. Anderson | California United States | 07/16/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Sure, there are probably one or more Salieri's for every Mozart, but having just listened to Cameron's "LIVE" the cd/dvd, I can assure you Cameron is the virtuosic Mozart side of the equation. If you have not purchased this set of recordings and listened to them on a good sound system, please stop reading now and order it.
I first heard Cameron in person in May at Davies symphony hall, purchased his "REVOLUTIONARY" cd/dvd at that time. Impressive. But his new "LIVE" album is even more so. I didn't think so at first because until today I only had time to watch the interviews and the Hardman organ recordings (which portion of the DVD special features section has a serious issue with bass rumble on the audio track), but this afternoon I watched the Berlin 2009 Recital highlights special feature and listened to the "LIVE" audio CD of Bach and Carpenter compositions and was blown away. It felt like the roof of my living room had lifted off and the sun's splendor were bathing the walls. On my personal blog, I mentioned that my favorite Cameron composition on this album was "Clockwatcher" from Three Intermezzi for Cinema Organ, just for it's hypnotic appeal. But it is no contender for his Berlin performance of "Homage to Klaus Kinski" (2005), which if it does not send shivers up and down your spine toward the end, you simply have no spine, and may not even be alive.
Cameron is extremely generous, and for the low price of this cd/dvd he shares a wealth of audio and video. That means of course that they also threw in some audio or video that was not perfect (there are some light scrolling vertical bars on the Berlin recital footage, presumably due to a PAL -> NTSC conversion, but it does not distract from the supreme virtuosity displayed, and I was thinking while I was listening - what would we give for similar footage of Mozart, with or without technical minor flaws?
The liner notes quoting Dr. John Weaver, former head of the organ department at Juilliard and The Curtis Institute, express my feelings as well "This is truly one of the most amazing musical minds that I have ever encountered, a talent of Mozartean proportions, and a technique the likes of which I don't think has existed on this planet...because if it had, we would all know about it."
Eat your hearts out, Salieri's. ;-) I just hope Cameron takes proper care for his own safety."
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1