Customer Rating: Summary: Nearly drove off the road Comment: 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 a funhouse of playful, and near impossible registration shifts. Even if it was played on the latest preprogrammed wonder consol, it's lighting quick and seamless rendering was breathtaking at times. That's when I had to worry about my driving the most. I heard only those three cuts, and am in the process of buying the CD. I'm going to tear the heads off of three or four friends with this.
I heard Virgil Fox many times. His was also great showmanship, but a lot less musical content.
Customer Rating: Summary: Not as written.....but as felt. Comment: 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. Customer Rating: Summary: Revolutionary [Includes Bonus DVD] Comment: Loved the CD and the bonus DVD.
Such a talented guy. You'll love this recording if you like organ music. Customer Rating: Summary: A Quick Thrill Comment: 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.
Customer Rating: Summary: amazing! Comment: 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 having read all three volumes of Alan Walker's stupendous biography of Liszt, I am sure FL would have loved Carpenter's "Mephisto"), Vladimir Horowitz, and Virgil Fox. This is no flash in the pan; I feel sure he will be around a long time and will evolve from being the "l'enfant terrible" of the organ to the grand old master who is widely recognized for ushering in a whole new era of organ virtuosity. Simply amazing...
![Revolutionary [Includes Bonus DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31ERl-RlTDL._SL160_.jpg)
