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.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
An outstanding must buy album:
This is a great album! The music is vigerous and exciting. The DVD shows playing technique that is unconventional and artisitc at the same time. Enjoy!!
Great technique but!:
Incredible technique with the organ. One would think that what he does is impossible, but yet he does it. Musical value is questionable but entertaining. Reminds me of Virgil Fox at his best, but technique overshadows the music to a great extent. Loved the DVD just to see it all happen. This guy can have a great future, but the musical values must be improved a great deal. Fun to listen to and watch, worth the price.
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... more info
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... more info
Tracks:
Chopin: Ètude, 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 Ètudes, Op. 5
Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No. 1 (The Dance in the Village Inn)
Carpenter: Love Song No. 1 (2008) WORLD PREMIERE
Dupré: Prelude and Fugue in B Major, Op. 7, No. 1
Chopin: Ètude 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
![Revolutionary [Includes Bonus DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31ERl-RlTDL.jpg)
