By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News
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Cameron Carpenter,
organist
Sunday, May 8, 2011 Walt Disney Concert Hall
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Organist Cameron Carpenter is either a genius or one of the
world’s great musical eccentrics. Sometimes the two go together (pianists
Vladimir Horowitz and Glenn Gould spring to mind as examples). Last night, the
30-year-old Carpenter made his Walt Disney Concert Hall recital debut with a
performance that was either (a) glorious, (b) crazy, (c) mind-blowing or (d)
all of the above, depending on your tastes. He got sounds out of the Disney
Hall organ that nobody else could conceive; the same could be said for many of
the pieces he played.
Through it all, Carpenter remains unique, although in many
ways, this was a decidedly non-Carpenter program: no cutesy pops stuff, no
ragging on the quality of the instrument, no white top or jeans (he wore a
black tunic jacket, adorned subtly with his trademark Swarovski crystals, in
the first half and a black mesh-net shirt in the second; black pants and shoes
both halves). His playing style is as sparse as his thin, albeit muscular frame
— in a “Sunday Morning” interview several years ago, he said he burns through
5,000 calories a day, including drinking three gallons of whole milk daily and
it’s easy to see why. Since he never announces his program ahead of time, he
talks between selections; many organists do this but few, if any, engage the
audience so completely. At one point in the second half, when he had to restart
a piece after resetting a couple of pistons; he told the audience, “The organ
is saying to me, ‘you want me to do what???”
His first half included three pieces you’d get from many
organists — Bach’s Toccata in F, Brahms Prelude and Fugue in G minor and
Franck’s Chorale No. 1 in E Major — but he played them like no other organist
would: the Bach dazzlingly fast and thunderously loud, the Brahms with the widest
range of registrations possible, and the Franck in a way that brought out lines
and notes that often disappear in organ haze. His concepts weren’t to
everyone’s tastes but the same was often said of Horowitz and Gould.
In between this trio, Carpenter played his own Serenade and Fugue, or as he called it,
his homage to Bach, written (in 7 days) because he didn’t like Liszt’s Prelude and Fugue on the name B-A-C-H.
It was also, ironically, the only piece of the evening for which he used a
score. Liszt also appeared at the end of the first half in two sparkling Carpenter
transcriptions: the Transcendental tude No. 5 in B-flat (Feux follets) and the tude No. 3 (La campanella).
The second half of the program consisted of three more Carpenter
transcriptions, beginning Brahms’ Academic
Festival Overture. This program was billed as part of the Los Angeles
Philharmonic’s “Brahms Unbound” series, which means that if you attended the
Phil’s concert in the afternoon you heard two quite different takes on this
familiar overture. Carpenter’s concept was big and bold but this was just a
warm up for the balance of the program, which began with his rendering of the
Bach/Busoni Chaconne in D minor (which, since Bach originally wrote the piece
for solo violin, meant this was a transcription of a transcription). You had to
listen hard to imagine the original piece, but Carpenter’s take was elegant in
its own way.
The concert concluded with the final movement of Mahler’s
Symphony No. 5 (to quote the late Anna Russell, “I’m not making this up”).
Carpenter explained that he wrote the piece at age 15 only to realize when he finished
that the was work was “unplayable.” He set it aside for 15 years and picked it
up again seven months ago; last night, essentially, was the work’s world
premiere.
A century ago, when orchestras were far less prevalent than
they are today, organists often used to transcribe symphonic works but not, I
suspect, anything like this. If you know Mahler’s 5th, what
Carpenter did with it was amazing; if you don’t, it was long, complex and
bewildering. Like everything else (except for his own Serenade), he played it from memory, a mind-boggling achievement in
itself.
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.
