The outstanding young organ virtuoso Cameron Carpenter burst on to the scene last year with an astonishing recording entitled “Revolutionary” (CD80711). Reviewers were fulsome in their praise of his gifts as a performer. In an interview, feature, and review in the Gramophone Jeremy Nicholas stated that his “rhythmic buoyancy, clarity of voicing, and sheer élan are quite masterly” in his interpretation of pieces by Dupré, and Demessieux. There was also an interview/feature in Classic FM magazine and cover feature in “Muso”. He was recently picked as one of the “New Stars of 2010” in Classic FM Magazine.
Unlike his first recording “Revolutionary” which was made on a virtual pipe organ, Cameron Carpenter’s second album for Telarc has been made on a large-scale acoustic instrument, the massive Aeolian-Skinner organ at New York’s Church of Saint Mary the Virgin. This CD/DVD two-disc album includes three preludes and fugues from J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier and five preludes and fugues from the major organ works of Bach. The DVD features performances on a Wurlitzer pipe organ built in the early 20th Century. It includes arrangements of Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, two pieces by George Gershwin, “The Alcotts”, from Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata, Astor Piazzola’s Libertango, Mozkowski’s Sparks (“Etincelles”), Schubert’s Erlkönig, Rachmaninov’s arrangement of Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in E Major, and Carpenter’s own celebrated arrangement of Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever.
