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Revolutionary [Includes Bonus DVD] | ![Revolutionary [Includes Bonus DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31ERl-RlTDL._SL500_.jpg)
| Creators: Johann Sebastian Bach, Cameron Carpenter, Frederic Chopin, Jeanne Demessieux, Marcel Dupre, Edward "duke" Ellington, Vladimir Horowitz, Franz Liszt
Label: Telarc
Category: Music
List Price: $17.98
Buy New: $10.06
You Save: $7.92 (44%)
New (30) Used (7) from $8.95
Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 1869
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 80711
UPC: 089408071126
EAN: 0089408071126
ASIN: B001DDBCWI
Release Date: September 23, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Chopin: Čtude, 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 Čtudes, 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: Čtude 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 | | • | Carpenter: Homage to Klaus Kinski WORLD PREMIERE |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 Technique, 5 stars----Integrity, 1 star September 27, 2008
Jeffery L. Nall (St. Louis, MO)
27 out of 37 found this review helpful
Cameron Carpenter (formerly Taylor Carpenter) possesses what is arguably the most advanced organ technique on the planet, and quite possibly the most advanced ever. His ability to play three manuals simultaneously, his amazingly nimble pedal technique, his complete command of the instrument's every resource, are nothing less than awe-inspiring.
Mr. Cameron has plainly stated that his goal is to make himself a star. He believes organ performances should be all about the performer, not the instrument, and that historically-informed performances should never stand in the way of putting on a spectacular show. Therefore, his approach to the organ's repertoire is understandably controversial. He plays Bach in a way that Bach would never have played. He uses tempos, registrations and dynamics in direct contradiction to what the composers indicated in their scores. For those who don't know better, it makes for the sonic equivalent to a trip to Disney World, worthy of fireworks and laser shows; for those who do know better, it makes for a gaudy, narcissistic display of arrogant disregard.
Since I have a degree in organ performance, I can't help but "know better." I would much rather watch Mr. Carpenter improvise than butcher the greatest pieces ever written for the organ. He certainly proves himself a phenomenal performer, but the great disservice he inflicts upon those time-honored composers is hard to ignore. Mr. Cameron is an expert at improvisation, he could put on an equally spectacular show simply improvising on given themes or popular tunes. Why choose pieces from the organ repertoire and perform them in such a way? Why not play a stack of synthesizers instead of the organ? The simple answer: to get the attention of people who know better. Yes, his goal is to make himself a star, and there is no such thing as bad publicity.
There is, however, such a thing as a "flash in the pan," and I suspect Mr. Cameron might be just that. The clothes, the makeup, the attitude, the quotes from interviews...this is a "look at me" personality in full bloom, and just like a group of junior-high kids at the mall, it can become annoying very quickly. Perhaps Mr. Cameron will grow out of it before his audience grows out of him.
The accompanying DVD made me laugh. It looks like it was filmed on the set of American Idol and edited by the people who edit daytime soap operas. It's a shame every track on the CD wasn't filmed the way Mr. Carpenter's concerts at Trinity Wall Street were filmed. In fact, this CD should have been a DVD. If Mr. Carpenter is to become a star, it will be because of his stunning technique and unusual attire, not his sensitive and scholarly musical insight. Mr. Carpenter can't become famous if we can't see him, no more than an actor can become famous by only doing voice-overs.
 Entertainment Value Only October 2, 2008
Organist (Dayton, Ohio USA)
22 out of 30 found this review helpful
Cameron Carpenter is a very talented musician with brilliant technique and a wonderful creativity. The problem is that performances (or recordings, in this case) of this nature are not about the music or the medium; rather, they are solely about the performer - musical narcissism at an illogical extreme. Need evidence? Just look at the cover. Or consider that Mr. Carpenter plays the left-hand bravura of Chopin's Revolutionary Etude in the Pedal, an unnecessary display of virtuosity affording the performance little (or no) musical advantage or gain. (The display is precisely the reason it's on the DVD.)
Am I a purist? Maybe. Do I want intelligent performances where the artist asks "Does this make sense?" You bet. I also want to hear a real organ - ie. with pipes, not this computer. Would you pay to see or hear Horowitz or Richter play a Clavinova? If this makes me a purist, then sure.
Be wowed by the spectacle and entertained by the quirky imagination. But don't expect profundity or insight
As a final note, it would be appreciated if those who leave comments refrain from name-calling insults leveled at others who hold opposing views. It is unnecessary and impolite as well as only enervates your arguments.
A Good Stunt, No More September 27, 2008
Gregory Loselle (Southgate, MI United States)
19 out of 33 found this review helpful
Reviews of this disc are made in one of two general directions: favorable reviewers confess to little or no broad knowledge of serious music--and almost always fatuously refer to the performer by his first name (a stage name, incidentally), as if they're somehow personally attached--while others, who seem to know the field, universlly fault the performer and his work here as glib, flashy and really about himself at the expense of the music.
So, it's either a personal rave (positive--with personal attacks on others thrown in for good measure to protect 'their' star) or an educated musical opinion (mostly negative). The fans love their "Cameron," and praise their personal experiences as proof that he's 'revolutionary,' while the musicians here point out an extraordinary talent used to glamorize a performer at the expense of the music.
For myself, I find this recording so effortfully wrongheaded that it's painful to see a marked talent wasted on a disc that's less music than self-advertisement--and an accompanying DVD that makes the performer look more like a current answer to Liberace than the serious artist he could be.
One listen to the cover here of Duke Ellington's "Solitude"--which includes an improvisation on Bach's "Sheep May Safely Graze"--will prove my point: the Bach is there all right, after a fashion (it's twisted and contorted to make room for other, more candy-colored things the organist seems to like better), but the texture and sound veers between Farfisa and skating rink organ. Pop riffs and oom-pah cliches deck out Bach's theme without any hint of irony. Heck, there are even SOUND EFFECTS at work, here!
And this really isn't an organ we're hearing: it's a synthesizer, cranked up with sampled sound. The whole disc is a catalogue of tasteless "Hey-watch-me-do-THIS!' stunt playing. No insight, no musicality, for all his technical skills--just a bag of flashy gimmicks witlessly employed over and over. Consider the quote here in the product description ("If I had to play the organ like they teach you to play it, like they want you to play it in the conservatory and the church, I'd go mad. I'd take up the electric guitar. Or law," opined Cameron Carpenter last March during a break in recording sessions for Revolutionary. "The organ is the darkest remnant of classical music's archest tradition... you don't see organists creating, really questioning boundaries like you see in dance, hip-hop, film."): that about says it all--"I'm better because I love the way I play." His crack about organists--many of whom are deeply creative--is as shallow as the reference to hip-hop. Maybe those poor organ teachers know a thing or two, Mr. Carpenter.
This is an album for those who like their serious music as unchallenging as their pop--backed with the kind of marketing in the place of excellence that allowed PBS to sell Andrea Bocelli as a serious singer, a few years back--a hip-looking young kid who promises (so the graphics and a first listen would seem to suggest) to shake things up. And you WILL be shaken, all right--the sudden shifts in volume alone will disturb you--but will you be entertained? Only if paid to see a stunt, not a performance.
So if you're dead set on buying this--for the cover art, I suppose (which ridiculously suggests that the player is angel! Squint to see the wings--I'm serious!)--pop it in the car stereo, drop the windows, crank it up and cruise away. Just don't pass a concert hall where serious players are at work. They might hear you.
 Revolutionary Indeed! October 1, 2008
Larry Nevel
13 out of 19 found this review helpful
The reviews are mixed as I expected. There is so much to consider with the CD/DVD. The purists will hate it. The novice will be blown away.
I have been learning as much as I can about Cameron from the web. As a former/retired teacher I see Cameron as a true genius- not for his technical ability, but the way he is put together mentally. He is so far beyond what the average person can grasp or comprehend, that he is completely misunderstood.
Can he play tradition organ music in a tradition fashion- musically? Of course he can. So can many fine talented organists. Will those performances reach the common public? Perhaps not. Will his performances reach the common public? Probably. And in this day when youth demands over-stimulation to catch their attention, this will do it. Contrary to what the purists say, he IS very musical. The performances are just so different in their renderings, that the purists don't see/hear it- or can't accept it. Probably the latter.
Cameron is another Virgil Fox or Jean Gilliou. Both were/are misunderstood, both were/are controversial, both were/are very musical and talented. Different does NOT mean BAD!!! Different is JUST different.
If you can grasp what Cameron is trying to say on his recent Pipedreams {www.pipedreams.org} program #0837, he tells what he is trying to do. He has the purpose to reach a new generation and let them know that the organ is still the greatest instrument of all time and not just something found in a church for Sunday worship services.
I hope to see more of Cameron Carpenter, not just hear more. Visually, he is captivating in his technical ability. I hope he will do more improvisations done on the spot and not written previously for performance. He is so good at them.
Keep an open mind. Know that you are watching/hearing a genius. We have so few among us today.
Good Luck, Cameron!
 Revolutionary? Not really. October 1, 2008
Teddy (Billings, Montana)
12 out of 18 found this review helpful
A few days after this CD was released there were around four 1 star reviews. Now they're gone. I wonder why the honest criticism was removed?
In my opinion the only thing amazing about this CD is how the "artist" can have such a profound technical ability and have so little musical taste. It is very easy to be taken in by the shear technical brilliance of this musician, and it's easy to understand why such a gifted musician would easily become board with playing music as it was intended to be performed. Often child prodigies become very frustrated because they think playing notes is all there is when in reality there is so much more. However, the result of Mr. Carpenters boredom of his view of the status quo does not make for good listening if one is at all familiar the music contained in this CD. Imagine a cranky child banging on a keyboard because he's frustrated with his piano lesson... now imagine that same child performing feats of technical brilliance because of the same frustration, and that is what the listener may expect to here in this CD.
Lots of brilliant technique, but very poor understanding of the music. Take away the technique, and all that's left is banging on a keyboard. Sadly, great technique does not an artist make.
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