Cameron Carpenter: Organ Virtuoso

There are those who perfect their craft to the utmost limit of perfection. And then there are those who dare to push those boundaries even further. One of these few is Cameron Carpenter. In his arrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Goldberg Variations," one of the most popular and complex works for keyboard instruments, he deconstructs, intensifies, and transcends the seemingly familiar, flying virtuously between the manuals and dancing lightly on the pedals: "[The work] is the essence of musical perfection," Carpenter says, "and reminds us [...] of our imperfection and mortality." Perfection is also demanded in Leo Sowerby's Pageant, an impressive spectacle in the literal sense of the title, with both feet flying over the pedals in the leading role. Much calmer, yet all the more colorful, is Claude Debussy's Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, before Carpenter concludes the program with an improvisation on themes by Anton Bruckner, paying homage to the namesake of the festival.