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Date: | Fri, 6 Apr 2018 22:33:01 -0500 |
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Just got back from a concert at the historic Missouri Theatre here in
Columbia. Cameron was part of the University of Missouri concert series. He
had has international touring organ (M&O) and lots of amplifiers and
speakers on the stage.
His speed and technique were amazing, as always. He played multiple manuals
at once by "thumbing down" but he did that with different fingers. The
pedals had a split function where he would play a melody line with the
right foot and a different accompaniment-type stop with his left. He used
the expression foot pedals constantly, and sometimes his left foot would be
play up pretty high, crossing under his right foot.
With 5 manuals and an extended pedalboard (5 extra notes top and bottom) he
was able to bring out many lines in the music that otherwise tend to get
buried. He used both his hands and feet on the pistons and stoptabs for
rapid, continual registration changes. I think he had a sequencer as his
right foot often hit the same toe stud but I can't imagine how he kept them
all straight.
He played from memory and titles weren't listed in the program so I wrote
them down as he went:
In Dulci Jubilo - Bach
Final, Symphony 1 - Vierne
Prelude and Fugue in D - Bach
Canon in A-flat - Schumann
Rhosymedre - Vaughan Williams
Overture to Die Meistersinger - Wagner
Intermission
Overture to Candide - Bernstein
Fantasia and Fugue in G minor - Bach
Red River Valley - his arrangement or improvisation
Litanies - Alain - played by a younger organist, Jacob Hamilton
Improvisation - about 7 minutes of a variety of music in different styles,
mostly theater-organ type registrations and chords
Encore - Stars and Stripes Forever - Sousa
His Bach pieces had pretty wild registrations and extra flourishes like
trills, glissandos, double octaves in pedals, etc. so you have to suspend
traditional notions of historica practice in order to appreciate it. The
Vierne was very fast and got muddy in places but had a rousing finish.
Rhosymedre was probably the most "straight" piece in the set - he played
the notes as written and used registration changes, rubato, and lots of
expression to put his own touch on it. The Wagner was his own transcription
and was an amazing tour de force - hard to describe how much work he put
into it - many more notes and sounds and registrations than other famous
organists who play this piece. And the encore piece featured the melodies
in the pedal such as the piccolo part and even the following part where he
managed to play 5 or 6 pedal notes at a time.
In between most pieces he spoke about the music and a little about
philosophy and esoteric topics. He didn't "bash" pipe organs or churches
and was actually a lot more humble and gracious than we sometimes saw in
his early days.
I happened to run into him on the sidewalk after the concert so I shook his
hand and we chatted for a minute. He's really pleasant, so I would
encourage anyone who hasn't seen him in person to consider attending a
concert.
http://www.cameroncarpenter.com/calendar/
Craig Datz
Columbia, MO
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