(no subject)
I returned around lunchtime on Saturday, took my case to the left luggage at Paddington (where I had to answer an absurd number of security questions and couldn't help laughing when asked if I was carrying firearms or explosives) and headed off to the Royal Albert Hall for the afternoon's Organ Prom. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect of Cameron Carpenter, and the programme notes did leave me a little concerned: "I am not the next Liberace, I am the first Cameron Carpenter". Hmm. Well, as it turned out, perhaps it was at least as much Nigel Kennedy as Liberace, but nevertheless he's an accomplished musician.
The Saturday recital was a Bach-inspired program, with some originals (BWV540, BWV536) and other arrangements, improvisations (on B-A-C-H, of course) and transcriptions (BWV1006, BWV734), finishing with the accumulated wisdom of Bach, Wood, Busoni and Carpenter in a rendition of BWV565.
There was a second recital on Sunday afternoon. Again this was largely Bach-oriented (BWV542, BWV1007, BWV1009) and concluding with a "Syncretic" Prelude and Fugue composed of the Chaconne BWV1004, and a transcription of the final movement of Mahler's Fifth Symphony. These two in particular seemed strange bedfellows, but somehow it all worked.
The Saturday recital was a Bach-inspired program, with some originals (BWV540, BWV536) and other arrangements, improvisations (on B-A-C-H, of course) and transcriptions (BWV1006, BWV734), finishing with the accumulated wisdom of Bach, Wood, Busoni and Carpenter in a rendition of BWV565.
There was a second recital on Sunday afternoon. Again this was largely Bach-oriented (BWV542, BWV1007, BWV1009) and concluding with a "Syncretic" Prelude and Fugue composed of the Chaconne BWV1004, and a transcription of the final movement of Mahler's Fifth Symphony. These two in particular seemed strange bedfellows, but somehow it all worked.