{"id":52194,"date":"2018-04-11T19:11:46","date_gmt":"2018-04-11T23:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=52194"},"modified":"2018-04-11T19:13:36","modified_gmt":"2018-04-11T23:13:36","slug":"interview-cameron-carpenters-radical-proposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2018\/04\/11\/interview-cameron-carpenters-radical-proposition\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Cameron Carpenter’s Radical Proposition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cameron
Cameron Carpenter (Photo: Gavin Evans \/ Sony Music Entertainment)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

C<\/span>ameron Carpenter is used to doing things outside the traditional norms of the classical music world. There\u2019s no program announced, for example, for most of the current tour that sees him swing through Southern Ontario in April 2018. \u201cI\u2019ve never found that announcing programs has any cultural value,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

As to repertoire, he says he will be playing Bach, Bernstein, Schumann, with some improvisation, and other possibilities. There are reasons why the list isn\u2019t entirely set. \u201cThe timing of this tour catches me in transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says a few of the selections will likely come from All You Need Is Bach<\/em><\/a>, his last recording. Released in 2016 on the Sony Music label, it was his second using the ITO or International Touring Organ. \u201cThat album itself was a gather up what\u2019s on the factory floor and put it out there effort.\u201d An embarrassing wealth of recorded material that wound up in a release.<\/p>\n

Some stops on the tour have seen him performing with a symphony orchestra, while others, like his Toronto area appearances, will be solo on the ITO. He\u2019s playing in colleges and concert halls, and the repertoire is adaptable to the venue. \u201cSome audiences are able to plumb the intricacies of the Passacaglia<\/em>,\u201d he explains. Some, perhaps not as much. He does mention that, whenever he\u2019s toured Canada, he\u2019s been impressed by the \u201cacute listeners\u201d in the audience.<\/p>\n

Hailed by many as breathing new life into an instrument that has inherently been associated with tradition and religious orthodoxy, Carpenter has also seen his share of critics. It\u2019s not his virtuosity that anyone can quibble with; it\u2019s a style of dress and playing that has been called flamboyant \u2014 in a world that Cameron himself dubs \u201cnotoriously conservative\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ITO itself has drawn controversy. Most classical musicians devote themselves to an instrument. In the case of Cameron Carpenter, it\u2019s not an instrument \u2014 it\u2019s the<\/em> instrument, the International Touring Organ that is integral to his music and career. In a digital organ, the sounds are sampled and reproduced rather than produced inside the pipes. That\u2019s what has purists in opposition. Cameron is passionate about digital innovation and what it offers to the world of music, as well as the individual organist. \u201cTo the player, there is a much broader range of possibilities,\u201d he says. As with pipe organs, each digital organ is unique. \u201cThe fact that it is digital is the least significant aspect.\u201d<\/p>\n

A composite machine that consisted of several different parts controlled initially by mechanical means (the keyboard, in other words,) Cameron points out that, up until, say, the invention of the telephone in 1877, the traditional pipe organ was surely among the most complex of all human inventions. It traces its history back to the hydraulis or water organs of 3rd century BC. Perhaps it\u2019s not so unreasonable for its practitioners and enthusiasts to favour its history over a digital version that is still seen as a new upstart.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very radical in some ways,\u201d he acknowledges. \u201cIt\u2019s a newcomer. Credulity is natural.\u201d But, he\u2019s enamoured of the potential. \u201cIt lets us redefine what the organ is.\u201d He points out that there are fewer than 15 such concert worthy digital organs worldwide. \u201cFrom the outside, it\u2019s a radical proposition. How it makes sound is irrelevant.\u201d<\/p>\n