Cameron Carpenter RACHMANINOFF Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini POULENC Organ Concerto

Sony Classical announces the release of the new album by exceptional American organist Cameron Carpenter, with both his first orchestral recording and his first live-concert recording. This release features an original version of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, recorded live at Berlin’s Konzerthaus, paired together with Poulenc’s popular Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani. This world-premiere version of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody demonstrates Carpenter’s extensive musical skills: he arranged the original piano part for organ himself. The album programme is completed with Vierne’s Organ Symphony No. 1, recorded live as the concert encore. Carpenter is joined by the Konzerthausorchester Berlin under renowned conductor Christoph Eschenbach, and all works were performed on his innovative International Touring Organ.

The album represents the culmination of Carpenter’s 2018 season as Artist-in-Residence at the Konzerthaus Berlin and is also a testament to his enduring friendship with Maestro Eschenbach, whom he first encountered whilst a student at the Juilliard School.

Carpenter explains the stimulus behind arranging Rachmaninoff’s piece: “I love and want to play this work. The question is then ‘How do I get my hands on this music, by any means necessary?’ As with many, even most, non-organ works, this requires the creation of a detailed transcription founded on study of the original.” The orchestral part remains unchanged, and what Carpenter performs here is “a recomposition for organ – guided by the original – of the piano part … it is a way of honouring a great work.” 

Cameron Carpenter ALL YOU NEED IS BACH

Sony Classical is pleased to announce the release of Cameron Carpenter's new album All You Need is Bach available June 3, 2016. Bach's great keyboard masterpieces provide an ideal platform for Carpenter's formidable creative gift and the seemingly limitless possibilities of his dream instrument – his signature International Touring Organ (ITO). 

Bach's complete organ music has been central to Carpenter's immense and multi-faceted repertoire. For his first all-Bach release, Carpenter has created a stimulating and wide-ranging program that reveals the scope of Bach's genius. Works included on the album are Contrapunctus IX from The Art of Fugue, Organ Sonatas in D minor and E-flat major, Prelude and Fugue in B minor, French Suite No. 1, Invention No. 8, the Chorale Prelude to "O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß" and, as a centerpiece, the great Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor. The album title All You Need Is Bach not only refers to the immense popularity of Bach, but also to The Beatles' classic 1967 recording All You Need Is Love, where Bach's Invention No. 8 in F major rises out of the coda's collage-like texture.

In creating the ITO, the organ building team of Marshall & Ogletree apply sophisticated computer technology to digitally reproduce the sounds of many diverse American pipe organs without any of their mechanisms. Carpenter can access these sounds with unprecedented immediacy and flexibility. The ITO also draws upon the scientific findings relating in the field of historically informed performance practice. For example, Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue uses the Werckmeister III in a transposition centering the Werckmeister "sweet key" on C and the Trio Sonatas are presented in Kirnberger and Kellner temperaments in D and D#. While O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß and the Prelude and Fugue in B minor both feature equal temperament.

Most importantly, Carpenter's virtuosity, the musical potential of the International Touring Organ, and their meeting through the lens of the unique relationship between an instrument and its designer, allow him to delve unusually deep into Bach's emotional world.

The album was recorded in Berlin's historic Jesus-Christus-Kirche, one of the world's most prestigious recording venues, often used by Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic for their recordings during the 1950s until the 1980s. The ITO comes alive with the venue's renowned acoustics that offer a focused clarity at all dynamic levels - a harmonious bridging of an illustrious past and a promising future. (PR Neswire)