YONKERS LOST AND FOUND

posted by James Reel

Distracted by this week’s membership drive, I’m not blogging faithfully, but here’s an easy one: a link to my latest screed in the Tucson Weekly:

Neil Simon's _Lost in Yonkers_ would be a superb play if there were less Neil Simon in it. What could be a serious, moving character study with flashes of wit is compromised by Simon's obsession with wisecracks and one-liners. Simon's theatrical blows again and again are weakened by periodic snickering, and too much of what could have been a forceful play ends up with the impact of a pillow fight. And yet Live Theatre Workshop has mounted a production of it that is assuredly worth seeing; actresses Holli Henderson and Roberta Streicher infuse it with tremendous heart and soul.

The full review awaits you here.

CARPENTER'S GOTHIC

posted by James Reel

These days we're playing a lot of tracks from Cameron Carpenter's newish CD on the air; here's a review of the disc I wrote for Fanfare:

REVOLUTIONARY Cameron Carpenter (org) * TELARC SACE-60711 (hybrid multichannel SACD: 64:33)

CHOPIN Etudes, Op. 10: No. 12, “Revolutionary”; No. 1 BACH Toccata and Fugue in d, BWV 565; Chorale Prelude on “Nun komm, der heiden Heiland,” BWV 659 ELLINGTON Solitude DEMESSIEUX Etudes, Op. 5: Octaves LISZT Mephisto Waltz No. 1 CARPENTER Love Song No. 1; Homage to Klaus Kinski DUPRÉ Prelude and Fugue in B HOROWITZ Variations on a Theme from Bizet’s Carmen

& DVD: CHOPIN Etudes, Op. 10: No. 12, “Revolutionary” BACH Toccata and Fugue in d, BWV 565

Another contributor has turned in a detailed report on organist Cameron Carpenter and a review of the standard two-channel version of this disc in the features section of this issue. So I’ll skip the background info and just get on with it, except to complain that the booklet, despite spreading over several pages, conveys very little solid information. Like, what exactly is Carpenter playing here? In case you haven’t yet read the feature, this is the instrument originally planned as only a temporary replacement for the Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ at New York City’s Trinity Church, which was damaged in the 9/11 attack on the nearby World Trade Center. But the temporary replacement proved so popular that it earned a permanent spot in the church. It’s a “virtual organ” that employs a conventional console but uses digital samples of real pipe organ timbres, and plays them through a computerized system that feeds nearly 100 speakers hidden behind dummy pipes. In addition to the regular (abundant) array of church-organ stops, this one features another 125 theater-organ stops. Depending on what the player wants, sometimes it sounds like a massive if not especially warm cathedral organ, and sometimes it sounds like a dorky Wurlitzer.

Carpenter has cultivated that thin David Bowie glam-rock look, and on the accompanying DVD you can see him applying his high-heeled white shoes to the pedals most spectacularly. But there’s nothing rock-star about Carpenter’s performance demeanor; he makes a few grand gestures with his arms, but not nearly as many as are indulged by some leading classical pianists. He’s a serious, talented musician with a lot of interesting interpretive ideas, some of which don’t work, but all of which add up to an engaging experience.

Just consider his performance of Bach’s notorious BWV 565 Prelude and Fugue. It’s as if Leopold Stokowski (who started out as an organist) had transcribed his orchestra transcription of the work back to the organ. Carpenter and his virtual organ produce a tremendous dynamic range, sometimes from phrase to phrase, and superbly guaged crescendos that would make Stoky proud. Carpenter verges on distortion, but that’s because this is show-off music. Bach (or whoever actually wrote it) intended it to display the player’s imagination, and Carpenter makes the most of it.

Carpenter really goes his own way interpretively in his version of Chopin’s Op. 10 No. 1 étude, giving it a quiet, moonlit character completely unlike the original. It offers maximum contrast to the roiling “Revolutionary” étude, which here is a workout mainly for the organist’s feet and right hand (on the video, you can see him using his left hand mainly to anchor himself to the bench). Carpenter has a vivid imagination as a performer and as a composer (his Homage to Klaus Kinski is appropriately schizophrenic), but he can sound less inspired by straightforward pieces like a Bach chorale. The Liszt item is more impish than Mephistofelean, but it’s still great fun. I don’t think that Carpenter’s treatment of Duke Ellington’s Solitude works, though. The initial treatment wouldn’t be out of place among the slow movements of Vierne and Widor, but within two minutes it becomes a lounge version of Sheep May Safely Graze. Part of it is effective, but some of Carpenter’s chosen effects are just cheesey.

Telarc’s SACD layer provides a very convincing rendering of a big pipe organ with an impressive dynamic and frequency range. The accompanying DVD is a straightforward presentation of Carpenter playing the disc’s two most popular Chopin and Bach items, no music-video cutaways involved.

Carpenter takes lots of chances, and more often than not the results are exciting and musically rewarding. Gird your loins. James Reel