ConcertPulse
Cameron Carpenter plays Bach and Mussorgsky
Konzerthalle Bamberg, Joseph-Keilberth-Saal (Bamberg)
This concert promises emotional states of matter along with several »souls«: because in the technical sector, the term »soul« means the precious core of cables – and there are several of them in the Jann organ's keyboard. Our guest is Cameron Carpenter, a musical magician who will literally pull out all the stops to make the 5,800 pipes of our instrument sound. The American keyboard virtuoso looks at an organ as a kind of tool that expands his body and mind – and he brings with him exciting arrangements of musical masterpieces that explore the depths in his own unique way: He takes an imaginative walk through Mussorgsky‘s »Pictures at an Exhibition«, evoking grandiose images in his mind‘s eye – of a limping gnome, the demonic witch Baba-Yaga, a rumbling oxcart, chatty market women, frantically hopping chicks in eggshells or a grand parade through a hero‘s gate underscored by ringing bells. This visit to the museum set to music is framed by two compositions from Johann Sebastian Bach, about whose music one of his sons said it should »set the heart in motion«. Like a moving journey of the soul, the »minory« Fantasia and Fugue appears: with expressive sighing motifs, the piece soars, gathers energy again and bursts forth in a virtuoso finale. The concert ends with the equally breathtaking »Goldberg Variations«: The slow introductory movement is followed here by a highly complex and impressive sound structure – a stellar masterpiece that definitely fulfils the intention Bach had in mind when he noted as a subtitle that it was »made for admirers for the idolisation of the mind«.