Ecstatic from head to toe

A madman? one might think, shaking his head after listening to the 11 showpieces. He is at least one possessed of his instrument. "The organ played so beautifully," it said in my childhood after church. Cameron Carpenter makes sure that you clean up with this abstract idea and presented with the sound ecstasies a virtuoso joins as a violinist at a Caprice by Paganini.

An iridescent type he is. The enclosed DVD we see a lanky young man, rhinestones flashing like a figure skater and captured by the aureole of the headlights. The booklet is stated that Bach's Toccata and Fugue warhorse D minor has become known primarily by Leopold Stokowski colossal orchestration (???). So a typical program for the American market, a little Cliburn, a bit Liberace. The latter but not to his arrangements, which are also the conservative European tastes wrest a compliment with respect. As soon as you recovered from a blast including the idiomatic voice Mephisto Waltz, Carpenter flatters our ears with subtly sparkling Chopin's C major Etude. His manuals technique is astounding, his pedal Art ludicrous. Upper voices that bring many pianists with difficulty in his right hand about, he puts on the pedal. A swirl of toe and heel as Fred Astaire in his prime.

The recordings made of the 27-year-old in 2008 at New York's Trinity Church-and not the mixer, as one might expect on the basis of confusing spatial experiences in the multi-channel process. The effects are always good for a surprise, but not an end in itself. Dupré's Prelude and Fugue in B major, for example, convince net. Interestingly, the two original compositions that suggest his creative universe. I have the magic of Cameron Carpenters can not escape a good hour playfulness.