Royal Festival Hall, 29 March 2014

No problem with the size of the audience at the Royal Festival Hall when, as one of the final events of All the Stops Cameron Carpenter improvised for the 1920 classic horror film The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. The film will projected onto a large screen in front of the organ which allowed us only brief glimpses of the organist’s diamanté heels. However, there were two smaller screens either side of the main one which brought us direct coverage of the console from almost every angle. If this was a little disconcerting at times it proved effective in enabling us to follow the speed of his stop changes and the way he was thinking as he went.

Cameron Carpenter’s approach to improvisation is essentially a romantic one. Though he does not develop memorable melodic lines, his use of tone and colour is emotionally supportive to the narrative and he uses a very wide range of expression. The awakening of Cesare and the murder of Allen were alarmingly effective and intense. At the same time he managed to bring a subtle humour to Caligari, making the doctor almost jovial in his relationship with the students.

The climax was superbly handled. As it became increasingly clear that the hero was himself insane and the world around him focussed and supportive, Cameron Carpenter introduced a Bach inspired development, as if the chaos of the earlier scenes was giving way to the strict but loving counter-point of the Germanic character. It was masterly and deserved the ovation it received.