Name: Summit points
Start: 2026-06-27T16:00:00
Location: CityPalais

Cameron Carpenter

Duisburger Philharmoniker

Cameron Carpenter is both a pop star and a bird of paradise. For years, the dazzling organist has thrilled audiences around the world with the traveling organ he specially designed. But during the coronavirus pandemic, it was irreparably damaged. Over ten years ago, the keyboard virtuoso made his "Toccata" debut in Duisburg, and now, after a long absence, he returns to the magnificent Eule organ in the Philharmonie Mercatorhalle. Yet he remains true to his penchant for the unusual, playing the Goldberg Variations, a work written by Johann Sebastian Bach for a two-manual "clavicimbel"—or harpsichord for short. To this day, this enigmatic cycle remains one of the pinnacles of piano literature: 30 variations, some of which pose horrendous technical challenges and offer tremendous expressive depth, based on an "aria" of timeless beauty. Before Bach's masterpiece, as a kind of prelude, Cameron Carpenter plays one of the three chorales composed by César Franck shortly before his death in 1890, which are considered the pinnacle of his organ output. Originally written for the magnificent organ in the Parisian church of Sainte-Clotilde, where Franck served not only as Kapellmeister but also as organist.