Product description

Orff: Carmina Burana

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Average customer rating: 5.0

Binding : Audio CD
EAN : 7243566899234
Label : Great Recordings of the Century
Manufacturer : Great Recordings of the Century
Publisher : Great Recordings of the Century
Release date : 1998-10-05
Title : Orff: Carmina Burana
Original release date : 1998-11
Studio : Great Recordings of the Century
Number of discs : 1

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2002-10-08 rating:

The Best Ever Recording of a curious work
Okay, first, for the uninitiated, what is Carmina Burana? It is that piece of music which they play if someone (prizefighters love it) needs a particualrly ostentatious entrance. Those in the UK who remember the Old Spice ads of the 70's and 80's featuring a surfer - that's Carmina Burana; specifically the first and last track "O Fortuna", "Fortune, you are like the moon; waxing and waning, bringing one man good forune and the next man ill luck" being an approximate translation. It is one of those pieces everybody has heard if they watch television or films at all (Oh yes, John Boorman's Excalibur uses a version). So, subtle it ain't? Wrong! - it has some of the most beaufiful, subtle, sophisticated, and charming pieces of music in it. Dulchissimo was never a more appropriately named piece of music (Italian lit. most beautiful) and the Soprano handles it well. Thomas Allen does an excellent job: this is one of the performances that gave him his present fame. Andrew Preview, sorry, André Previn (Morcambe and Wise have a lot to answer for) is superb in his musical direction. The Roasting Swan (for the initiated) is almost too well performed and is a touch over-melodic for my taste, but any tenor seems to think it is his job to sing the part well. They miss Orff's point - the swan is on an open fire and should sound as if being roasted. For those wishing to become initiates then this is the recording to get, providing the sleeve notes are as good as they were uopn its original release which I had stolen. They explain the reasons for why it is part German part French and part Latin and provide all the translations (except for the odd word like Afna, for example). There is mystery, intrigue, and the occult associated with this piece of music. Religious fundamentalists and those offended by paganism avoid this. The setting is in part a drunken pagan feast and orgy. Who said classical music was boring - "felix conjunctio" being a particualry amusing euphemism for sex, which the translation sanitises, sadly. This is a bizarre piece of music with roasting swans singing, Abbots warning ironically against drinking in the middle of a feast (sum abbas) followed in quick order by a drinking song (in taverna), then a romance. The overall theme is the Dharma Chakra, or wheel of life. How Orff has crow-barred this Eastern mysticism into a pseudo-Christian setting, is beyond me. It shouldn't work. It is the most ridiculous pompous idea, founded on a myseriously discovered religious manuscript, so the story goes. However, the joy, energy, and exuberance evident throughout the piece (and clearly enjoyed by every memebr of every chorus and the orchestra right down to the triangle player!) carry it off. I have heard versions of this piece played too fast, too slowly or without paying sufficient attention to the meaning of the lyric. This is the definative recording, just check out a few text books on the subject, and has been for something like twenty years. There is very little wrong with this recording and most of it scores 100% in my book. Buy this work if - a) you are looking for a route into classical music, b) have heard the piece, half enjoyed it, but have never heard this recording, c) because it is a piece of recording history; almost a legend or d) because it is very good indeed.

review by: date: 2002-06-29 rating:

Carmina Burana - gripping stuff
Carmina Burana is arguably one of the best pieces of music written for choir. Its many pieces cover a huge variety of styles and textures, and the rousing theme, "O Fortuna" has to be one of the most gripping and well-known themes around, used commonly to accompany scenes of horror and terror in TV and film. It is an outstanding piece from a composer who is perhaps less well-known than he should be. The piece is sung in Latin, with occasional German passages, which is probably just as well, as an English version would merit an "18" certificate! (I have it under good authority that the lyrics are very crude indeed) The piece can be dark and harrowing, yet in other sections cheerful and frivolous, and I believe it would be hard to find such an amazing variety of music on one CD. Brilliant.

review by: date: 2002-01-21 rating:

Fantastic orchestra, choir, and conductor
This is one of those rare 'blow your socks off' pieces - and you either love it, or hate it. I love it!
This has one of the finest conductors, very skillfully guiding a superb choir and orchestra through all of the demanding requirements from this work. Excellent results all round, and my congratulations to all concerned.
Peter Keats

review by: date: 2001-02-27 rating:

This cd is EXCELLENT1
I first heard this fabulous music when i was a child then in the 1982 movie EXCALIBUR again only i was only 5yrs but it has always stuck with me. In honesty i listen to the Carmina Burana for hours. This is the best one yet due to the brilliant's of the LONDON SYMPONY ORCHESTRA. I would definately recomend this one for us classical lover's as well as none classical lover's THUMBS UP!

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