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Orff: Carmina Burana | 
| Creators: Carl Orff, André Previn, St Clement Danes School Choir, London Symphony Chorus, Sheila Armstrong, Gerald English, Thomas Allen
Label: Great Recordings of the Century
Category: Music
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £5.88
You Save: £3.11 (35%)
New (18) Used (3) from £3.99
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 1599
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.4
UPC: 724356689923
EAN: 0724356689923
ASIN: B000024395
Release Date: October 5, 1998
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi | | • | I. Primo Vere | | • | Uf Dem Anger | | • | II. In Taberna | | • | III. Cours D'Amour | | • | Blanziflor Et Helena | | • | Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi |
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| Customer Reviews:
The Best Ever Recording of a curious work October 8, 2002
117 out of 122 found this review helpful
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.
Carmina Burana - gripping stuff June 29, 2002
35 out of 39 found this review helpful
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.
Fantastic orchestra, choir, and conductor January 21, 2002
27 out of 30 found this review helpful
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
This cd is EXCELLENT1 February 27, 2001
19 out of 32 found this review helpful
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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