Carmina Burana: Orff, John Berendt, Dorati: Amazon.ca: Music

1. Carmina Burana: Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi: O Fortuna
2. Carmina Burana: Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi: Fortune plango vulnera
3. Carmina Burana: I Primo Vere: Veris leta facies
4. Carmina Burana: I Primo Vere: Omnia Sol temperat
5. Carmina Burana: I Primo Vere: Ece gratum
6. Carmina Burana: Uf dem Anger: Tanz
7. Carmina Burana: Uf dem Anger: Floret silva nobilis
8. Carmina Burana: Uf dem Anger: Chramer, gip die varwe mir
9. Carmina Burana: Uf dem Anger: Reie
10. Carmina Burana: Uf dem Anger: Were dium werlt alle min
11. Carmina Burana: II In Taberna: Estuans interius
12. Carmina Burana: II In Taberna: Olim lacus colueram
13. Carmina Burana: II In Taberna: Ego sum abbas
14. Carmina Burana: II In Taberna: In taberna quando sumus
15. Carmina Burana: III Cours d'amour: Amor volat unidque
16. Carmina Burana: III Cours d'amour: Dies, nox et omnia
17. Carmina Burana: III Cours d'amour: Stetit puella
18. Carmina Burana: III Cours d'amour: Circa mea pectora
19. Carmina Burana: III Cours d'amour: Si puer cum puellula
20. Carmina Burana: III Cours d'amour: Veni, veni, venias
See all 25 tracks on this disc

Product Description

From Amazon.com

Carl Orff's setting of Latin texts (mostly describing debauchery) is a classic and one of the most fun choral works of all time. It's loud and playful, and it's one of Hollywood's favorite pieces of classical music. (You can hear it in such movies as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Glory, and Natural Born Killers.) Antal Dorati and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra get it right on this disc, delivering a polished account with plenty of drama and fine soloists (especially soprano Norma Burrowes). Truth be told, Eugen Jochum still delivers the most riveting performance of this work available to date, but when the music is this good, owning a few different recordings is recommended. As part of the Penguin Classics line of CDs, liner notes by author John Berendt (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) reveal why he loves this work so much; sadly, though, the disc fails to include the choral texts and translations. --Jason Verlinde

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4.7 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?, May 13 2004

By

DAVID BRYSON (Glossop Derbyshire England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Carmina Burana (Audio CD)

This performance is 5-star quality and I have no problems with the sound-quality either, but I'm simply not prepared to give 5 stars to a full-price production of Carmina Burana that does not include the words of the poems. If you just listen to this as music, you would have no way at all of telling what they are singing about. The poem about bemoaning the wounds of fortune is set to loud music and the poem about the happy face of spring to soft music. This music does not 'express' its texts in any way, it only accompanies them, vivid though it undoubtedly is. The whole point of Carmina Burana, whether this was what the composer intended or not, is the words and not primarily the music. It would be more than unfair to compare either to bierkeller ballads or to rugby-club ditties, but the difference is still a question of quality not of type. These are popular verses, above average in originality and general interest but popular nonetheless, and what Orff has done is to provide them with musical settings that are original, striking, and strong and immediate in their impact, but really no more on an equal footing with the poems than the music to The Ball of Kirriemuir (in any of its versions) is on any equal footing with that.

For newcomers, 21 poems and two dance-interludes are enclosed, as if between book-ends, by a fatalistic poem about our general helplessness in the face of fate or fortune. The 13th-century poems are on standard students'-union themes of love and general indulgence, particularly the familiar erotic imagery of love's awakening in springtime. The overall message is an expanded version of Gaudeamus Igitur. The poems are not unduly explicit - I have some very much ruder ones by Dowland and Purcell - and although they were first discovered in a monastery at the start of the 19th century they are strictly pagan in their expression, with none of the religious/erotic sentiment that constitutes another tradition and is found even as late as, say, Handel's cantata Silete Venti. What the 'love-in-the-springtime' numbers recall to me is an earlier Latin poem the Pervigilium Veneris (Love's Vigil), and nearly all the verses here are in Latin with a little early German and some proto-French. The music is aggressively simple with no counterpoint, thematic development or elaborate harmony, but it is a world away from the modern minimalist school of incessant repetition. The orchestration is garish and probably Mahler-influenced, but very few composers after Brahms escaped his long shadow totally and I'm quite sure I hear his Liebeslieder here and there.

One does not go wrong with Dorati, I find. He is dependable without being dull and exciting without being exhibitionist. Soloists and chorus are excellent, and a word should be put in particularly for the fine Southend Boys' Choir whom I have also heard recently in Sinopoli's great account of Mahler VIII. The recorded sound is fine and the RPO are on good form. There is a charming liner-note by John Berendt, all about himself and nothing about the music still less the poems. I still can't forgive the omission of these, because if this work means anything to you other than background-music there is no way of doing without them, and unless your Latin is good enough you need a translation as well. I have the words, my Latin is good enough but I have a translation anyway, and the disc is thoroughly recommendable in its own right.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Great recording, poor liner notes, Mar 24 2003

By

D. A. Hosek (Santa Monica, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Carmina Burana (Audio CD)

The quality of the recording and performance here is superb. My only complaint is that the liner notes are somewhat minimal when it comes to the music itself. Carmina Burana is really a piece where you want to have the text in front of you for maximum enjoyment. But I wouldn't hesitate to buy other recordings in the Penguin Classics series. They always did good with me in books, and their presentation in recordings meets my expecations quite nicely.
(It is however, amusing to not the fake sticker on the front which informs you that this title is recommended by none other than the Penguin Guide to CDs!)

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5.0 out of 5 stars The best Carmina Burana ever..., Mar 13 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Carmina Burana (Audio CD)

If this CD's recording is from the concert in 76 then this is the best Carmina Burana recording ever! I've heard like 5 or 6 other interpretations but none compare to this one. In some pieces of music you can even hear that the silence between one note and another, as well as how much a note is stressed varies considerably from other interpretations. This is obviously due to Antal Dorati's conduction, giving this recording a special feeling that other recordings lack. If you really like Carmina Burana, this is the CD to buy... Trust me.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Sweet, dude.
I got turned on to this music at a hockey game, I've been describing it as the "go king king go" song (cause that's what it sounded like when I first heard it in... Read more

Published on Jun 30 2000 by Robert A. Hans

5.0 out of 5 stars Dramatic Dorati
For a performance so outstanding, it's odd that this isn't better-known, for musical and sonic reasons. Read more

Published on Mar 3 2000 by Mark McCue