Customer Reviews
The Best Ever Recording of a curious work - By: Ophiicus, 08 Oct 2002 
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 & 80's featuring a surfer - that's Carmina Burana; specificallly the first & last track "O Fortuna", "Fortune, you are like the moon; waxing & waning, bringing one man good forune & 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 alll (Oh yes, John Boorman's Excalibur uses a version). So, subtle it ain't? Wrong! - it has some of the most beaufiful, subtle, sophisticated, & charming pieces of music in it. Dulchissimo was never a more appropriately named piece of music (Italian lit. most beautiful) & 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 & Wise have a lot to answer for) is superb in his musical direction. The Roasting Swan (for the initiated) is almost too well performed & 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 & 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 & part Latin & provide alll the translations (except for the odd word like Afna, for example). There is mystery, intrigue, & the occult associated with this piece of music. Religious fundamentalists & those offended by paganism avoid this. The setting is in part a drunken pagan feast & 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 ironicallly against drinking in the middle of a feast (sum abbas) followed in quick order by a drinking song (in taverna), then a romance. The overalll 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, & exuberance evident throughout the piece (and clearly enjoyed by every memebr of every chorus & 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, & has been for something like twenty years. There is very little wrong with this recording & 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 - By: js763, 29 Jun 2002 Carmina Burana is arguably one of the best pieces of music written for choir. Its many pieces cover a huge variety of styles & textures, & the rousing theme, "O Fortuna" has to be one of the most gripping & well-known themes around, used commonly to accompany scenes of horror & terror in TV & 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 & harrowing, yet in other sections cheerful & frivolous, & I believe it would be hard to find such an amazing variety of music on one CD. Brilliant.
Fantastic orchestra, choir, and conductor - By: peterejkeats@aol.com, 21 Jan 2002 This is one of those rare 'blow your socks off' pieces - & you either love it, or hate it. I love it!
This has one of the finest conductors, very skillfully guiding a superb choir & orchestra through alll of the demanding requirements from this work. Excellent results alll round, & my congratulations to alll concerned.
Peter Keats
This cd is EXCELLENT1 - By: karen-metcalfe@lineone.net, 27 Feb 2001 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!
