Customer Reviews

Orff: Carmina Burana (Chamber Version)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This record is the premier recording of the chamber version. The sound is of course a bit rough compared with the full orchestra version but Cecilia Rydinger have made a genuine work with excellent soloists (The toasted swan aria is maybe the best recorded ever) and the clear choral sound so typical for the swedish choirs. No doubt this young conductress is a scholar of Eric Ericson.

The pianists (Derwinger and Poentinen) and the Kroumata Percussion Ensamble do their task with accurate precision even in the most subtle parts. The sound, the choir and the soloists makes this record unindespensable in any Carmina Burana lovers collection.

The chamber version of the well-known, often performed 'Carmina Burana' is in many ways even more exciting and visceral than the big, full orchestral version. Carl Orff's orchestration for the more popular version is primarily a percussive nature and so it seems only fitting that the accompaniment for this choral masterpiece be truly percussive. The Chamber Version is scored for two pianos and full percussion ensemble: the vocal portions are exactly the same.

Cecilia Rydinger Alin conducts this tightly woven, exhilarating performance with the Allmanna Sangen (chorus), the Children's Choir from the Uppsala Choir School, the Kroumata Percussion Ensemble, pianists Roland Pontinen and Love Derwinger, and three exceptional soloists - soprano Lena Nordin, baritone Peter Mattei, and tenor Hans Dornbusch. The entire ensemble is first class and Alin obviously knows this work well as she manages to find every intricate rhythm and special effect that abound in the score.

Even if you have several recordings of the BIG 'Carmina Burana', you can't fully appreciate the work until you've heard the Chamber Version. It is exciting, exceedingly well performed (the soloists are the match of any of their more famous colleagues!), and offers a unique view of a 20th century masterwork. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, August 05

At first glance tis recording seems like an answered prayer, because it's such a brilliant idea to reduce Orff's overblown orchestration to something sharper, cleaner, and more primitive. the medieval poems discovered at a Benedictine monastery in Bavaria in 1803 were a precious horde of profane literature, meaning that they strip away the suffocating veneer of religiosity that covers the Middle Ages, revealing a lust for drinking, dancing, bitter satire, and lust itself. Orff may have indulged in more than a touch of schlock, but he caught the earthy exuberance of his text, and in colleges everywhere spring is greeted by someone thrusting speakers out the window to blast Carmina Burana.

The blast should increase exponentially by scoring the music for two pianos and six percussionists, as it is delivered here (think of it as Stravinsky's Les noces set to music for football pep rally). Unfortunately, the conducting by Cecilia Alin is so polite that it is almost decorous: almost never does the chorus burst out in real exuberance. Worse, the recorded sound by Bis, usually so reliable, is muzzy and distant. I often felt I was eavesdropping on a performance rather than attending it.

But what led me to this recording in the first place was the remarkable solo singing by Swedish baritone Peter Mattei. He was thirty in 1995 and a rising young star, but no one could have predicted the suave subtlety he brings to Orff's songs, along with power and ebullience when they are called for. Luckily, his seven solos can be heard separately on a collection called Kaleidoscope, also n Bis. While not in the same league, the other vocal soloists are appealing, the strident tenor making quite an agonized impression as the roasting swan. The chorus is good enough but conducted so dully that they don't make much of an impression.

I adore this version of "Carmina". The cleaner, minimal arrangement lets the voice shine through, creating a very satisfying listening experience. Peter Mattei is simply fantastic, and I'll second the above reviewer re: the roasting aria.

If you're a "Carmina" fan and don't own this, you're really missing out!