Orff: Carmina Burana (Essential Classics)

Orff (Artist), Harsanyi (Artist), Petrak (Artist), Presnell (Artist), Ormandy (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 3, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000027P7
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #294,941 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: 'O Fortuna'

2. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: 'Fortune plango vulnera'

3. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: 'Veris leta facies'

4. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: 'Omnia Sol temperat'

5. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: 'Ecce gratum'

6. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: Tanz

7. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: 'Floret silva'

8. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: 'Chramer, gip die varwe mir'

9. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: Reie

10. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: 'Swaz hie gat umbe' - 'Chume, chum, geselle min!' - 'Swaz hie gat

11. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: 'Were diu werlt alle min'

12. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: 'Estuans interius'

13. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: 'Olim lacus colueram'

14. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: 'Ego sum abbas'

15. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: 'In taberna quando sumus'

16. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: 'Amor volat undique'

17. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: 'Dies, nox et omnia'

18. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: 'Stetit puella'

19. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: 'Circa mea pectora'

20. Carmina Burana, scenic cantata for soloists, choruses & orchestra: 'Si puer cum puellula'

See all 26 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good in its day, but there are better ones out there, January 12, 2000

By 

"drfizz" (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Orff: Carmina Burana (Essential Classics) (Audio CD)

This recording of the famous Carmina Burana by Orff was excellent when it was originally released I'm sure, but the sonic quality really detracts from the fine performance. Get Andre Previn with the London Symphony Orchestra or James Levine with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, both are high calibur performances and both have great sonic quality.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Inauthentic, but..., March 12, 2008

By 

G. P. Martin - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Orff: Carmina Burana (Essential Classics) (Audio CD)

This was my first stereo experience with Carmina Burana, long before the composition became a cliché, and Ormandy's recording occupies a special place in my affection. I certainly wouldn't argue with those who claim there are better interpretations and recordings, but I'm glad it remains in the catalogue. Critics were not especially kind when it was released in 1960. The composition itself had not attained the critical acceptance it has today, and the reviewer for High Fidelity ridiculed Harve Presnell for his Hollywood origins. Much more respected at the time was the early 1950s Eugene Jochum recording which had the endorsement of the composer, but which I found unlistenably clunky.

Eugene Ormandy was often criticized for "smoothing out" rhythms, which undoubtedly helped create the "creamy" sound for which the Philadelphia Orchestra was sometimes maligned. In my opinion, what Carmina Burana may have lost in Ormandy's taming of its jagged rhythms, it gained immeasurably in the sense of headlong momentum. This version moves like a juggernaut and is the better for it. This interpretation will never score high in authenticity, but as pure "Technicolor" enjoyment, it is without equal.

Despite the reservations other commentators have with the almost half-century old recorded sound, the Sony cd is much improved over the original compressed, hissy, and pre-echo plagued Columbia L.P.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tremendous recording, June 11, 2002

By 

D. Dubei "ioancuza" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Orff: Carmina Burana (Essential Classics) (Audio CD)

This is the best recording of Carmina Burana that i have ever heard. both the symphony and the chorus do a masterful job in conveying the emotions of the music, from the grand and bombastic beginning and end to some of the most beautiful parts like "stetit Puella" and "In trutina".

Just beautiful.