Customer Reviews

Orff: Carmina Burana

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

 

 

Michael Tilson Thomas was utterly fearless when he made this recording. When it was first released, well over 3 decades ago, the critics were aghast. His tempi were beyond reckless; the recording was a scissors-and-paste, take-and-retake hack job that bore no sonic relationship to a concert. Carl Orff, at the time pushing 80, reportedly was livid at MTT's liberties with his work.

So what? Just what do you think Carmina Burana is all about? Sex, springtime, sex, boozing, sex, debauchery, sex, gambling, sex, blasphemy, sex, sex, and more sex. (I know of a director of a quite decent regional orchestra's chorus who actually bowdlerized CB's Latin text, for fear some bluenosed Latin-speaking doctor in his audience would be shocked.)

Remember, Tilson Thomas was 30. Soprano Judith Blegen was 33 and at her vocal peak. Tenor Kenneth Riegel was 36. No shortage of hormones in these folks, and they weren't afraid to let 'em roar. Nor were the engineers and producers hesitant to use everything in their 1974 technical toolbox in the service of MTT's vision.

It all came together with two highly disciplined and responsive instruments, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. The Cleveland Orchestra, famous for its quartet-like internal listening, had to deal with a highly unorthodox seating arrangement. The chorus coped with Tilson Thomas's demands of nearly impossible dynamics and tempi, while still delivering chorusmaster Robert Page's trademark diction and rhythmic precision.

Those tuxedoed uptown music critics live on this side of the tracks. Carmina Burana lives on the other. In this recording, Tilson Thomas and crew took it home.

You won't find a sweeter, sweatier, more lovingly erotic Carmina Burana, period. The only element missing in this release is the Hieronymus Bosch cover of the original (The Garden of Earthly Delights, of course), and that you can find on the web. At this price it's the bargain of the century. Grab it before Sony change their mind.

MTT is now the music director of San Francisco, and his ongoing super audio Mahler symphony cycle has been making sonic and musical waves. But way back when, he was a regular Sony label artist, and this odd outing from Cleveland (of all places) turns out to be one of his youthful recording treasures. It is a valuable release that has more or less gotten lost in a very crowded field.

The band and chorus are very fine. Nobody in Cleveland is slacking - not brass, not woodwinds, and certainly not strings. Give the percussion section a bow, too. There is plenty of massed choral tone, heft, and very delicate polyphony in the various choral combinations which predominate in the music. Everybody sounds stellar - women, men, mixed chorus, and children's chorus.

The soloists are outstanding, too. Judith Blegen hardly needs an introduction to USA audiences. She really cuts loose, and in her abandonment may be compromising a bit of her finesse in favor of joining the huge festival fun going on. Kenneth Riegel has been around for a while, and his voice shows some wear; but his part is that of the roasted swan being eaten in the tavern, backed up by odd sound effects with the strings playing col legno (as if in a Bartok string quartet) and the chorus gnashing - so no tenor problems really. The very fine baritone bass here is Peter Binder, and he delivers and then some. His part is faced with several different challenges, insofar as he is assigned a much wider range of character to bring to musical life than the soprano or tenor soloists. His vocal writing ranges up and down and all around, so that as a singer he sometimes has to have a full fierce top, other times a sensual or lilting top and middle, and still other times a solid yet seductive bottom. Binder proves himself a whale of a soloist.

The special marker of this disc is that the recording engineer varied the placement and miking of the players and singers, according to strategies that would make the most vivid flash and display across the varied sections of the whole cantata-tableau. If you can listen to the shifts without finding them unduly distracting - a real concert does not have its cast changing around as much as this recording does - you will be rewarded with a near-demonstration sonic music disc.

I know that SONY BMG has already transferred the older Ormandy Philadelphia recording to super audio - but I think this one should get the super audio treatment as soon as possible.

Comparison choices in the catalog are deep, wide, and high in merit. Just off the top, you can get extremely good recordings with really outstanding combinations of bands plus chorus plus remarkable soloists. (Consider: Jochum - Gundula Janowitz & Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Fruhbeck de Burgos - Lucia Popp, Mehta - Sumi Jo, Bo Skovhus, Muti - Arleen Auger, Dorati, Ozawa with Berlin - Gruberova plus Aler plus Hampson, Mata with LSO plus Hendricks plus Hagegard, Robert Shaw with Atlanta plus Blegen plus Hagegard in super audio, Previn with Vienna plus Bonney, and Michel Plasson with Toulouse plus Natalie Dessay plus Lesne plus Hampson.)

Even so. MTT gets it right in Cleveland, and few fans of this cantata-tableau will confess regrets at having this disc, even if they may also put others right next to it on the fav shelves.

Recorded in 1974, Michael Tilson Thomas and the Cleveland Orchestra's Carmina Burana is still the standard of excellence. MTT's interpretation focuses rightly on rhythm and drive, yet achieves fantastic lyricism and warmth in the slower movements. The Cleveland Orchestra is on fire and the Chorus, though sometimes pushed to their limit, never falls short. While most Carmina performances feel like a disjointed pastiche of short movements, this recording has a sense of unity and flow that is still unmatched. Enjoy.

I bought the CD of Carmina Burana to replace the tape I had of the same performance. The major draw back of the CD is that the sound / volume is inconsistent. This reduces my enjoyment of the CD and I have considered buying another version of Carmina Burana which will hopefully have better sound quality.

There is no playing this one on low volume. Let it loose, have some red wine, and read the lebretto. That's living.

I sang this composition with Michael Tilson Thomas when I was in college.
Thuis, my decision to purchase this item and rekindle old memories.

Excellent recording. I love Carmina Burana, anyway, and I've really enjoyed listening to this edition. Will continue to hear Peter sing, over and over again.
Ruth Binder Elkins