Carl Orff Carmina Burana Orfeon Pamplones Escolania de Nuestra Senora de los Desamparados Orquesta de Valencia Alexander Liebreich Sara Blanch, soprano Joaquin Asiain, tenor Andre Baleiro, baritone They are one of the most famous and frequently performed works of classical music: Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana". The Latin title refers to a collection of songs from Benediktbeuren dating from the 11th and 12th centuries with texts written in Middle Latin, Old French and Middle High German. Orff chose 24 of these songs, their topics ranging widely from the volatility of happiness and prosperity to the fleeting nature of life, from the joy of the return of spring to the pleasures and dangers of drunkenness, gluttony, gambling, and lust. In June 2024, at the Palau de la M�sica in Valencia, the Orquestra de Valencia, one of the great Spanish symphony orchestras, together with the leading local boys' choir as well as one of Spain's oldest choirs, Orfeon Pamplones, performed this epic work under the musical direction of Alexander Liebreich. They were joined by soloists Sara Blanch, Joaquin Asiain, and Andre Baleiro. The live recording of this lively and captivating concert evening is now available. Recorded live at the Palau de la M�sica, Valencia June 2024

To celebrate the birthday of one of Germany's most famous composers (July 10th), Deutsche Grammophon presents Carl Orff - 125th Anniversary Edition. Featuring great performers like Gundula Janowitz, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Kim Borg, Ernst Haefliger, Symhonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Orchester & Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin, and many more. The 11-CD Original Jackets Collection contains the complete DG recordings of Carl Orff. 36pg booklet with new liner notes by Andrew Stewart.

Deutsche Grammophon's 120th Anniversary Concert - Filmed and recorded live to the highest industry standards in front of the magnificent scenery of Beijing's Forbidden City, this unique gala concert celebrates the 120th anniversary of Deutsche Grammophon. The concert features conductor Long Yu and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, both freshly signed as exclusive recording artists to Deutsche Grammophon, and performances from Aida Garifullina, Daniil Trifonov, Mari Samuelsen, and more.

Deutsche Grammophon's 120th Anniversary Concert - Filmed and recorded live to the highest industry standards in front of the magnificent scenery of Beijing's Forbidden City, this unique gala concert celebrates the 120th anniversary of Deutsche Grammophon. The concert features conductor Long Yu and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, both freshly signed as exclusive recording artists to Deutsche Grammophon, and performances from Aida Garifullina, Daniil Trifonov, Mari Samuelsen, and more.

CARMINA BURANA is a 13th century manuscript discovered in the medieval monastery of Benediktbeuren. It means literally "Songs of Beuren," and consists of 250 poems in latin and Middle High German.

Ozawa's Carmina Burana confirms Orff’s own view of the music: 'The simpler and more significant the utterance, the more direct and striking is the effect.' The performance is thoroughly idiomatic, while the preference for slower tempi in many sections emphasises the detail and colour of the scoring, features which are aided by a recording which has transferred well from its analogue original. With full documentation, including texts and translations, this disc is a real bargain.

Performance: 5 (out of 5); Sound: 5 (out of 5)

-- Terry Barfoot, BBC Music Magazine

Orff: Carmina Burana

Carmina Burana, the staged cantata by Carl Orff, is a work unique in musical history, claims conductor Paavo Jarvi: 'The convergence of medieval texts with such daringly original orchestral colours creates a soundworld that is both archaic and yet beyond time, in which chorus, orchestra and soloists vie in splendour.' The work also has an unusual history: composed shortly after the Nazi takeover of Germany, it was at first rejected because of it's Latin texts and the erotic character of some of it's songs; yet Orff and his work subsequently became highly prized by the Reich. The composer (who was secretly 'a quarter Jewish') did not support the regime, but made the best of his success... Orff was 42 by the time he experienced this breakthrough with his Carmina, which he designated as his Op. 1, disowning all his previous compositions. Departing from the Romantic style, he now wanted to create music linked to rhythm, simple repeated melodies, and non-complex forms. This work's popular success confirmed that decision.

Orff: Carmina Burana

This new release presents Carl Orff’s masterwork opera in a benchmark recording that will set a new standard of sound quality and interpretation. “Die Kluge,” composed in 1943, is written in the style of a fairy tale with the moral of a fable, and tells the story of a king, a peasant, and a clever girl. It is based on Die Kluge Bauerntochter (The Peasant’s Wise Daughter) from the Grimm’s Fairy Tales. “The recordings were made between 1976 and 1980 and… are remarkable among the conductor’s recordings for the quality of their sound.” (Dietrich Brakemeier, Living Stereo, Munich 1994)

ORFF Carmina Burana • Kristjan Järvi, cond; Kiera Duffy (sop); Marco Panuccio (ten); Daniel Schmutzhard (bar); MDR SO & Ch & Kinderchor • SONY 88725 44621 2 (60:24 Text and Translation)


Kristjan Järvi, the brother of Paavo and the son of Neeme, has been around for a while. His name was in the last Schwann Artists issue, and you know how long ago that was. Among the dozen or so recordings that have been reviewed here are Bernstein’s Mass and Schmidt’s Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln , works that I would have enjoyed reviewing. The rest of his recorded repertoire, except for Beethoven’s “Choral” Symphony, is refreshingly offbeat, so he is entitled to try his hand at a work that has now had 70 recordings, at least half of them still on the market. His tempos are as brisk as the best competing versions (anything much over an hour is suspect), and he has some interesting interpretive innovations. One of these is “Tempus est jocundum,” which is pointed more emphatically than anything I have ever heard, and it works well. I worried at the outset when “O Fortuna” began slowly and then sped up, but vagaries of tempo do not occur thereafter. The “Round Dance,” so often slowed down as if the instrumental soloists could not handle it, is a romp.


The soprano is as good as any. This part is so grateful to the singer and done so well almost every time that it is beside the point to single out any soprano for excellence. The men, full-throated, are to be congratulated for avoiding falsetto entirely, a bane of many performances. The boys’ choir is very good, sounding like a small group with individual voices that can be heard (not a bad thing for once). Järvi is the new music director of an orchestra that used to be listed on radio tapes issued by independent labels in the early days of LP. The Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk, based in Leipzig, is the nominal equivalent of such (former) West German radio networks as North, West, and South German (and earlier the Northwest and Southwest German). On more recent records since those early days, its orchestra has been known simply as the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra. The adult choir and the boys’ choir also belong to the radio studio and are equally familiar on records, as in Herbert Kegel’s second War Requiem of Britten. But the name used here hardly occurs on currently available records. This disc can take its place among the more successful recent recordings of the work.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This is a re-release within the new SWR CLASSIC-series "Century Classics". It contains the rarely performed chamber version of Carmina Burana interpreted by the excellent SWR Vokalensemble, SWR Vokalensemble is the vocal ensemble of the broadcaster S�dwestrundfunk (SWR), based in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1946 as S�dfunk-Chor Stuttgart in 1946 to perform studio work for S�ddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR) which merged in 1998 with the S�dwestfunk to form the SWR. The ensemble was awarded the Echo Klassik in both 2011 and 2012. The ensemble is led by Austrian composer and musician Rupert Huber.