Orff: Carmina Burana / Kristjan Jarvi, Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk
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- Sony Masterworks
- September 25, 2012
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
Product Description:
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Release Date: September 25, 2012
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UPC: 887254462125
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Catalog Number: 88725446212
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Label: Sony Masterworks
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Number of Discs: 1
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Composer: Carl, Orff
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Performer: Carl, Orff