# Carmina Burana -- your favorite recording/performance



## 13hm13

So what's your fave? If you have more than one, list those as well. 
No limits with this informal survey. Also, any performance counts (including stuff not on LP, CD, 78; YouTube videos of BBC Proms, WDR, etc. orchestras and festivals are welcome)

*My faves and some notes:*

Mehta/London Phil./1993 -- I think this is my fave. The all-digital recording, the performance and pacing are just fine.





Ormandy/Cleveland/1960 --seems to be popular on Amazon, etc. It has been released several times since As I noted on another TC thread, the CBS LP, CBS CD, and Sony releases sound quite different from each other. It was also released on SACD. An audiophile vinyl pressing -- if it exists -- would ideal.





(more to added in per edits...)


----------



## 13hm13

Just noted the "Similar Threads" section below this posting. Sorry -- newbie here!
*Mods: *you may merge this thread with any of the three similar threads if necessary.


----------



## Heck148

Levine/CSO/DG
Tilson Thomas/Clelveland/CBS-sony

Not my favorite piece....played it many, many times. 
I do love the little instrumental miniatures that one of Orff's students put together under the composer's direction...2ble WW 5tet, IIRC...very cool!!


----------



## Pugg

Muti on EMI and the one from Christian Thielemann.


----------



## 13hm13

Because human voice is such an important part of this work, I have become sensitive to a certain midrange "hardness" that is present in some early DIGITAL recordings (or early digital mastering of analog recordings, like first-gen CDs). Also, massed voices/instruments are not well served on early digital.

I'm impressed with Decca/London dynamics/bass slam in this early digital recording, but things get dirty/congested when mass vocals or instruments are playing:


----------



## 13hm13

Heck148 said:


> Not my favorite piece....played it many, many times. ...


A guilty pleasure, here, too


----------



## Pugg

Carmina Burana , Carl Orff (Ponnelle) 
My favourite video .


----------



## Antiquarian

My first _Carmina Burana_ was the Eugen Jochum on DG. It was a LP. I remember playing it and singing along ( The record jacket had an integrated booklet with the "incantations" all spelled out), and my sister commenting that it sounds like "Satanic Music". Needless to say, I played the hell out of it just to annoy her.

In addition to the excellent recommendations listed above, additional favourites:

Seiji Ozawa, Berlin Philharmonic (1989)

Franz Welser-Most, LPO (1990)


----------



## Il_Penseroso

Antiquarian said:


> My first _Carmina Burana_ was the Eugen Jochum on DG. It was a LP.


Same for me... and it's the recording subscribed by the composer if I'm not mistaken.


----------



## david johnson

Frühbeck de Burgos/Philharmonia


----------



## 13hm13

I have the Jochum/DG disc. It is a good performance, but recording is not that dynamic. Before digital, that (_macro_dynamics) was hard to capture as was the slam of the tympani and bass drum.

Robert Shaw/Atlanta SO's 1981 is not the best performance, but that Telarc engineering (w/famous Telarc bass) is ideal. It's an early digital, which sounds a bit unrefined (esp. rough, massed vocals). But with early Telarc, I always separate _engineering_ from _recording medium_.





Back to the performance aspect ... timing and pacing should be even and consistent. Hence ,I don't like any of Rattle's versions ....and this Ozawa version is just as poor ...about on par with Andre Rieu's mega popular version.


----------



## 13hm13

13hm13 said:


> A guilty pleasure, here, too


Actually, I've heard the "critics- and hard-core-classicists love-to-hate this work" and similar comments before. 
Similar dismissals of film scores is also familiar. 
Frankly, for me, most of Mozart (Symphs 1-37) and Haydn are unimportant. 
So ... To each their own!


----------



## Antiquarian

Il_Penseroso said:


> Same for me... and it's the recording subscribed by the composer if I'm not mistaken.


Yes, that's the one. And you are correct, it was the recording authorised by Carl himself. It is a good recording.


----------



## 13hm13

Antiquarian said:


> Yes, that's the one. And you are correct, it was the recording authorised by Carl himself. It is a good recording.


While this is a decent performance, I don't think it's the best I've heard. (See my notes in a prev. post) 
The "authorized" signature or endorsement may just mean that the orig. composer was paid off to do so (it would help DG sell records). The performance (for my ears) may well be better in the hands of a _non_-original director or orchestrator.


----------



## JohnD

13hm13 said:


> While this is a decent performance, I don't think it's the best I've heard. (See my notes in a prev. post)
> The "authorized" signature or endorsement may just mean that the orig. composer was paid off to do so (it would help DG sell records). The performance (for my ears) may well be better in the hands of a _non_-original director or orchestrator.


I agree that an "authorized" performance doesn't make it inherently more interesting, but I doubt that DG would have "paid off" Carl Orff or that he would have put his name on the recording if he didn't like it. I personally think that the DG performance is an excellent one--and more interesting to me than others I have heard.


----------



## Kjetil Heggelund

HAHA! Sorry people, this is my electric guitar hero and I don't know which "Fortuna" this is, but it is RANDY RHOADS  Everybody clap your hands!


----------



## Pugg

> Sorry people, this is my electric guitar hero and I don't know which "Fortuna" this is,


It's from Orff........


----------



## 13hm13

*Carl Orff's O Fortuna in popular culture*

The Ozzy ref. reminds me of just how many rock/pop artists - -as well as TV/movies -- have used "O Fortuna" in parts of their tracks.
Michael Jackson, Enigma, ...
In fact, Wikipedia has a whole entry devoted to..."Carl Orff's O Fortuna in popular culture"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Orff's_O_Fortuna_in_popular_culture

Because the CB came out in the late 1930s, I wonder whether any of the Orff's (and/or his music publisher, Schott Music) still receive $$ from ALL these samplings?


----------



## Pugg

13hm13 said:


> The Ozzy ref. reminds me of just how many rock/pop artists - -as well as TV/movies -- have used "O Fortuna" in parts of their tracks.
> Michael Jackson, Enigma, ...
> In fact, Wikipedia has a whole entry devoted to..."Carl Orff's O Fortuna in popular culture"
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Orff's_O_Fortuna_in_popular_culture
> 
> Because the CB came out in the late 1930s, I wonder whether any of the Orff's (and/or his music publisher, Schott Music) still receive $$ from ALL these samplings?


I presume his heirs.


----------



## Merl

Gotta say I have many fine accounts (Blomstedt, Previn, Mehta, etc) but my faves are definitely Thielemann's, Rattle's and Wand's versions. Rattle and the BPO possibly edge it for me. Just a shame they couldn't have swapped Sally Matthews out for someone better. She's still very good and knocks out a decent 'In Trutina' but she aint no Lucia Popp.


----------



## Ralphus

My first Orff was Kegel/Leipzig (Berlin Classics). Still a favourite.

Dutoit/Montreal (Decca)
Plasson/Toulouse (EMI)
Wand/NDR (Hanssler)

are all very good too, imho.


----------



## Pugg

Merl said:


> Gotta say I have many fine accounts (Blomstedt, Previn, Mehta, etc) but my faves are definitely Thielemann's, Rattle's and Wand's versions. Rattle and the BPO possibly edge it for me. Just a shame they couldn't have swapped Sally Matthews out for someone better. She's still very good and knocks out a decent 'In Trutina' but she aint no Lucia Popp.


Very few are , if I can say so.


----------



## rojaba

Kristjan Järvi with the MDR Choir and Daniel Schmutzhardt. One of the best efforts on the outrageously difficult baritone arias.






Funny, spoke about Carmina Burana with a friend of mine yesterday. The overall conclusion was: it is a very, very weird piece of music


----------



## Adamus

http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=CD93.280

ORFF, C: Carmina Burana (arr. for soloists, choruses, 2 pianos and percussion) (Stuttgart Vocal Ensemble, R. Huber)


----------



## SixFootScowl

Finally a video that makes sense of Carmina Burana:


----------



## david johnson

Frühbeck De Burgos/Philharmonia


----------



## DavidA

Jochum had the composer's approval


----------



## Rogerx

DavidA said:


> Jochum had the composer's approval


So did Muti, see the booklet.


----------



## starthrower

Still haven't found my favored recording. I bought the Levine a couple years ago but I found the performance perfunctory and uninspired.


----------



## Joe B

I have several recordings, but believe it or not, the best performance by a choir I've found is on this disc:


----------



## Larkenfield

My favorite performance is by Igor Stravinsky and the Orff-Plagiarizer-Orchestra.  But I was weaned on the Ormandy/Philadelphia recording that I still like to play on pagan holidays.


----------



## NLAdriaan

Rattle does it for me, powerful as expected. Frankly with Carmina, I feel the conductor is perhaps less of a critical value then with, say, Bruckner?


----------



## Atrahasis

Rattle (quite well performed, but very modern in execution), Levine (technically good, but lacking in spirit) and the best one is *Kurt Eichhorn*'s version used in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle film. It is a complete package, great choir, orchestra, solist... just sublime and I like the movie. Its like Hieronymus Bosch on screen.

Honorable mentions - Muti, Jochum and Kegel.


----------



## Atrahasis

Also this one is great, maybe even the best, but the sound is not that great considering when it was recorded.

*Orff: Carmina Burana - Fruhbeck De Burgos 
*








+ other exceptional recordings: *Eduardo Mata* and LSO, *Previn *and LSO+ WIENER, AND

*Darinka Matić-Marović* and Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra/academic choir Branko Krsmanović.


----------



## wkasimer

Atrahasis said:


> Also this one is great, maybe even the best, but the sound is not that great considering when it was recorded.
> 
> *Orff: Carmina Burana - Fruhbeck De Burgos
> *
> View attachment 114907


It sounded fine on LP, but the first couple of CD reissues were virtually unilistenable. The one above is somewhat better, but it's still not as good as it was on LP, and I'm someone who rarely finds that to be the case.


----------



## Atrahasis

Regardless of the overall sound of those "remastered versions", its a majestic performance and Lucia Popp singing In Trutina is out of this world. It seems that people who are into classical music dont seem to appreciate Carmina Burana for what it is... it is as if the spirit of that composition somehow eludes them. As I see it, it is a music of simplicity, devoid of all fancy ornamentation and great and prideful ingenuity, it is a sincire lamentation, a story of human nature and fate. Often vulgar and brutal (as the medieval spirit is), but also emotional, "sweet", entertaining and calming, a true ode to life and death, glory and humility. And the wheel keeps spinning... O Fortuna...

Melodies and rythm of Carmina Buran evoke something primeval in people, successfuly accomplishing Orff only intention. It is a master work in its own right. At least I think so.


----------

