# Looking for a specific Carmina Burana recording



## JRFuerst (Apr 2, 2010)

In the 1980s/early 1990s I had a recording on cassette. I believe that the tape itself was yellow. I know this is a long shot, but I am trying to figure out what that recording was. You get used to hearing certain recordings as you grow up and then you look for that same sound for nostalgia reasons. So hoping to find it on vinyl or CD. 

If by some chance someone knows out of the millions of Carmina Burana recordings what I might be talking about, that would be awesome.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

It's doubtful that the tape itself was yellow-it would be brown-but the tape _leader_ could have been yellow and that might be something of a clue. I would do a search for "Carmina Burana cassette" and see if you can recognize the cover artwork... anything that might jog your memory. There are so many recordings of this work not to have at least something more to narrow down the field so you can eventually zone in on the right performance. Good luck! You might find it. One of the most popular performances at that time was by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, but the performance you're looking for really could have been by anyone unless you have something more to go on.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Carmina+Burana+cassette&go=Search&qs=n&form=QBIR&sp=-1&pq=carmina+burana+cassette&sc=1-23&sk=&cvid=9356BE6784744907991A05C23B2FB6EA


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Perhaps he meant the plastic case for the tape was yellow. That would be a good clue as most of them were white or off white or black as I recall.


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## Josquin13 (Nov 7, 2017)

Do you mean that the cover of the cassette was yellow? If so, was it completely yellow? or only partially yellow?

If it was partially yellow, that shouldn't be too difficult to figure out, as my guess is it was a Deutsche Grammophon label recording, since yellow usually figures prominently on their album covers for LPs, cassettes, and CDs.

There is a legendary, well regarded DG recording of Carmina Burana from conductor Eugen Jochum. My bet is that is was Jochum's that you owned. But it could also be a DG recording from Herbert von Karajan, or James Levine too. There's another excellent DG recording from conductor Christian Thielemann, as well, but I believe that was released later than the early 90s, so it probably isn't the one. Do any of these covers look familiar to you?








https://www.amazon.com/Orff-Carmina-Burana-Carl/dp/B000001GQP







https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71L+bdx++gL._SX522_.jpg
https://www.amazon.com/Herbert-Von-...bert+von+karajan+orff+carmina+burana+cassette


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## JRFuerst (Apr 2, 2010)

Larkenfield said:


> It's doubtful that the tape itself was yellow-it would be brown-but the tape _leader_ could have been yellow and that might be something of a clue. I would do a search for "Carmina Burana cassette" and see if you can recognize the cover artwork... anything that might jog your memory. There are so many recordings of this work not to have at least something more to narrow down the field so you can eventually zone in on the right performance. Good luck! You might find it. One of the most popular performances at that time was by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, but the performance you're looking for really could have been by anyone unless you have something more to go on.
> 
> https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Carmina+Burana+cassette&go=Search&qs=n&form=QBIR&sp=-1&pq=carmina+burana+cassette&sc=1-23&sk=&cvid=9356BE6784744907991A05C23B2FB6EA


Thank you. I will take a look at these and see if any of them jar my memory.


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## JRFuerst (Apr 2, 2010)

Fritz Kobus said:


> Perhaps he meant the plastic case for the tape was yellow. That would be a good clue as most of them were white or off white or black as I recall.


Yes, that is what I meant, the whole piece of plastic was yellow, not just the paper with the printed material that was glued on the case.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

What about the DG Walkman or Galleria series?


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

JRFuerst said:


> Yes, that is what I meant, the whole piece of plastic was yellow, not just the paper with the printed material that was glued on the case.


I think we have a needle in the haystack situation here. You can search Google images for the piece on cassette and see if any images show yellow. Didn't for me. Maybe You Tube will have some cassettes with images. Another thought is to just browse many performances until you find one that you like.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

JRFuerst said:


> In the 1980s/early 1990s I had a recording on cassette. I believe that the tape itself was yellow. I know this is a long shot, but I am trying to figure out what that recording was. You get used to hearing certain recordings as you grow up and then you look for that same sound for nostalgia reasons. So hoping to find it on vinyl or CD.
> 
> If by some chance someone knows out of the millions of Carmina Burana recordings what I might be talking about, that would be awesome.


I'd be shocked if it's any recording other than the Jochum, with Janowitz, Stolze, and Fischer-Dieskau - that recording was a huge best-seller for many years.


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

A yellow plastic cassette tape box? I remember cassette boxes of all different colors, not just clear. Finding which recording had a production run of yellow boxes might well be an insurmountable task this many years later. Not sure if a manufacturer, if you could find out who they were and if they are still in business, would even have records like that.

I commiserate. There have been items I remember from years past but can't nail down exactly what they were. Hope you figure it out.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

If it wasn't Jochum, then it should be. :tiphat:


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## Marsilius (Jun 13, 2015)

If it is a recording from almost 30 years ago, look specifically at the images on eBay which are often of old material.


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

Marsilius said:


> If it is a recording from almost 30 years ago, look specifically at the images on eBay which are often of old material.


I looked out of curiosity. There are 4 listed right now that could be it. Great idea!


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## sisterray (Jul 11, 2018)

Joachim is the finest I have ever heard. The greatest coherence of the several versions I have enjoyed. A Muti performance was my favorite before I discovered Jochum.


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## Ralphus (Nov 13, 2016)

The Kegel/Leipzig Radio Symphony recording is also very good and was also commonly available back then. It's the recording I grew up with.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

If you haven't solved this do any of these help?






























Incidentally, I used to own around 1000 cassettes and the ones that were in a yellow box (rare because they were more expensive according to my mate who worked at EMI) were nearly always from the very biggest companies (the majority being any company distributed by EMI). DG cassette boxes were nearly always black but there's always the option that one of the black boxes could have been broken and swapped for a yellow one from the supplier's stock / spare cases (a not uncommon practice)


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

As a footnote I'm guessing if the case wasn't yellow but the actual cassette housing, containing the tape, was it might be one of the 70s / 80s EMI recordings. Could be Previn, Muti, Welser-Most, Frubeck de Burgos, etc.


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## Ras (Oct 6, 2017)

JRFuerst said:


> In the 1980s/early 1990s I had a recording on cassette. I believe that the tape itself was yellow. I know this is a long shot, but I am trying to figure out what that recording was. You get used to hearing certain recordings as you grow up and then you look for that same sound for nostalgia reasons. So hoping to find it on vinyl or CD.
> 
> If by some chance someone knows out of the millions of Carmina Burana recordings what I might be talking about, that would be awesome.


It could be James Levine's recording on Deutsche Grammophon - it is from 1985 and the rear side is yellow - the "spine" is yellow and it has the yellow DG label on it - The one I have has the words Carmina Burana written in white long-hand on the cover and has yellow flames on it - that one is out of print - but this version is for sale used on amazon:







https://www.amazon.com/Orff-Carmina...5600&sr=1-5&keywords=carl+orff+carmina+burana


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