Orff: Carmina Burana / McNair, Aler, Hagegard; Slatkin

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
This most favorite of choral works is infused with life through the fluid singing of the soloists. Hagegard's everyman baritone overflows with sensitive phrasing and a deliciously appealing timbre. McNair's lovely lyric glides across the music, capturing the subtle textual nuances--she has never been more appealing. The chorus is void of feeling in the first half, hypnotically following Slatkin's joyless lead. However, once they enter "The Court of Love" in Part III, they sing blissfully and expansively, capturing all the pleasures that Orff's piece offers. The orchestra, playing at full throttle, is crisp and energetic. --Barbara Eisner Bayer

Tracks:

Carmina Burana : Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi: O Fortuna
Carmina Burana : Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi: Fortune plango vulnera
Carmina Burana : I. Primo Vere: Veris leta facies
Carmina Burana : I. Primo Vere: Omnia sol remperat
Carmina Burana : I. Primo Vere: Ecce gratum
Carmina Burana : Uf Dem Anger: Tanz
Carmina Burana : Uf Dem Anger: Floret silva
Carmina Burana : Uf Dem Anger: Chramer, gip die Varwe mir
Carmina Burana : Uf Dem Anger: Reie
Carmina Burana : Uf Dem Anger: Were diu werlt alle min
Carmina Burana : II. In taberna: Estuans interius
Carmina Burana : II. In taberna: Olim lacus colueram
Carmina Burana : II. In taberna: Ego sum abbas Cucaniensis
Carmina Burana : II. In taberna: In taberna quando sumus
Carmina Burana : III. Cours d'amours: Amor volat undique
Carmina Burana : III. Cours d'amours: Dies, nox et omnia
Carmina Burana : III. Cours d'amours: Stetit puella
Carmina Burana : III. Cours d'amours: Circa mea pectora
Carmina Burana : III. Cours d'amours: Si puer cum puellula
Carmina Burana : III. Cours d'amours: Veni, veni venias
Carmina Burana : III. Cours d'amours: In trutina
Carmina Burana : III. Cours d'amours: Tempus est iocundum
Carmina Burana : III. Cours d'amours: Dulcissime
Carmina Burana : Blanziflor Et Helena: Ave formosissima
Carmina Burana : Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi: O Fortuna

Amazon.com

This most favorite of choral works is infused with life through the fluid singing of the soloists. Hagegard's everyman baritone overflows with sensitive phrasing and a deliciously appealing timbre. McNair's lovely lyric glides across the music, capturing the subtle textual nuances--she has never been more appealing. The chorus is void of feeling in the first half, hypnotically following Slatkin's joyless lead. However, once they enter "The Court of Love" in Part III, they sing blissfully and expansively, capturing all the pleasures that Orff's piece offers. The orchestra, playing at full throttle, is crisp and energetic. --Barbara Eisner Bayer

Customer Reviews:

The Best Carmina Burana.......2007-01-24

1. The work is very similar to an opera, highly dramatic and driven by text.

2. Opera is about voices, and this recording of Carmina has bar none the best collection of soloists on record.

3. While I do not consider myself an expert in orchestral sound or conducting, in my opinion the orchestra and chorus sound very good, not perfect, but very good. It seems to me that the style of this work does not call for an overly "constructed" sound from the orchestra. If you peruse the text you might gleen a little insight, as form should follow function. IMHO the sound from the orchestra and chorus are fitting for the meaning they are trying to convey.

4. Several people have given this recording bad ratings, and yet there seem to be a lack of noted material defect. If you think Slatkin's conducting is so bad, please fill us all in on why. Neurotic posts such as:

ONE OF THE WORST PERFORMENCES OF THIS WORK THAT THERE IS.IT IS AS IF SLATKIN WERE CONDUCTING THE SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY WITH A HORROR MOVIE IN FRONT OF THEM.GET OZOWA/BOSTON SYNPHONY 1969 CLASSIC PERFORMENCE AND CHARLES DUTIOT/MONTREAL SYNPHONY

don't do much - and perhaps you could also do us all the favor of reaching your uncoordinated left hand pinky finger to the left of the A button and turning off caps lock, along with taking some spelling lessons. That would be just super. Thanks.

The Best Carmina Burana recording.......2007-01-10

I have attended concerts, owned vinyls, owned taped versions and have this CD. This CD is so good that I bought another copy to give to our neighbors who had just attended a local concert of the piece.

The recording quality is excellent, the voices superb. I particularly enjoy the energy of the pieces. The spectral frequency range is excellent, although the volume range is too large with quiet pieces being to quiet and loud sections being overly loud. I fear this just the technical difficulty of recording such a large assembly of musicians the way the hearer perceives it.

I recommend this to anyone and everyone who admires Orff's work.

My favorite CARMINA BURANA.......2006-08-23

This is my favorite recording of Orff's CARMINA BURANA. No, I have not heard every commercially available recording (at the very least, I've heard snippets from many), but from what I have encountered in the past, I can enthusiastically say that THIS is the recording to own if you want to hear this work with all of the primal power you'd hope for.

Leonard Slatkin leads a top-notch St. Louis Symphony Orchestra with an almost maniacal vigor. The tempi are perhaps the quickest I've ever heard, which suits me fine. (Nothing more exciting than loud, agressive orchestral music!) Soprano Sylvia McNair is simply outstanding as is the baritone Hakan Hagegard, but I was slightly less impressed with the tenor John Aler whose vocal tone I found somewhat unappealing.

The engineering on this CD, thankfully, is bright and up front. Unlike many CARMINA recordings, the sound levels remain consistant across the board, so there won't be much need to continuously turn the volume up and down as the music alternates between loud and soft.

Highly recommended for CARMINA BURANA fans, as well as for anyone who likes a little bombast every now and again.

carmina burina for halloween.......2005-11-02

ONE OF THE WORST PERFORMENCES OF THIS WORK THAT THERE IS.IT IS AS IF SLATKIN WERE CONDUCTING THE SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY WITH A HORROR MOVIE IN FRONT OF THEM.GET OZOWA/BOSTON SYNPHONY 1969 CLASSIC PERFORMENCE AND CHARLES DUTIOT/MONTREAL SYNPHONY.THEY BOTH BLOW THIS ONE AWAY.

Explosive "Carmina" From The Heartland Of America.......2004-09-06

Carl Orff's hour-long cantata "Carmina Burana" must rank as the single most popular choral work of the 20th century. Because of this, of course, there have also been many recordings of it--dozens in fact, from Eugen Jochum's 1968 recording with the Deutsche Opera of Berlin, to Andre Previn's 1974 London Symphony recording, and beyond.

For my money, though (and this is not to take away from the other great recordings of the piece on hand), the most explosive recording of this piece comes from the heartland of America. With superior vocalists Sylvia McNair, Hakan Hagegard, and John Aler on hand, Leonard Slatkin leads his St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in this 1992 recording that generates much passion and violence with its mix of sacred Latin chants and sometimes politically incorrect and profane dialogue.

The recording is spectacular from start to finish, but there are moments that I think stand out especially: "Olim Lacus Colueram", done by Aler; Hagegard's solo turn on "Ego Sum Annad Cacaniensis"; McNair's on "Dulcissime"; and the St. Louis Chorus itself on "O Fortuna", which bookends this gigantic work. It is no wonder that its medieval sound and text inspired much in the way of movie music, including THE OMEN and even parts of the music for the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy ("O Fortuna", in fact, was used in the 1981 film EXCALIBUR).

This recording is vigorously recommended, even if you already own other recordings of it. Slatkin's interpretation stands up well compared with the many other fine recordings also available.

Music Review:

Music Review

music review

Music Review

The Telescope Dreampatterns

Brahms: Horn Trio/Serenade in D

Cimarosa - Le donne rivali / Alberto Zedda

Wade Hayes [Karaoke]

Chaise Longue: Please, Have a Seat [Import]

Cura

Cry on Your Smile [CD-single] [Import]

Chandeliers in the Savannah

Clemenza [Import]

Big Brother & the Holding Company

Clothes On Clothes Off

Cata Cheli [Enhanced] [Special Edition] [Import]

Dangerous Prospects [Explicit Lyrics]

Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann: Complete Opera (with full libretto and translation)

Jazz Child