Orff: Carmina Burana

This brand-new disc (taken from live performances at the Berlin Philharmonie from 29 to 31 December 2004) must rank as the most beautifully played and sung Carmina Burana ever recorded. The Berlin Radio Chorus has been drilled to perfection; never have the separate syllables of the opening O Fortuna been enunciated so crisply and clearly. The choral blend is magnificent throughout; just listen to the semi-chorus at track 3, Veris leta facies (The gay face of spring) for silken, polished singing. The Berlin Philharmonic is on top form; the brass positively crackles with fire at the (very fast) start of Were diu werlt alle min (Were all the world mine), while elsewhere the strings, percussion and woodwind produce ghostly, haunting threads of sound. The soloists are very fine, and Rattle’s tempi work very well on the whole (generally swift and similar to Jochum’s, but allowing more leeway in the slower movements). But…this very high standard of performance is also the disc’s greatest weakness. The tenor’s lament (as a once-free swan now sitting cooked on the table) is so well sung one could think he’d found an over-warm nest rather than been roasted to death. The boys of the Berlin State and Cathedral choirs sound beautifully innocent; but the knowing, rough ragazzi quality that both Previn and Jochum elicit is missing. And I wish the verve and abandon of Swaz hie gat umbe (and, dare I say it, some good old lust) had more rudely infected some of the choral numbers. Nevertheless, it is a splendid recording, with top baritone Christian Gerhaher a suitably dissolute Abbot of Cockaigne, and soprano Sally Matthews delivering an incomparably ravishing In Trutina and heart-stoppingly vulnerable Dulcissime.