139 362 Carmina Burana

Recorded live at the Barbican Centre in November 2007, Richard Hickox conducts Carl Orff’s immensely popular dramatic cantata Carmina Burana with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and soloists, Barry Banks, Laura Claycomb and Christopher Maltman. The score’s combination of gloriously infectious vulgarity interspersed with moments of genuine beauty has assured it an unquestionable position as one of the most popular of all twentieth-century choral works.

The esteemed English recorder player, conductor and teacher, Philip Pickett, began his musical career as a trumpet player; his interest in the high trumpet parts of Bach and other Baroque composers was fostered by Anthony Baines and David Munrow, who introduced him to all the families of early wind instruments. This led him to take up the recorder, crumhorn, shawm, rackett etc, and he quickly became well-known as Britain's leading advocate of such instruments.

Born in Verona in 1987, Andrea Battistoni is one of the rising young talent in the international music scene.
He began, in 2006, a surprising career conducting in important theatres, with the respective orchestra, as the Royal Opera House-Covent Garden (London), Bayerische Staatsoper (Munich), Deutsche Oper of Berlin, Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg, Palau de les arts of Valencia, Teatro Bunka Kaikan of Tokyo,Semperoper of Dresden, Royal Opera of Stockholm, National Center of Performing Arts of Bejing, Sydney Opera House, Arena of Verona, Teatro San Carlo of Naples, Parco della Musica of Rome, Teatro La Fenice of Venice, Teatro Carlo Felice of Genova, Teatro Verdi of Trieste, Teatro Lirico of Cagliari, Teatro Massimo of Palermo; he conducted also prestigious orchestra as the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, l'Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana.

Recorded live at the Barbican Centre in November 2007, Richard Hickox conducts Carl Orff’s immensely popular dramatic cantata Carmina Burana with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and soloists, Barry Banks, Laura Claycomb and Christopher Maltman. The score’s combination of gloriously infectious vulgarity interspersed with moments of genuine beauty has assured it an unquestionable position as one of the most popular of all twentieth-century choral works.

Deutsche Grammophon, the world’s oldest classical label, celebrated its 120th anniversary with a concert of great cultural and historical significance at Beijing’s Forbidden City on October 10. This is the first classical concert to be hosted there since 1998 and the most important one since the Three Tenors stood on stage together in 1994.

Deutsche Grammophon, the world’s oldest classical label, celebrated its 120th anniversary with a concert of great cultural and historical significance at Beijing’s Forbidden City on October 10. This is the first classical concert to be hosted there since 1998 and the most important one since the Three Tenors stood on stage together in 1994.

Recorded live at the Barbican Centre in November 2007, Richard Hickox conducts Carl Orff’s immensely popular dramatic cantata Carmina Burana with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and soloists, Barry Banks, Laura Claycomb and Christopher Maltman. The score’s combination of gloriously infectious vulgarity interspersed with moments of genuine beauty has assured it an unquestionable position as one of the most popular of all twentieth-century choral works.

EMI Has rereleased this classic recording of Carmina Burana, and thank Heaven! No other performance – and there are so many excellent ones – quite captures the spirit of this magnificent work so truly. Fruehbeck de Burgos keeps magisterial control over the enormous forces, the choir of boys is excellent, and the soloists are second to none.

Often described as ‘music for amateurs’, sometimes used (or misused) towards purely commercial ends, Orff’s Carmina Burana was clearly ready for a new approach, a sort of revivifying, thorough rethinking. This has now been done, thanks to Jos van Immerseel and the absolutely exceptional musical team that he assembled.