What a great performance it was earlier this evening.
The Chicago Symphony proved itself once again to be the great world orchestra I'd once heard Solti lead. And Ricardo Muti proved himself to be one of the few great conductors still remaining and actively performing.
Carmina Burana itself can only be described as "different." Despite the Latin lyrics, there's nothing in the least medieval about it. Nor was I able to detect the popularization of Stravinsky's music, even in its most "superficial aspects," that the program claimed to be present. Though this piece by Carl Orff is extremely popular, at the same time it's unlike anything else in the repertoire, and there's no true category for it in 20th Century music.
The overall impression tonight was one of a tightly disciplined performance. It cannot be easy to integrate a large orchestra with chorus in an hour-long piece, but here both worked together flawlessly. The precision with which the chorus responded to its musical cues was astonishing.
I enjoyed reading in the program that: "The title page of Orff's Carmina Burana promises 'secular songs to be sung by singers and choruses to the accompaniment of instruments and also of magic pictures.'" The program didn't provide any examples, though, or describe what these "magic pictures" may have looked like. It's really too bad none were used at this performance, but the level of playing and singing more than made up for the lack.
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