Jonathan Summers Carl Orff Riccardo Muti - Orff Carmina Burana (25 tracks) +Album Reviews

Auger: the perfect soprano for Carmina Burana

Raul Saavedra | Caracas, Venezuela | 01/09/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Musically speaking this is my favorite Carmina Burana recording. You might check my review here on Amazon of the Joschum/Fischer-Dieskau recording of Carmina Burana, which is supposed to be among the best Carmina Burana's recorded.Well, the soprano in that recording simply has nothing to do compared to the way Ms. Arleen Auger sings in this one. This CD can easily convince you that Ms. Auger is simply the perfect soprano for Carmina Burana, and one of the most beautiful voices of all time. If you haven't listened to her "Dulcissima" in this CD you are simply missing one of the most beautiful pieces of lyrical singing ever recorded. Moreover, back to the comparison with the other recording, Dieskau being one of the best baritones in the world (Lieder-wise at least) I think doesn't have the fortes and character of J. Summers in this recording.

Now, I couldn't disagree more with some other reviewer's opinion about the "realism" of the loudness levels in this CD. The orchestra is quite unrealistically too loud with respect to the solos sounding quite too far away. This I say being sort of an audio enthusiast, having a relatively very good sounding hi-fi equipment and speakers (not mass market ones), and putting hardware audiophilia aside, also having attended many live performances of classical music, particularly several Carmina Burana's which I'm specially fond of.This CD can make you think that it was recorded having the microphones inside the orchestra section, so the solo singers in many cases sound quite too far asay and almost covered by the orchestra closeness and loudness. Needless to say, that would NOT be ideal to realistically record the wall of sound that an audience in front of a Carmina Burana live performance would perceive. But I think that even such mic position wasn't the case for this recording, because some times the choirs are way too soft, and some others appropriately loud with respect to the orchestra. So I think the wild but inconsistent volume level issue in this CD was the result of artifacts introduced by recording engineers.Despite that issue, this CD is a must have among your Carmina Burana CD's. Notice what I imply in that comment: you simply can't have just one recording of Carmina Burana if you really love the piece! Another recommendation is again the Joschum/Dieskau recording which I also own and can recommend, even though not as much as this one. After you listen to Ms. Auger in this one, almost certainly you will have this rendition of the Dulcisima, and this Carmina Burana overall, as your very favorites."

Volume Control, Please

D. Dwyer | USA | 03/11/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This performance of Carmina Burana is well executed under the direction of Ricardo Muti. The chorus is competent and has excellent blend. The soloists have a strong command of the opus and clearly enunciate the text. The major difficulty in the recording lies in the extremely poor control of the recorded volume. It is not possible to simply listen to the work. Because of the extreme range of volumes, it is necessary to continually adjust the volume so as to either heard the work or not be deafened. This mars an otherwise excellent recording."

How can you not dig it?????

R. Hogg | West Virginia | 07/30/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First off, I want do dismiss all claims that this recording is unbalanced. The score to Carmina Burana calls for extreme dynamic contrasts, and this recording gives you just that. Whether they need be this extreme is a matter of opinion, but I, for one, think it adds to the performance.

Musically speaking, Carmina Burana is Orff's masterpiece, and should be listened to by everyone at least once in their lives. I don't know if this is THE recording, but it sure is a darn good one.

The balance between orchestra and choir(s) is excellent. The recording quality is amazing, and the ensemble sound is, well, very German in approach, very raw, passionate, Wagnerian even. Excecution is nearly flawless on all accounts, and the Dulcissime is absolutely gorgeous! Ms. Auger sings it beautifully, hitting the high notes with ease. The best I've heard by far! And the other soloists are no less amazing, either.

I thoroughly recommend this recording, though I warn you, this is not for car listening. You'll blow your speakers, your ears, and probably your airbag when the music startles you, distracts you, and you run into a tree. You have been warned!"

Dynamic music goes both loud and soft.

D. Dwyer | 03/26/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Carmina Burana is a very dynamic piece of music that has loud and soft portions. This means that it is not suitable to be used as background music, but it does not mean that there is a problem with the sound levels. Other pieces that come to mind are Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, or, for that matter, Beethoven's Symphonies, all of which are not suitable as backgound music, unless they are performed anemically.

The sound quality of this analog recording is excellent.

The music is alternately sublime and brutal.

The performance is magnificent, with Augér being the standout. Her voice is amazing, and the Dulcissime (track 23) is proof that she was one of the greatest sopranos of all time. The dynamic performance gives the disk a "live" quality, as if one were hearing a live performance rather than a recording. If you go hear an orchestra live, you should not expect them to remain quiet, unless the piece requires that (or it is a bad performance).

The fact that you can get this superb CD for so little money demonstrates that "you get what you pay for" is a lie. It is one of the best CDs I own (I own about 600 CDs).

Buy this great CD. Unless, of course, you are looking for music that will put you to sleep. Then I advise you to pick a different piece of music, not simply a different performance.

For the benefit of a certain other reviewer: Amazon does give a warning about this CD -- see Robert Levine's 'Editorial Review' above, which concludes with: "Warning: The louds are very loud." Word to the wise: Shop at Amazon.com for getting information about a CD before you buy. And buy this great CD unless you want a recording that has been severely compressed dynamically in order to allow it to be used as elevator music. The dynamics of this recording are close to what you would hear at a live performance.

Edited 19 September 2007 to add:

Having attended live performances of symphonic music on many occasions, I can say definitively that it is common for an orchestra to play so loud that one can barely stand it, and so soft that one can barely hear it. Obviously, this will not be the case with every piece of music, but it is the case with music that is very dynamic, such as this piece. This is one of the few CDs that capture this. If the volume control is set properly, and if your system is good enough to reproduce this, it will be so soft in the soft portions that you will barely be able to hear it, and the loud portions will be very, very loud. This means that this is not suitable for background music, nor is it suitable in a room that is not otherwise very quiet (as then it must be even louder for the soft parts to be heard over noise in the room). A concert hall is typically a place of quiet, other than the sound of the performers (and, unfortunately, the occasional cough, but this recording, not being "live", does not have coughs in it). To properly play this CD, you must also have a room that is quiet other than the sound from the CD. Now, if you don't want to listen to music this way, or if your system distorts horribly when the volume is turned up loud, then this CD is not for you. But if you want something as close as possible to what you would get in a concert hall, and if your stereo is up to the task, then this disc is for you.

Unfortunately, these days, most people never hear music live; they only listen to recordings. Typically, recordings are compressed dynamically (i.e., the difference between the loud portions and the soft portions is artificially diminished, so it is closer to the same volume all the time), so that is what people tend to expect. Historically, such compression was necessary in many cases, as LPs have a limited dynamic range. But with CDs, the dynamic range can be very great indeed, and this CD comes closer to giving you what you would have in a live performance than most.

Unfortunately, even if one is used to actually hearing live symphonic music, one still might not like this CD if one's stereo is not very good. This is because low quality stereos often distort audibly when playing very loud, and that is not like a live performance at all. If it sounds very distorted during the loud parts, it is your stereo, not the CD, which is causing the problem. You can verify this for yourself by reducing the volume during the loud portions, and notice how the distortion goes down when you turn down the volume.

If your stereo is clear and undistorted when playing music so loud that you can barely stand it, it is probably good enough for the dynamic range of this CD. If not, buy a better stereo so you can listen to this great recording properly!"

One of the Finest

Mark Jordan | Gambier, Ohio, USA | 10/23/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have so many recordings of Carmina Burana, I've lost count. The two finest are the legendary 1967 Jochum recording on DG and this one, which is surprisingly less well-known that it ought to be. And at this price, it is a steal! If Jochum's is the most atmospheric and characterful recording of the work, Muti's is the most dramatic, keeping the piece far more focused than the average performance. As noted below, Arleen Auger's solos are magical-- for once "Dulcissime" sounds like a gorgeous surrender and not like someone strangling a cougar. That tiny track alone would be worth the price of this CD. ..."

Search - Jonathan Summers, Carl Orff, Riccardo Muti :: Orff: Carmina Burana

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