SEE Magazine: Edmonton’s Weekly Source For News, Arts and Entertainment
SEE Magazine
Issue #425: January 24, 2002
MUSIC
PREVIEW

by Jerry Ozipko 
Carmina Burana
Pro Coro Canada
Sunday, Jan. 27, 2 p.m. at the Winspear Centre

In 1934, German composer Carl Orff came into the possession of a book of medieval poetry which had been published in 1847. The particular edition which he obtained had been based on a manuscript of religious plays, sermon texts and songs and poems dealing with the joys of eating, drinking, gaming and love making which had been discovered in the Bavarian Abbey of Benediktbeuren in 1803. Some of the poetry, written between 1220 and 1250, was blatantly ribald and sensual. The infectious rhythms of the words inspired Orff to compose Carmina Burana between 1934 and 1937.

Originally scored for vocal soloists, choir and massive orchestra, the work will be performed in a somewhat more intimate setting by Pro Coro Canada and the Hammerhead Consort at their next concert. However, in the words of musical director Richard Sparks, the work will lose none of its power or dramatic impact.

“The solo and choral parts have not been altered in any way, and the [five] percussion parts are also the way Orff originally wrote them. The only change is that Orff transcribed the orchestral parts for two pianos. The result is a different colour to the music, which brings out many things that might not be otherwise heard in the orchestral version.”

Orff’s reworked score has been used quite often in ballet versions, which was the manner in which it received its last hearing in Edmonton a couple of years ago. That does not necessarily make it any easier to perform.

“There are times where I’d swear the pianists have to play with three hands in order to get all the notes in.”

The soloist roles will be presented by Canadian artists soprano Sharla Nafziger, tenor John Tessier and baritone Marc Boucher.

Sparks, who has had the recent honour of being the first North American in more than 20 years to conduct the celebrated Swedish Radio Choir, adds that there will be other music on the programme which makes an appropriate match with the Orff. Malcolm Forsyth’s Hesperides, which was written just a couple of years ago, is scored for choir and two harps. In Greek mythology, the Hesperides were the daughters of the Titan Atlas or of Hesper, the evening star. According to Forsyth, his music was set to 15 poems by Robert Herrick.

“He wrote a whole set of about 1,200 poems that were published under the name Hesperides. They were written just before the beheading of Charles I – around the 1630s and ’40s. He was the Cavalier poet; he was one of the King’s party, so he fell out of favour. They are very erotic and somewhat scatological.”

Pro Coro will also be premiering a new work by ESO Composer-in-Residence Allan Gilliland, but at the time of the interview, Sparks had not yet received the score and was unable to provide any details on the work.