{"id":616193,"date":"2025-12-06T15:38:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T15:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/616193\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T15:38:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T15:38:15","slug":"carmina-burana-edinburgh-music-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/616193\/","title":{"rendered":"Carmina Burana \u2014 Edinburgh Music Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

City Halls, Glasgow, 30\/11\/25<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bearsden Choir, NYCoS Stirling Choir, Lynda Cochrane & Judith Keaney (pianos); RCS Percussion Ensemble; Andrew Nunn (director), Rachel Munro (soprano), Joseph Doody (tenor), Phil Gault (baritone)<\/p>\n

The 1970s were my teen years and I cannot be the only person whose first encounter with Carl Orff\u2019s life-affirming cantata \u2018Carmina Burana\u2019 was an advertisement for \u2018Old Spice\u2019 men\u2019s fragrance, in which a rugged male surfer rides the \u2018tube\u2019 of a tempestuous rolling wave towards an attractive, admiring, scantily clad, panting woman on the shore.\u00a0 \u2018Subtlety\u2019, the reader may readily imagine, is a characteristic infrequently associated with the 70s.\u00a0 I tell not a word of a lie when I say I was impervious to the preposterous claims of the advertising industry, but the music: that was a different matter. It wowed me. The visuals had me assuming that I was hearing an orgiastic (if not orgasmic) excerpt from a pretty wild opera. When I heard that the piece was called \u2018Carmina Burana\u2019, I honestly first thought that that was a girl\u2019s name and that she was clearly a bit of a \u2018goer\u2019.\u00a0 Although I had begun learning Latin in 1973, it was a while before the penny dropped.\u00a0 It was 1982 before I bought an LP of the work and finally understood it.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been a fan ever since.\u00a0 So the 150-strong Bearsden Choir\u2019s first concert of their 2025-26 season in Glasgow\u2019s City Halls on 30th November was unmissable.\u00a0 A version of the Carmina where the instrumentation was 2 pianos plus an array of percussion occupied the larger second half of the programme.\u00a0 Children\u2019s voices were provided by the NYCoS Stirling Regional Choir. Pianists Lynda Cochrane and Judith Keaney delivered the bulk of the melodic orchestral reduction.\u00a0 An ensemble of 6 percussion students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland provided the rest of the instrumental texture.\u00a0 Solo vocals were sung by soprano Rachel Munro, tenor\u00a0 Joseph Doody and baritone\u00a0 Phil Gault.\u00a0 Bearsden Choir\u2019s Music Director Andrew Nunn conducted.\u00a0 The shorter first half of the concert featured cameo performances by the Bearsden Choir, a duet of percussionists from the RCS, and the NYCOS Stirling Choir, with pieces by Kerry Andrew, Arvo P\u00e4rt and Rolf Wallin.\u00a0 Attendance was very satisfactory.<\/p>\n

The concert opened with English composer Kerry Andrew\u2019s \u2018O Nata Lux\u2019, the first of 12 \u2018Dusksongs\u2019 written for The Ebor Singers in 2007.\u00a0 Ethereal atmospheric solo lines grow to a prayerful full choir sound, with a harmonic texture like modern quasi-organum.\u00a0 Conductor Andrew Nunn introduced the next two pieces, starting with\u00a0 Arvo P\u00e4rt\u2019s \u2018Magnificat\u2019, a piece typical of\u00a0 P\u00e4rt\u2019s \u2018tintinnabuli\u2019 style, where slow-moving held notes in one line are ornamented by their harmonics arpeggiated in the other lines, evoking the sound of bellringing.\u00a0 Exquisite stillness alternates with swelling dynamics to a big sound.\u00a0 It is a challenging sing and there was a slight pitch drop in the sopranos on first returning to meditative stillness.\u00a0 This did not mar the simplicity, clarity and directness of the transparent texture, however, which was quite magical.\u00a0 The set concluded with a return to Andrew, with their 2011 piece \u2018The Earth Hath Voice\u2019, for which the choir was joined by pianist Lynda Cochrane and 2 percussionists from the RCS (Lauren Northorpe and Lewis Russell).\u00a0 Vocal imitation of the sounds of nature and the elements abounds, but there is much more, including rhythmic sprechgesang on keywords (such as \u2018shore\u2019 and \u2018light\u2019) and some quite complex polyphony.\u00a0 Notwithstanding the unignorable ecological message, the mood of the piece is optimistic and uplifting and it received compelling advocacy.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

For\u00a0 Norwegian composer Rolf Wallin\u2019s \u2018Frap\u2019, two more percussionists from the RCS (Catriona Duncan and Matthew Rankin) faced each other with two matching kits of untuned percussion (with drums, cowbells, woodblocks and metal bars but no cymbals) and went at it hammer-and-tongs in a display of rhythmic virtuosity (part duet; part duel). Thrilling.<\/p>\n

The first half concluded with a set of 3 songs from the NYCoS youngsters, introduced by their conductor Mark Evans and accompanied by Judith Keaney on the piano.\u00a0 First up,\u00a0 \u2018From a Railway Carriage\u2019 a setting of Robert Louis Stevenson, featured a briskly ornate and rhythmic piano \u2018engine\u2019, as the gleeful text evokes images of the scenery flashing past, with super diction from the young choristers. The tranquil tenderness of the traditional Welsh lullaby \u2018Suo G\u00e2n\u2019 provided a sweet contrast in an arrangement by the NYCoS Stirling accompanist Stuart Hope (with what is often called the American version of the lyrics, in which the only Welsh is the title repeated hypnotically at the beginning of each line).\u00a0 The set concluded with \u2018Make a song for my heart to sing\u2019 by Julie Knowles, simple, cheerful and charming with just a touch of two-part counterpoint and undiminished quality of diction.\u00a0 Delightful.<\/p>\n

Scoring reductions bring gains and losses.\u00a0 Typically, the gains include enhanced transparency of textural detail and reduced obscuring of vocalists\u2019 diction.\u00a0 Inevitably (at least in my experience), the losses almost always involve the absence of some brass instruments and, to a lesser extent, key winds at crucial moments.\u00a0 I was pleasantly surprised that the instances of such losses were relatively rare. The timpani and 150 voices ensured that the declamatory opening of \u2018O Fortuna\u2019 (of Old Spice fame) lacked none of its customary thrill.\u00a0 The two pianos honoured the stealthy inexorable march of fate, as in the original, while the addition of bass drum, tam-tam\u00a0 and 1 Glockenspiel (there are 3 in the original) ensured that the concluding peroration at the end of the number did not lack an ounce of oomph.\u00a0 It was not until the admonitory orchestral ritornelli at the ends of the 3 verses of the second number, \u2018Fortune plango vulnera\u2019 (I lament the wounds dealt by Fate), that I really missed the winds and brass.\u00a0 But, amazingly, not once again in the choral numbers or the solos did I feel their absence.\u00a0 \u2018Ecce gratum\u2019 (Behold the most pleasing thing) shone.\u00a0 \u2018Floret silva nobilis\u2019 (The noble forest blooms) was gorgeous.\u00a0 \u2018Chramer, gib die varwe mir\u2019 (Merchant, give me some makeup \u2013 in Old High German) was delightful.\u00a0 \u2018In taberna quando sumus\u2019 (When we\u2019re in the pub) was riotous.\u00a0 \u2018Si puer cum puellula\u2019 (If a lad and a lassie) for a handful of voices was raunchily suggestive; \u2018Veni, veni, venias\u2019 (Come, come, o please come) was breathless with desire.\u00a0 \u2018Ave formosissima\u2019\u00a0 (Haol, dishiest one) was radiant with its praise of feminine beauty.\u00a0 The reprise of \u2018O fortuna\u2019 reminded us that Fate still holds all the cards.<\/p>\n

Welsh-Irish baritone Phil Gault, on whose always characterful guest appearances, specifically with City of Glasgow Chorus (Haydn\u2019s \u2018Creation\u2019 in June and Bach\u2019s \u2018Magnificat\u2019 in March 2024), and Garleton Singers (Puccini\u2019s \u2018Messa\u2019 back in March this year), it has been my pleasure to report, delivered again with the same rich warm tone and flawless shaping of note and phrase.\u00a0 Orff is generous with goodies for the baritone.\u00a0 The gentle stirrings of spring in \u2018Omnia sol temperat\u2019 (The sun warms everything); \u2018Estuans interius\u2019 (Seething inside) \u2013 the confessions of a rakish libertine poet in the tavern, and \u2018Ego sum abbas\u2019 (I am the abbot) \u2013 the confessions of a drunken gambling monk, cut a picaresque Bruegelian portrait, cursed by the chorus, giving a nod to Orff\u2019s original vision for the cantata as a semi-staged theatrical entertainment.\u00a0 In the penultimate section, \u2018Cour d\u2019Amours\u2019 (The Court of Love), the baritone is the lover of the soprano, with \u2018Dies, nox et omnia\u2019 (Day, night and everything \u2013 feeling the sting of Cupid\u2019s dart), \u2018Circa mea pectora\u2019 (In my heart \u2013 yep, direct hit, desire inflamed, teased by the chorus), and finally, egged on by the choir in \u2018Tempus est iocundum\u2019 (This is the time for making whoopee \u2013 my tongue-in-cheek translation), his shyness melts as her sweet cadenza lights the way to consummation.\u00a0 Excellent.<\/p>\n

By contrast, the tenor has only one number, but it\u2019s a corker.\u00a0 For \u2018Olim lacus colueram\u2019 (I once plied the lakes \u2013 the bitter tale of a once proud elegant swan being spit-roasted for a feast) Joseph Doody arrived on the stage like a rabbit caught in the headlights, startled by the choir and terrified at the sight of the audience.\u00a0 The choir responded like Job\u2019s Comforters to his misery.\u00a0 At the end of the number, denied a scintilla of empathy, he scarpered in a blue funk.\u00a0 This was my first time seeing English tenor Joseph Doody and he gets a massive thumbs-up.\u00a0 Superb.<\/p>\n

In June 2023, I attended, enjoyed and reviewed the Byre Opera production of Dove\u2019s \u2018Mansfield Park\u2019 in the Laidlaw Music Centre in St Andrews.\u00a0 I was blown away by a stunning coloratura soprano in the role of Mary Crawford.\u00a0 That soprano was fellow-mathematician Rachel Munro, and she had already been working in a graduate position at the Laidlaw Music Centre and for Scottish Chamber Orchestra, as well as leading Craigmillar Voices community choir as part of the SCO\u2019s outreach residency programme.\u00a0 She was set to join the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland post-graduate Vocal Performance programme in September that year.\u00a0 I resolved to watch for opportunities to track her emergent career.\u00a0 I waited patiently (mostly) and in May this year my patience was rewarded by catching her in Opera Bohemia\u2019s production of \u2018Suor Angelica\u2019 at the Perth Festival, in the minor role of Lay Sister.\u00a0 I was therefore delighted to see her name on the programme for \u2018Carmina Burana\u2019.<\/p>\n

The solo soprano is the young woman in the \u2018Cour d\u2019Amours\u2019 section, the object of the baritone\u2019s affections.\u00a0 In \u2018Amor volat undique\u2019 (Love flies everywhere), the children\u2019s voices sing tenderly of Cupid\u2019s mission, while the soprano feels the sting of his dart (with just a touch of FOMO \u2013 Fear of Missing Out).\u00a0 \u2018Stetit puella\u2019 (A girl stood) paints a picture of a dishy girl in a red dress,\u00a0 Rachel was in a green dress, but hey (eia \u2026), who cares?\u00a0 Dishy is dishy.\u00a0 The idyllically sweet simple melody of \u2018In trutina\u2019 (On the scales) shows her weighing up the dilemma: chastity or wanton passion.\u00a0 No contest.\u00a0 Cupid wins.\u00a0 Her brief tender cadenza, \u2018Dulcissime\u2019 (O sweetest boy) leaves us in no doubt..<\/p>\n

This concert was the day after the death of the playwright Tom Stoppard and I was musing about his masterpiece \u2018Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead\u2019 even as I was musing over the message of \u2018Carmina Burana\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern don\u2019t realise that they are characters in a Shakespeare play whose script is already written and they are doomed.\u00a0 Their continued survival seems as random and inexplicable as the flip of a coin.\u00a0 Even the title contains a contradiction in the last two words (\u2018are\u2019 = they exist; \u2018dead\u2019 = they don\u2019t). The fundamental absurdity of life and language and the absence of meaning where everything is a contradiction weighs heavily.\u00a0 Yet, as long as they survive, they are winning the game whose rules remain hidden to them.\u00a0 In the Carmina, Fate holds all the cards in a game whose rules it makes up on the fly.\u00a0 Planning a future is folly and delusion.\u00a0 But there is joy and beauty and love in the world and we can experience it all if we dare, even as precarity hovers in the wings.\u00a0 Funny how a 20th century playwright\u00a0 teasing out an extra layer of meaning from Shakespeare, and a 20th century composer, captivated by the beauty of a codex of 11th to 13th century poems in Latin, Old French and Old High German in a Benedictine monastery in Beuren, Bavaria, came to similar surreal world views.\u00a0 I\u2019ll dedicate this review to the memory of Tom Stoppard.<\/p>\n

And to the choristers young and older, soloists, instrumentalists and conductor who made Orff\u2019s surreal vision real: well done, you caught it perfectly.\u00a0 Fullest plaudits from me to add to those of the audience on the night.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

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