ERIC HARRISON, HOST:
Good afternoon and thanks for tuning in to Little Rock Public Radio and Classical
KLRE-FM, 90.5. I'm Eric Harrison, I write about arts and culture at the Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette and I'll be your host for the next two hours.
You're listening to "Major and Minor Masterpieces," where we focus each week on a
broad range of classical music, from chamber music to choral works to full symphonies
and maybe even a touch or two of opera.
Today's theme is "Choral-orchestral monsterworks," a couple of massive works for
vocal soloists, big choruses and large orchestral forces.
Carl Orff was a trailblazing German composer who experimented with rhythm and meter
in the first half of the 20th century, and also with the use of percussion instruments in
ways that had not been previously explored.
Although he composed numerous stage works, operas and choral compositions, his
masterwork, the one that has kept his name in the repertoire for nearly a century, is his
1936 opus "Carmina Burana," for three vocal soloists, adult and children's choirs and a
massive orchestra.
And if you think you have not heard it before, you're wrong --- or at least you've almost
certainly heard the opening movement, "O Fortuna," which has been used in countless
commercials, movie soundtracks (and trailers) and countless videos.
In 1934, Orff encountered a collection of 11th and 12th century songs and poems titled
"Carmina Burana," which translates loosely to "Songs of Beurons." They were written by
the clerics in a Benedictine monastery, mostly in medieval Latin with some in period
vernacular German and French, many of them rather scurrilous and what even today
might be not safe for work.
He and collaborator Michael Hoffmann sifted through the codex to find poems that
would best suit his vision of a "scenic cantata" with the central theme focusing on the
twists, turns and reversals of fortune. Orff has said that the imagery of the opening text,
"O Fortuna / velut luna / statu variabilis" ("O, Fortune, like the moon, whose state
constantly changes") instantly transfixed him, and he began to compose music to go
along with it.
The work is in 25 movements, divided into four parts and a prologue, "Fortuna
Imperatrix Mundi" ("Fortune, Empress of the World"). The first he called "Primo vera"
("In Spring"); the second, "Uf dem anger" ("On the Green"); and the third, "In Taberna"
("In the Tavern"). The latter, as you have probably guessed, involves various songs
inspired by drinking and carousing, including "Olim lacus colueram," in which the tenor
sings the plaintive song of a swan as it roasts on a spit, and "Ego sum abbas," with the
baritone depicting a drunken abbot. The fourth, "Cour d'amours," ("The Court of Love"),
explores the joys of both romantic and fleshly love. And the piece concludes with a
repetition of the "O Fortuna."
Let's hear the piece in its entirety with soprano Claire Rutter, tenor Tom Randle and
baritone Markus Eiche; the Highcliffe Junior Choir and Bournemouth Symphony Youth
Chorus; and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Marin
Alsop.
(CARL ORFF'S "CARMINA BURANA")
ERIC: You've heard soprano Claire Rutter, tenor Tom Randle and baritone Markus
Eiche, with the Highcliffe Junior Choir, Bournemouth Symphony Youth Chorus,
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and conductor Marin Alsop perform
Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" on today's edition of "Major and Minor Masterpieces" on
Little Rock Public Radio and classical KLRE-FM, 90.5.
(SOUNDBITE OF WOJCIECH "BOITEG" CIESLIŃSKI'S "FIRST VIOLIN")
---PROGRAM BREAK---
[EDUCATIONAL SEGMENT]
SARAH BUFORD, PRODUCER:
Hey listeners, welcome back to Major and Minor Masterpieces. I'm your producer,
Sarah Buford, and it's time for our show's little educational session, in which we break
down some of the terminology we use when describing classical music and its history.
Eric, considering this is a program concentrating on vocalists, I thought it would be a
good idea to go into a little more detail on vocal ranges. I see we're highlighting solo
performances by sopranos, mezzo-sopranos, tenor and baritone. What can you tell us
about those ranges?
ERIC: Well, Sarah, since human beings began singing, or at least began singing in
harmony, there have been four basic vocal parts that still persist in soloists and
choruses today --- the primarily female ranges of soprano and alto, and the
predominantly male ranges of tenor and bass.
Soprano is the highest range, generally classified as from middle C to a high A. The alto
range is generally from a low G to a high C. Tenors sing in a range from a low C to a
high B; and the bass range covers from C an octave below the tenor's to a middle D or
even a middle E.
And there are intermediate gradations. For example, the mezzo-soprano, which is sort
of a bridge between soprano and alto ranges; the contralto, who sings in a register
somewhat below that of a "regular" alto; and the baritone, who sings in a range
somewhere between tenor and bass. To complicate things even more, among male
voices, there is the countertenor, a male vocalist who sings in the alto or even soprano
range (though the latter is fairly rare), and the bare-tenor, whose range extends all the
way from low baritone to high tenor.
SARAH: Okay, that all makes sense. Thanks, Eric, for giving "voice" to this explanation.
Now let's get back to more music.
[END OF EDUCATIONAL SEGMENT]
(SOUNDBITE OF WOJCIECH "BOITEG" CIESLIŃSKI'S "FIRST VIOLIN")
Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein had made his name in silent films, including the
1925 classic "The Battleship Potemkin," but it had been nine years since he had
completed a film, in part because he had come under harsh criticism from the Stalinist
authorities at a time when such criticism meant near-total censorship.
Then in 1937 he got the opportunity to make "Alexander Nevsky," which would be his
first film with sound.
From the outset, he envisaged music as a vital and integral ingredient, and turned to
Sergei Prokofiev, also the target of Stalinist disapproval --- he had relocated to Russia
in 1936 after 18 years in the west. Their successful collaboration rehabilitated both of
their careers and they would go on to collaborate on the making of another classic, the
two-part "Ivan the Terrible."
Alexander Nevsky was an actual historical figure, a 13th-century prince whose defeat of
Swedish and German invaders made him a national hero to the point at which he was
canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in the 16th century.
Eisenstein's film focuses on a particular moment in his career, the defeat of a band of
crusading Teutonic knights in the Battle on Lake Peipus (popularly known as the "Battle
on the Ice") on April 5, 1242.
After the release of the film, Prokofiev arranged for concert performance a seven-
movement cantata for full orchestra, chorus and mezzo-soprano that has gone on to
become one of his most popular works.
Elena Obraztsova joins the London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus and conductor
Claudio Abbado to perform Prokofiev's cantata "Alexander Nevsky."
(SERGEI PROKOFIEV'S "ALEXANDER NEVSKY")
ERIC: You heard the London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus with mezzo-soprano
Elena Obraztsova and conductor Claudio Abbado perform Sergei Prokofiev's
"Alexander Nevsky."
And now for today's lagniappe. Johannes Brahms' "Alto Rhapsody," for alto soloist,
male chorus and orchestra is not his most massive choral work --- that would be the
"German Requiem" which he completed the year before, in 1868 --- but it's quite
possibly his most gorgeous.
Brahms took as his text three stanzas, a total of 22 lines, from the middle of an 88-line
poem, "Harzreise im Winter" ("Winter Journey in the Harz Mountains") that J.W. von
Goethe wrote in the late 1770s while on a mission to prevent a friend from committing
suicide.
Brahms found the text, an uneasy balance between alienation and individual
redemption, sympathetic to his own nature, as well as reflecting his unrequited love for
Clara Schumann, who remained unattainable even after the death of her husband
Robert in 1856. The score nevertheless affected Clara, from whom Brahms was
accustomed to seeking approval for his works, to the point where she recorded in her
diary, "It is long since I remember being so moved by the profound pain of words and
music. It is the expression of his own heart's anguish. If only he could speak so candidly
in his own words!"
On this recording, we'll hear an unusual soloist --- Jessye Norman, normally considered
a dramatic soprano but who did not limit herself to that voice type --- with the men of the
Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Riccardo Muti
conducting.
(JOHANNES BRAHMS' "ALTO RHAPSODY")
ERIC: Jessye Norman joined the men of the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, the
Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Riccardo Muti to perform the "Alto Rhapsody" by
Johannes Brahms to wrap up this week's edition of "Major and Minor Masterpieces."
(SOUNDBITE OF WOJCIECH "BOITEG" CIESLIŃSKI'S "FIRST VIOLIN")
Thanks for tuning in this week. I've been your host, Eric Harrison, of the Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette. Our producer is Sarah Buford. Our transition and credit music is by
our friend Wojciech Chiselinski.
Tune in again next week for Major and Minor Masterpieces on Little Rock Public Radio
and classical KLRE-FM, 90.5.
---------------------------------------
The recordings:
Orff: "Carmina Burana," Claire Rutter, Tom Randle & Markus Eiche, Highcliffe Junior
Choir, Bournemouth Symphony Youth Chorus, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and
Chorus, Marin Alsop, Naxos 8570033
Prokofiev: "Alexander Nevsky," Elena Obraztsova (mezzo soprano), London Symphony
Orchestra & Chorus, Claudio Abbado, Deutsche Grammophon 4474192
Brahms: "Alto Rhapsody," Jessye Norman, Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia,
Philadelphia Orchestra, Riccardo Muti, Philips 4262532