Carmina Burana
Usher Hall, 15/11/2024
RSNO, Marzena Diakun, conductor
There are times in one’s concert going life when the stars align, and everything works. Great music, great performers and a great atmosphere all combine to produce a remarkable event, long to remain in the memory. Such was the performance of Carl Orff’s masterpiece, ‘Carmina Burana’, on Friday 15th November in the Usher Hall, by the RSNO, the RSNO Chorus, the RSNO Youth Chorus, Fflur Wyn (soprano), Adrian Dwyer (tenor) and Ben McAteer (baritone), conducted by the mercurial Marzena Diakun.
Carl Orff composed ‘Carmina Burana’ in 1935/36, and the complete work was premiered in Frankfurt (interestingly as a staged work) in 1937. He had been sent a collection of mediaeval texts and poems, unearthed in Kloster Benediktbeuern (formerly Benedictobuarum), a Benedictine abbey in Bavaria, and published in 1847 by Johannes Schmeller as Carmina Burana (Songs from Beuern), and was instantly fascinated by the wide range of subjects and emotions revealed by these 13th Century texts. With the help of a young law student and classical scholar, Michel Hofmann, he arranged 24 of the songs into a libretto, and, despite the misgivings of the Nazi government (which was disturbed by some of the erotic content of the work), the first performance was a triumph. Orff’s legacy has been clouded by his apparently close association with the Nazis, but it seems that he was more of a Narcissist than a Nazi. The great baritone, Hans Hotter, writes in his memoirs that Orff (whom he knew) was desperate for fame and love, and if that came from the government in charge at the time, so be it. He was never a party member, and, like thousands of others, collaborated unwillingly with the regime. His post-war celebrity dispelled most of the doubts about his pre-war activities, and he lived to see the total success of his masterwork before he died in 1982.
The concert opened with an amusing cantata/cello concerto by the Russian/ English composer, Elena Langer, ‘The Dong with a Luminous Nose’. This was premiered in 2023 in London, and we heard its Scottish premiere. Set to a nonsense poem by the eccentric Edward Lear (he of ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’), it describes events on the Gromboolian Plain when the Dong, a rather pathetic creature, falls in love with a Jumbly girl, who has arrived in a seaworthy sieve at Zemmery Fidd where the Oblong Oysters grow! Eventually, the Jumbly girl sails off in her sieve, leaving the Dong bereft and sad. He walks around aimlessly in the hope of finding her again, and makes a huge nose, painted red and fitted with a lamp. Playing a squeaky pipe and illuminated by his luminous nose, he is a common sight as he wanders, deranged and sad, across the Gromboolian Plain.
Ms Langer has composed a delightful little cantata based on this crazy poem, given weight and purpose by a virtuoso cello part, brilliantly played by the RSNO’s principal cellist, the Australian, Pei Jee Ng. The RSNO Chorus and the RSNO Youth Chorus sang the text with great gusto, as the story unfolds from exposition through happy days of love and contentment to the dreadful madness of the Dong, and finally finding some peace towards the end. I hadn’t expected such a substantial appetiser to the Orff, so was pleasantly surprised by Ms Langer’s piece, and it was certainly well -received by the sold out Usher Hall.
The reason the hall was sold out was the enduring popularity of ‘Carmina Burana’, a work I have known and loved since I was a student at St Andrews, listening on my stereo record player to the fantastic recording made in 1968, only five years before, conducted by Eugen Jochum, and authorised by Orff himself as definitive. From the very first dramatic chords, Marzena Diakun established a control over tonight’s proceedings which never faltered throughout the 65 minutes of the piece. Apart from one or two slightly rushed passages (which were nonetheless exciting), Ms Diakun oversaw a thrilling and triumphant performance which brought out all the subtleties and quirks of this well-loved cantata.
Orff and Hofmann put together a cleverly rounded work in 3 main sections, framed at the beginning and the end by the most famous number, O Fortuna, an invocation to the goddess of Fate and Fortune. The first section enjoys the glories of Spring as it breaks out of the grip of Winter, sending the sap rising all over the place in an evocation of sunny Bavarian meadows. Dances and songs set the mood, and lead into the joys of the tavern, with drinking, gambling and other less delicate pursuits vying for the attention of the monks and their friends. A wildly exuberant drinking song for male chorus (In Taberna quando sumus), extolling the multifarious pleasures of tavern life, taken at quite a lick by Ms Diakun, showed off the excellence of Stephen Doughty’s terrific RSNO Chorus, and Ben McAteer’s fabulous baritone dominated the scene, firstly in the dramatic description of a riotous life in the pub (Estuans Interius), and then in the ribald confessions of the ‘Abbot of Cucany’, involving drink, gambling and gluttony. In the midst of it all, we see the poor swan, in the guise of the Australian tenor, Adrian Dwyer, stuck on the roasting spit, screaming, musically, to the heavens for release, as the chorus looks on hungrily. Once he swam in a cool lake, now he lies on a tray confronted by the gnashers of an expectant set of diners!
The third section takes us to the Court of Love, a love largely refined but not exclusively so. At last, the soprano solo makes her appearance, and it was worth the wait. The petite Welsh soprano, Fflur Wyn, with whom I sang some years ago at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, dazzled with her red silky dress and her phenomenal high notes. The songs in this section are very varied and Ms Diakun took us through the changing moods of the lovers with great skill. The wooing of the baritone, ably assisted by the chorus and the children’s chorus (trained by Patrick Barrett and Alison McNeill), finally wins over the hesitant soprano, torn between virginal propriety and something else, and her stratospheric notes as she sings Dulcissime (Sweet Boy, Ah, I give my all to you) suggest a happy outcome!
I have been a little sceptical about some of the vocal soloists recently booked by the RSNO but the three singers in ‘Carmina Burana’ were well-nigh perfect and contributed directly to the success of the evening. Ben McAteer impressed me enormously in all the baritone solos. It’s a part I could never have sung as it lies very high, even for many baritones, and I doff my metaphorical hat to Ben for his superb rendition. I knew he could sing the exuberant stuff, but I was hugely impressed by the subtlety and finesse of his quiet singing. Adrian Dwyer was a new voice to me, and although only having one solo, he portrayed the roasting swan to perfection, coping with the horrendously high notes easily but also conveying the awful nature of the experience convincingly. Fflur Wyn has just the right voice for the soprano solos, tender, wistful and beautifully in tune.
The conclusion of the concert was treated to loud and rapturous acclaim, and reflected the success of the evening, with wonderful playing by the RSNO, committed singing from the chorus, terrific acting and singing by the soloists, and dynamic conducting from Marzena Diakun. A triumph!
