CONCERT PREVIEW - Toledo Symphony aims for the heart with classical music piece 'Carmina'
By SALLY VALLONGO
BLADE STAFF WRITER
February is Cupid’s month and, in honor of Eros, the Toledo Symphony will perform Carl Orff’s landmark oratorio, Carmina Burana, in its next Classics Series concerts Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. in the Peristyle.
Resident conductor Chelsea Tipton II played musical matchmaker to organize this complex performance, which will feature the Bowling Green State University choruses and about 30 Bowsher High School girls, plus soloists Ilana Davidson, soprano; Daniel Snyder, tenor, and Kevin McMillan, baritone.
There are other works on the program: Anton Dvorak’s Carnival Overture and Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Concerto Funebre. Principal second violinist Merwin Siu will be soloist in the latter work.
Still, the main attraction must be the 1937 Orff masterpiece, a trailblazing work the 40-year-old German composer and pedagogue introduced as his “world theater”to immediate applause by early audiences.
Since then, the applause has never died away and Carmina Burana, (the name literally means ‘‘songs of Beuren,’’ a Benedictine abbey in Germany) has become one of the most popular and successful crossover classical works in history.
Orff, who built his masterpiece upon 24 juicy poems about love, life, luck, and longing written by 8th century monks, intended the effect to be felt in the spiritual realm. But the stirring quality of his percussive, high-energy music has inspired many 21st-century fans to find new and innovative applications for the words and music.
Here are a few examples:
• The Trans-Siberian Orchestra has created an updated, signature version of “O, Fortuna,”the opening and closing numbers in the original work, for live performances and an upcoming recording.
• Japanese composers have incorporated lyrics into scores for movies and video games, including Final Fantasy VII’s One-Winged Angel.
• European and Scandinavian metal and goth bands have hammered out their own high energy versions of “O Fortuna,”and other movements.
• Sony’s Playstation III games of war and monsters rock and roll on Orffian music.
• Countless techno artists have had their way with Orff’s sounds in remixes and music videos. For more, simply enter “carmina burana”on YouTube or just Google it.
Still, no electronic sampling or acoustic rendition can really equal the overpowering force of the original score presented live.
The symphony is performing the entire work, 25 sections organized in three major groups: In Springtime, In the Tavern, and In the Court of Love.
Singing in a combination of Latin and old German, the choirs and soloists will deliver sensual and even steamy text, although only the few who can understand these archaic tongues will be able to understand the words.
Still, the subject gave Karin Giffin, Bowsher High School choral director, pause when Tipton invited her singers to participate in this high-energy artistic undertaking. They will cover parts originally written for a boys choir.
“I think I would be concerned. I wouldn’t want any parents to think it was inappropriate.”
Fortunately, the texts were not for the children’s parts. Their part in No. 15 has them singing: “Amor volat undique, captus est libidine,” which translates to “Cupid flies everywhere, seized by desire.”
It’s certainly nothing stronger than what these teens have seen and heard online or on air. And Giffin was thrilled at the opportunity for her singers.
“The experience is just exceptional,” she said. “It’s one that a lot of girls are not going to have any other way. Only those people who are music majors would ever have the opportunity to do it in college.”
She began rehearsing her singers this month.
“I think it’s very exciting. They’re bringing in out-of-town soloists. The music is vibrant and bold,” continued Giffin, who may or may not sing with her students.
In a fine musical coincidence, Giffin is also certified as an Orff teacher, using the system the composer — who was better known as a music educator pre-Carmina — created earlier to introduce young children directly to music performance.
“I’m happy to be back in the Orff stream,” Giffi n said. “He had such a great way to help children express music and now I’m happy to use Orff again at the high school level.”
Tickets for the Friday and Saturday concerts are $24-$51; The Sunday concert will feature only “Carmina Burana,” and tickets for that family program are $16-$20. Tickets can be purchased through the Toledo Symphony, 419-246-8000, or www.toledosymphony.com.
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Contact Sally Vallongo at: svallongo@theblade.com.
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