Symphonischer Chor Hamburg / Symphoniker Hamburg / Matthias Janz

Worldly sound cathedrals

Bam! – »Oooooo Fortuuuna!« – Boom! That’s how the »Carmina Burana« begins. These are the »Songs from Beuern«, song texts from a medieval manuscript that was discovered in 1803 in the Benediktbeuern monastery. They contain cheerful, humorous, but also coarse texts: Monks take out good German citizens in a game of dice, there is drinking, feasting, banter and ... making love. Strong stuff, then. But the aforementioned Fortuna – fate – played these very texts into Carl Orff’s hands in 1934 when he discovered an edition of them by chance in a second-hand bookshop – and was immediately electrified. Orff was inspired by the medieval aura of the »Carmina« and found ways to evoke the feeling of the Middle Ages. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)