Today, that composer of tunes beloved of film soundtrack compilers and advertising executives everywhere Carl Orff would have been 99 years old.
As described on the Music and the Holocaust site, Herr Orff was a contradictory figure - at first condemned by, then overly ingratiating to the Nazi regime throughout its odious rule, he nevertheless also managed to survive the post-war blacklist with his reputation untarnished.
Regardless of his somewhat clouded status, the man wrote some remarkable music, some of it very dramatic indeed. They say "if a thing is worth doing, it's worth over-doing" - an epithet that could have been written for his O Fortuna, here worked rather theatrically (as is his wont) by the Netherlands' finest purveyor of "pop-classics" André Rieu, his orchestra and "chorus of thousands":
Again from Orff's masterwork Carmina Burana [which itself had a chequered history; at first condemned by the Nazis as "decadent", and later embraced by them], here is an utterly wonderful (and exceptionally camp) video of the late, great Lucia Popp and the simply beautiful In Trutina:
I am singing along as we speak...
Carl Heinrich Maria Orff (10th July 1895 – 29th March 1982)
Watch the whole 1975 televised Carmina Burana - from whence came the Lucia Popp clip - on YouTube.
Thank you so much for posting this link. I just watched the whole thing it was so stupendous.
ReplyDeleteI have yet to make time to sit down and watch the whole thing - but the little I have seen has really whetted my appetite... Jx
DeleteNot only did I watch the whole thing, I've shamelessly piled on the bandwagon and stolen it. Too, too, too!
ReplyDelete"O Cohors, Induamur Spectaculum!"
DeleteIndeed. Jx