Posted on 12/21/2008 12:43:29 PM PST by billorites
The opening line of Carmina Burana “O Fortuna!” could hardly be more apt. Few composers felt themselves more at the mercy of capricious gods and twists of fate than its composer, Carl Orff. He was never a diehard Nazi; indeed, he looked with disdain on their oafish cultural values. Far from espousing the hounding of “inferior races”, he was fascinated by jazz and by what today we would call world music. Yet he rose to become one of the Third Reich’s top musicians.
According to one of his four wives, he “found it impossible to love” and “despised people”. Yet in Carmina Burana he created the world’s jolliest musical celebration of boozing, feasting and generally enjoying the sins of other people’s flesh.
He turned his back on his own teenage daughter, who adored him. “He didn’t want me in his married life,” she recalls sadly. Yet he was (and, in some quarters, still is) adulated in educational circles for his Schulwerksystem of teaching music to young children through rhythm and gesture – a system he originally intended to flog to the Hitler Youth movement. It is still used around the world, particularly (and paradoxically) to help children with cerebral palsy, who would probably not be alive if Hitler’s Germany had triumphed.
A connoisseur of Greek drama, and a perceptive scholar who edited and performed Monteverdi long before the rest of the world rediscovered the Baroque genius, he talked eloquently about the need for people to express themselves through art if they were to become “complete” human beings. Yet one of his wives says that he himself was full of “demonic forces” and would “wake up screaming at night”. He used people shamelessly. Yet, as another wife puts it, “all his life he wanted forgiveness” for the guilt that consumed him.
(Excerpt) Read more at entertainment.timesonline.co.uk ...
And Walter Geiseking.
BTTT
“Still, the Carmina Burana ranks among the best live performances I’ve ever seen of any kind. The power of the chorous and drums just don’t come out in a recording.”
I was first introduced to this wonderful piece of music via Alvin Ailey’s Dance Company in NYC. It was a performance at City Center. I was mesmerized by the power and beauty ofthe music and dancing. The CD I have of Carmina Burana is definitely not as wonderful as it was in that live performance.
I have the old recording with Eugen Jochum conducting, the Schöneberg Boys’ Choir and Berlin Deutsche Oper Chorus singing. It’s awesome, but still not close to live.
Gieseking actually fled Germany and the Nazis. (Oddly for a German pianist, he became legendary for his interpretations of
French music, notably Debussy.)
As did Artur Schnabel, Hans Hotter, and Otto Klemperer.
And Arturo Toscanini had some choice words for both Mussolini and Hitler.
Well, the Soviets did produce Emil Gilels, Lazar Berman, and Sviatoslav Richter. Three of the greatest pianists to ever stalk the concert stage.
Well Eisenstien actually made propaganda films. But they were great films regardless.
bet that is terrific....Robert Shaw was fantastic..
He was, IIRC, married to a woman with strong Nazi ties. And his career suffered mightily for it after the war, although it was never shown that he actually collaborated (or could have!). But he certainly didn't speak out against them. That was a tough situation for an artist, and I wonder how many of us would have when it came to the real gut-check.
You are correct about the Debussy. I have several recordings of his and was, in fact, listening to the Preludes when I wrote the first post.
Nothing is as good as listening live to Carmina Burana. Saw Alvin Ailey’s performance many many times in NYC. It has become one of my favorite dance/orchestral works.
ROFL.
Thanks.
If you look at the homes he designed you get the feeling he was a sociopathic control freak. Of course now most of us live in homes set back from the life of the street...
My understanding, which is admittedly that of a layman, is that a major criterion of great architecture is that the buildings not fall down, as Falling Water has been since its completion.
The Great Man mythos about Wright is just another product of 20th century public relations coupled with ruling class contempt for its cultural patrimony.
Pretty harsh. We have a lot of rousingly primitive, rhythmic neopagan popular music now, but no holocaust. And did anybody ever leave a performance of Carmina Burana in a murderous mood?
You might be right.
Boy, was he ever.
We have a couple of his Eusonian houses near us in NH. One is open to the public and it's just gorgeous. A masterpiece of design.
The problem, is that Wright was a little guy. Maybe 5' 5" max. Trying to walk through one of his houses means I have to bend and twist at every doorway and hall. Same thing when I visit Fallingwater in PA. And I'm just a hair over 6'.
Guy was a genius, but a egomaniac and one sick mofo. Treated his wives and children dreadfully. Treated his clients only somewhat better.
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