Music review: Passion meets precision as Vancouver Symphony Orchestra pulls off massive Carmina Burana

Vancouver Bach Choir vocal power, thundering percussion, and tight string section earn standing ovation

By Janet Smith

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra presents Carmina Burana at the Orpheum Theatre to February 25

WITH ITS EXTREMES of smashing percussion and susurrating strings, booming choruses and whispered incantations, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana can be an unwieldy beast. But energized guest conductor Jordan de Souza brought extreme precision to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the 150-strong Vancouver Bach Choir and Vancouver Bach Children’s Choir’s rendition of the German composer’s biggest hit—without sacrificing any of its strange and brash flourishes.

This is, after all, an often-bawdy work about the volatility of fate, and the ups and downs of drinking, lust, and wealth. Orff based his 1937 piece on the medieval poetry of the Goliards, monks disillusioned by moral corruption.

It’s a piece audiences know well—not just from their classical CD collection, but the cantata’s heavy rotation in movies and advertising. In other words, there’s an expectation that comes with Carmina Burana—and in this case, the crowd jumped to its feet for a standing ovation after the final, exhilarating extended chord.

De Souza’s attention to detail could be heard immediately in the opening “O Fortuna”, with its brisk and exacting tempo and the choir’s articulation in the hushed, warning repetitions. 

The strings found all the detailed textures of Orff’s score, flowing and beautifully restrained in the quiet sections, slashing and stabbing in unison in others. 

Principal percussionist Vern Griffiths and his team also deserved full props, as they wielded all manner of cymbals, bells, drums, and xylophones to bring the range of thundering pulses and otherworldly rattling to the piece. De Souza cued and silenced them to the millisecond, emphasizing the score’s rhythmic verve.

The three Canadian soloists were strong, soprano Tracy Dahl handing in a deeply expressive “In Trutina” and baritone James Westman hitting his stride in the Tavern and Court of Love sections. And celebrated BC tenor Benjamin Butterfield stole the show in the eerie yet satirical “Olim lacus colueram”, flapping his tux tails like the swan of the song, and pretending to cringe at the tune’s sudden bursts of percussion—even though he strained in the punishing higher notes. 

For fans of this big, bold banger of the classical world, it’s worth catching the second performance tonight. It’s fun watching the multitude of elements come together live onstage—to discover the instruments that create some of Carmina’s weirder textures and to witness the raw power of the chorus’s crescendos. Most of all, though, it’s a kick to watch De Souza command these forces with such spirit. His body becomes the taut and rhythmically attuned centre of a dazzling storm.  

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