Carmina Burana

About Us

As part of their 2022-23 season Magna Sinfonia orchestra will deliver their most ambitious production yet. The orchestra will work in partnership with SoundStorm Music Education Agency and supported by Arts Council England. Performing alongside Magna Sinfonia will be other musicians and a sizeable choir formed from students of schools in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

The programme opens with John Adams' mesmeric fanfare Short Ride in a Fast Machine which takes you on an exhilarating musical joyride in a fast car. After which, inspired by a visit to an art exhibition, you'll hear Pictures at an Exhibition which Mussorgsky composed as a memorial to his friend, the Russian artist Viktor Hartmann. Originally written for solo piano but later orchestrated by Ravel, each of the 10 movements represents one of the artworks on display.

For the main event the huge forces of the collective choir join the orchestra in a performance of Carmina Burana. Carmina Burana translates from Latin as 'Songs of Beuren'. The title refers to a collection of early 13th-century songs and poems that was discovered in Beuren in 1803. Carl Orff's setting of this collection of medieval poems to music weaves humour through darkness and joy, with its powerful, pulsating rhythms and inspired melodies used to dramatic effect. The work's opening movement 'O Fortuna' instantly sounds familiar, as it has earnt a place in popular culture through its use in tv and film soundtracks and advertisements, and is now possibly one of the most performed pieces of choral music in the world.

The program features soloists Isabelle Atkinson | Soprano, Morgen Michel | Tenor, Yuki Okuyama | Baritone and the orchestra will be conducted by Maxime Tortelier.