Gaetano Delogu’s dramatic, rubato-laced presentation of “O Fortuna” bodes well for this live performance of Carmina Burana (from 1995), but it’s exactly here that you notice this recording’s problematic sound, with its narrow dynamic range and tendency to over-saturate at nearly every tutti passage (and there are plenty of those in this piece). The choral work lacks the stunning rhythmic alacrity and unstinting energy that make Jochum’s classic recording–and Blomstedt’s more recent one–so exciting and memorable. Compare this performance of “Estuans interius” with either of those, and Delogu’s men’s chorus seems not quite sure of itself, nor does it sound particularly exuberant in the drinking song (“In taberna quando sumus”) that comes a bit later. Ivan Kusnjer is simply no match for the swaggering Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in “Ego sum abbas”, sounding instead as if he’s running an auction (though he manages to maintain full tone in the high-lying tessitura of “Dies, nox et omnia”, an amazing feat indeed). The gentler Cour d’amours section fares better, with Zdena Kloubová sounding joyfully ardent in “Stetit puella”. All in all, a really good try, but this performance certainly makes clear that Carmina Burana is a good deal harder to bring off than it sounds.
