Announcing the return of what we used to call “Orff Orph!” this is in reality Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, rescored, cut, and reorganized by Carl Orff for performance by modern forces. The details of the arrangement don’t really concern us at this date: mostly they involve reducing the work to slightly more than an hour of music, and it’s difficult today, when the original is almost a repertoire piece, to imagine the role this version (finalized in 1940) played in bringing Monteverdi’s masterpiece to a modern audience. Orff’s “free adaptation” works perfectly well as a story-telling vehicle on its own, and of course the music is terrific. The use of two harps, three lutes, and two bassett horns even imparts a touch of authenticity to the otherwise modern sonic palette, though it’s worth pointing out that the scoring actually is less lavish than that offered by many period-instrument ensembles today, with primacy given to the strings.
This performance is wonderful, really as fine as we have any reason to expect. It was authorized by the composer (not that this always matters much), and more to the point has two superb protagonists in the form of Hermann Prey and Lucia Popp in their 1972 primes. Rose Wagemann and Karl Riddersbusch complete the excellent cast, and Kurt Eichhorn leads his Munich forces with complete authority. For the singing alone this is certainly worth hearing. Warm, perhaps not ideally clear, but otherwise very good sonics complete a very attractive picture. Unfortunately the German-language libretto, which is included, does not come translated–but then we all know the story anyway and the principal interest for most will be Orff’s treatment of Monteverdi’s music. If you love L’Orfeo, you will enjoy discovering this equally loving arrangement. [6/23/2004]
