SU Oratorio Society to perform ‘Carmina Burana’ with Syracuse Symphony Orchestra March 30-31

SU Oratorio Society to perform ‘Carmina Burana’ with Syracuse Symphony Orchestra March 30-31March 27, 2007Jaime Winne Alvarezjlwinne@syr.edu

The Syracuse University Oratorio Society will join with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra (SSO), a community partner with SU’s Pulse, for a performance of “Carmina Burana” March 30-31 at 8 p.m. in the Mulroy Civic Center at Oncenter. The SU Oratorio Society will perform under the direction of Elisa Dekaney, faculty member in the Rose, Jules R. and Stanford S. Setnor School of Music in the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

The “Carmina Burana” concert will open with Claude Debussy’s prelude to “The Afternoon of a Faun” — based on Stephane Mallarme’s celebrated poem of the same name. The musical piece is considered a turning point in the history of music. The SSO will then perform Silvestre Revueltas’ “Sensemaya” — a brief and greatly rhythmical piece that begins with a quietly repeating musical phrase that erupts into a cadenced, thrilling climax.

The SU Oratorio Society will later join the SSO on stage for Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana.” Composed in 1937, the work is based on a collection of hedonistic 13th-century songs (carmina) of defrocked clergymen and seminary dropouts, which were discovered in a German monastery in 1803. From the collection, Orff selected 24 carmina and — with no knowledge of the actual music to which the songs had originally been set — attempted to create music that would speak as directly to the 20th-century listener as the original writers’ tunes must have done to their audiences. The result was a vivacious, dramatic cantata. Its most famous segment, the O Fortuna chorus, is used often to this day in popular culture in commercials and movies.

Resident conductor Grant Cooper will lead the performance, as his tenure with the SSO draws to a close. The performance will be Cooper’s last Post-Standard Classics concert, and a presentation will be made to celebrate his longstanding success with the orchestra. Cooper will complete his contract with the SSO after leading the “Summertime with the Syracuse Symphony” series in July. He will return as guest conductor during the 2007-08 season.

Tickets for the performance start at $15. To purchase tickets or for more information, call the SSO Customer Service Center at 424-8200 or (800) 724-3810, or visit http://www.syracusesymphony.org.