Photo: Apple MusicOrff: Carmina Burana
The Wheel that Grinds the World
In all of classical music, nothing seizes the pulse quite like the opening detonation of “O Fortuna.”
A thunderous crack of timpani and the unified roar of two hundred voices shatter the darkness. Fortune appears not as a gentle muse, but as a colossal stone mill grinding kings, beggars, popes, and drunkards indiscriminately to dust.
This landmark live concert from London’s Barbican Centre, released on LSO Live under choral conductor Richard Hickox, remains a towering benchmark. Hickox never treats the score as cheap Hollywood trailer fodder; he understands that beneath the volcanic percussion lies the carnal, dirt-stained joy of medieval wanderers celebrating spring and drowning despair in ale.
A Roasted Swan in the Tavern
In the second section, “In Taberna” (In the Tavern), the music plunges headlong from cathedral heights into the boisterous mud of worldly debauchery.
Few moments in vocal literature are as savagely comedic as the “Song of the Roasted Swan” (Olim lacus colueram). The tenor soloist is forced into an agonizing, shrill falsetto, narrating the plight of a bird sizzling on a spit: “Once I lived upon the lakes, fair and graceful… now black and roasted, I am turned on the spit for greedy teeth!”
Hickox conducts with biting black humor. The shrill cackle of the winds and the sneering brass capture medieval humanity’s defiant hedonism: if the plague may claim us tomorrow, let us drain every flagon tonight.
The Lily in the Mire and the Eternal Return
It is only in the third part, “Cour d’amours,” that peace descends. In “In trutina,” the soprano’s pure, suspended line blooms like a white lily in the swamp, balancing virginity against the surrender to desire.
Then, the crushing wheel of Fortune turns full circle. “O Fortuna” strikes again, sealing the circular journey of human existence.
Listening to Hickox’s performance is like taking a draught of raw medieval spirits. Life may be precarious and fate blind, but before the wheel rolls over us, we will shout, we will feast, and we will love with all our might.
About the Performer
British conductor (1948–2008). Grammy Award winner, founder of City of London Sinfonia, and legendary champion of 20th-century British and choral masterworks.
One of the world's premier symphony orchestras, celebrated for incandescent brass, rhythmic precision, and legendary film score recordings.
Acclaimed symphonic chorus associated with the LSO, universally revered for volcanic vocal power and technical refinement.
About the Composer
German composer and music educator (1895–1982). His scenic cantata Carmina Burana (1937), based on 13th-century medieval poetry, revolutionized modern choral music with primal rhythmic drive.
Taiwan Performance History
Conductor Richard Hickox (1948–2008) had no documented public performances in Taiwan during his lifetime. His illustrious career was centered primarily in London with the LSO, the English National Opera, and Opera Australia in Sydney.