Late to the concert

Symphony No. 3 "Organ"; Camille Saint-Saens, composer; Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; Herbert von Karajan, conducting; Pierre Cochereau, organ

In a previous entry, I told you about a concert I attended at Royal Albert Hall in London. The work featured on the second half of the concert was none other than the great “Carmina Burana” by Carl Orff. A group of us had rushed from dinner to try to make it to the concert on time. However, we arrived five minutes late. The British like their concerts to start on time. If you come late, you’ll just have to wait to be seated.

We had chosen seats up and behind the orchestra, but couldn’t get to them until the first half of the piece had finished. After we sat down, the second movement began with busy passage work in the strings, starting first at the Allegro Moderato tempo marking, then working up to the Presto speed limit. It was all very exciting up to the point at which …

The Great C Major Chord of the Maestoso, announced by the one-hundred forty-seven rank pipe organ that stood four feet to our IMMEDIATE right, cooked our insides and bruised our ribs, with one girl announcing the next morning that she might have gotten pregnant. It was under those circumstances that we (kind of) heard Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” on the second half of the concert.

Credits: To the Royal Albert Hall organ. Oh, baby.

This is the sixth of my final forty-five CD's.