Detroit Symphony Orchestra Releasing New Live Recording of CARMINA BURANA 

On Friday, June 26, 2026, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Jader Bignamini will release a new recording of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana on PENTATONE. The duet from "Tempus est iocundum" will be released as a single on June 5.

This new live recording captures the scale and theatricality of the work, featuring soprano Chen Reiss, countertenor Reginald Mobley, and baritone Andrzej Filończyk alongside the Detroit-based vocal ensemble Audivi and the Detroit Opera Youth Chorus, with expanded forces including two pianos, celesta, and a prominent percussion section.

Bignamini shares, "Recording Carmina Burana with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in a live concert setting was an unforgettable experience. The power of the music, combined with the artistry of the DSO and the strength of human voices, created something truly extraordinary in the hall. Performing this work with two choruses and three outstanding vocal soloists gave the piece an immense scale - grand, dramatic, and deeply emotional."

Carmina Burana draws on 13th-century manuscripts from the German monastery Benediktbeuern Abbey, transforming the poetry of medieval students and clerics into a scenic cantata. 

As noted in the album's liner essay by Andrew Kohler, the work is unified by its central image of fate: "The collection opens with an illustration of the Wheel of Fate, representing an inexorable cycle of luck and tragedy, which is the subject of Orff's opening and closing chorus, 'O Fortuna.'"

Recorded live at Orchestra Hall in Detroit in November 2025, this release follows the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's acclaimed recording of Wynton Marsalis's Blues Symphony, released on PENTATONE in March 2025.

Orff: Carmina Burana Tracklist

Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi
1. O Fortuna [2:33]
2. Fortune plango vulnera [2:49]

I. Primo vere
3. III. Veris leta facies [4:54]
4. IV. Omnia Sol temperat [2:26]
5. V. Ecce gratum [2:36]

Uf dem anger
6. VI. Tanz [1:43]
7. VII. Floret silva nobilis [3:05]
8. VIII. Chramer, gip die varwe mir [3:24]
9. IX. Reie [4:45]
10. X. Were diu werlt alle min [0:51]

II. In taberna
11. XI. Estuans interius [2:21]
12. XII. Olim lacus colueram [3:37]
13. XIII. Ego sum abbas [1:38]
14. XIV. In taberna quando sumus [3:07]

III. Cour d'amours
15. XV. Amor volat undique [3:29]
16. XVI. Dies, nox et omnia [2:17]
17. XVII. Stetit puella [1:53]
18. XVIII. Circa mea pectora [2:01]
19. XIX. Si puer cum puellula [0:57]
20. XX. Veni, veni, venias [0:57]
21. XXI. In trutina [2:07]
22. XXII. Tempus est iocundum [2:04]
23. XXIII. Dulcissime [0:38]

Blanzifor et Helena
24. XXIV. Ave formosissima [1:59]

Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi
25. XXV. O Fortuna (reprise) [2:44]