Wilkommen!

Thank you for joining us on our European adventure through Frankfurt, Leipzig and Vienna.

Get up to date on our itinerary below.

You can also keep up to date with our journey by following the flight path on the screen to the front of the cabin.

Read about our awesome crew (opens in a new tab)

Frankfurt

Carmina Burana (1937/1981)

Carl Orff (1895-1982) arr. Friedrich Wanek (1929-)

2 flutes (including piccolo), 2 oboes (including cor anglais), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns

“Everything I have written to date, and which you have, unfortunately, printed, can be destroyed. With Carmina Burana, my collected works begin”

How’s that for confidence?

That’s what Carl Orff wrote to his publisher after the premiere in 1937 at the Frankfurt Opera, just before the outbreak of WWII.

Carmina Burana was originally written for large orchestra and choir, the text is from a collection of poems from the 11th-13th centuries with the same title.

You wouldn’t think that poems from almost a thousand years ago (yes, you read that right!) would be interesting for the folks who’d just lived through the roaring 20s, let alone us in the Netflix era. However, some things never change:

Lust. Gambling. Drinking. Debauchery. Fate.

They’re as relevant today as they were for their writers, who penned them in Latin, Old French and Middle High German.

The entire work is based on the idea of the Fortuna Wheel, or Wheel of Fortune. Nope, not the one you’re thinking of, but this one:

 Around the edges four phrases appear:

I shall reign, I reign, I have reigned, I am without a realm

This circuitous journey operates on several levels throughout the original Carmina Burana music, within single movements and across wider ‘scenes’ and across the whole work.

The big version goes for just over an hour, and has 25 movements (or sections). The most famous is the first, “O Fortuna”, which has appeared in countless movies, commercials and TV shows.

Our version today features 5 movements that capture the drama, tenderness and directness of Orff’s music. You can read some of the lyrics to each song on the screen during the performance.

I. Fortune plango vulnera - 1min

II. In trutina - 2 mins

III. Tanz - 2 mins

IV. Amor volat undiquè - 4 mins

V. In taberna - 3 mins

Leipzig

Octet (1892)

Carl Reinecke (1824-1910)

flute, oboe, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns

Carl Reinecke led a well-travelled musical life, in which the famous city of Leipzig played a starring role. Growing up in Hamburg, Carl moved to Leipzig after giving his first international tour as a teenage pianist. There he studied and became friends with people you’ve probably actually heard of: Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann and Franz Liszt.

The lure of touring sent him back to Scandinavia where he landed a job as court pianist for the prince in Copenhagen. Paris was his next stop, followed by positions in Cologne, Bremen, and Breslau.

He returned to Leipzig at age 36 to take up the position of conductor of the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, where he conducted the premiere of Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem. In his spare time he taught at the conservatory. Many of his cosmopolitan students are also more famous than he: Edvard Grieg, Isaac Albéniz, Leos Janácek and Max Bruch.

We’re delighted to shine light on some of Reinecke’s own beautiful composition. This octet was written in 1892, and it’s surmised it was written for the Parisian “Society of Chamber Music for Wind Instruments” founded by flautist Paul Taffanel (for which many incredible pieces were commissioned).

I. Allegro moderato - 10mins
II. Scherzo - vivace - 3mins
III. Adagio molto ma non troppo - 6mins
IV. Finale - Allegro molto e grazioso - 5mins

Vienna

Drei Tanzstücke (1985)

Alfred Uhl (1909-1992)

2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns

A Vienna native, Uhl studied at the Vienna Music Academy before working in Switzerland as well as composing music for film. At the outbreak of WWII he was drafted to the Austrian army and commanded a prison camp.

In 1945 he came full circle, being appointed to the faculty of the Vienna Music Academy where he taught for a staggering 45 years!

As a composer, Uhl blended elements of a wide variety of musical styles, which you’ll hear in these three short dance pieces.

The first movement is quirky, and off-kilter with moments of demented march-like music, and jeering, mocking laughter.

The second is a complete contrast. The dissonance and discomfort is replaced by a charming waltz evoking a Parisian accordion.

The final movement travels through several styles, through an uneasy waltz and a quirky burlesque march to a furious and spirited final whirl around the floor.

We end on a question mark - a hand extended for the next dance.

I. Sostenuto - 3.5mins
II. Tempo di valse - 3mins
III. Giusto - 4.5mins

Loved the performance? Find out all about the next one, The French Connection, on November 14.

(Too far out to commit? Worried the Wheel of Fate/COVID might derail our best-laid plans? We’ve got your back! If fate comes knocking we’ll refund any pre-purchased tickets!)