' Catulli Carmina ' : ludi scaenici by Carl Orff
A percussion ensemble
Clifton Helliwell , Frederick Stone
Josephine Lee , Charles Spinks
(pianos)
Conducted by Maurice Miles
Fifth of six programmes
Catulli Carmina (1943) is, like Orff's Carmina Burana, a scenic cantata, in which the chorus is predominant. In an introductory chorus, with piano and percussion accompaniment, youths and maidens praise ' 'eternal love'; but old men ridicule them, ordering the story of Catullus to be enacted as a lesson to them. The action consists of three scenes, in which the chorus sings unaccompanied settings of Catullus's poems while the stage-scene shows Lesbia's unfaithfulness, Catullus's despair, and their separation. Unimpressed, the youths and maidens repeat their chorus in praise of eternal love. D.C. followed by an interlude at 8.0