Undoubtedly it is one of the greatest musical openings of all time, up there with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and the Toccata for organ in D minor attributed to JS Bach. A mighty, thunderous hymn to the unpredictability of Fortune and Fate, the first movement of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana immediately seizes the imagination. Maybe this is why advertisers have so readily exploited it.

Beyond the ads for instant coffee, however, few have probably taken the time to engage with the texts of these songs from a 13th-century manuscript found in the library of the Bavarian monastery of Benediktbeuren. 

In one sense these lyrics seem to spring out of a Breughel canvas, with peasants candidly celebrating the ups and downs of life and love, greeting the arrival of spring, getting drunk in a tavern or searching for the perfect match and some sex to go with it. Yet, bookended with O fortuna, the work is overshadowed by a darker, fatalistic tone, ending with the words “Come weep with me”. 

Paavo Järvi and his Zurich forces paint these contrasts...