Right at the start of the new year, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana tells of the return to spring, the pleasures of life and the caprices of Fortuna, the goddess of fortune and luck. The work is based on excerpts from an eponymous medieval text collection, found in 1803 in the Benediktbeuern monastery in Bavaria. Carmina Burana contrasts medieval stylistic features with a vast orchestration, and helped Orff to grow in popularity. After the successful premiere of the work in 1937, Orff wrote to his publisher: «You can now destroy everything I have written up to now which you have unfortunately published. My collected works begin with Carmina Burana! » Choir and soloists from Theater Basel and Sinfonieorchester Basel are conducted by the American Jonathan Stockhammer, with Ulrike Jühe directing.