O Fortuna

There's a new DVD out: a biography of Carl Orff (disclosure: sadly, ChoralNet doesn't get a cut from sales of this. Maybe it'll turn up on Amazon eventually). The Guardian's Martin Kettle reports:

...there is another thing we ought to know about the composer as well. The film, which takes its title from the opening phrase of Carmina Burana, makes it clear that Orff had the psychology of a permanent adolescent. He thought first and mainly about himself. He could not sustain adult relationships - including with a daughter whom he rejected. "He had his life and that was that," she tells Palmer. The composer sought to avoid personal and moral responsibility in most things, and then wished to be forgiven for his failure to accept these responsibilities.

More here.