What do you programme with Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana? It was a brief topic of dinner conversation following a performance in San Francisco last week. It was, to my shame, only the second time I’d ever heard the work live, though as a teenager I used to play the Jochum, Muti and Previn LPs until they were wafer-thin. Of course, one answer is ‘Anything’ because the Orff will bring you the audience. You could be clever and use some of the same forces – maybe Stravinsky’s Pulcinella to give the tenor a little more to do, but you’d need a mezzo as well – and the baritone might object to the work load. ‘Play something new!’ Another nice idea as you’d probably be playing to less cynical ears, as Carmina Burana tends to keep the musical snobs at bay. Well, the night I went to Davies Symphony Hall we heard a nicely scaled and suitably sprightly performance of Haydn’s Symphony No 97 (having not heard a note of live music for a month, having been travelling round Japan and New Zealand, this Londoner felt this most delightful of the ‘London’ symphonies was being played just for him). In charge was the SFSO’s assistant conductor Donato Cabrera and the orchestra played very well for him – and he certainly whipped up a sense of occasion for Carmina Burana. It’s such a fun piece and it’s no wonder it continues to entrance and thrill – and how good to hear it played by a really good orchestra. The three soloists were excellent, with tenor Nicholas Phan stealing the show in his song of the roasting swan, and having had the audience eating out of his slowly charring hand spurred baritone Keith Phares on to play to the gallery – to good effect. Joélle Harvey was the sweet-voiced soprano (and what a beast of time Orff gives her!).  The vast chorus sang with lusty enthusiasm, and any inclination to surrender to jet-lag was quickly resisted.