From the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra:

Due to a change in programming, the North Carolina Symphony’s performance of “Carmina Burana” will be broadcast tonight on WUNC 91.5FM, beginning at 10pm. The program was previously limited to online streaming only.

The broadcast features North Carolina Symphony Music Director Grant Llewellyn leading the North Carolina Master Chorale and renowned guest artists in two choral highlights.

Poulenc: Gloria

Orff: Carmina Burana

Composed by Carl Orff beginning in 1935, Carmina Burana is based on 24 poems found in the medieval collection of the same name. The often-quoted composition has taken a unique place in popular culture, a musical Canterbury Tales that covers a wide range of topics: the fickleness of fortune and wealth, the ephemeral nature of life, the joy of the return of spring and the pleasures and perils of drinking, gluttony, gambling and lust, to name a small few.

“It is incredibly evocative, incredibly powerful at some moments and poignant at others,” says Llewellyn of this tour-de-force. “There’s a reason it has endured and people love to hear it. It’s a piece I enthusiastically conduct.”

The concert, which also includes Francis Poulenc’s Gloria—“a joyous hymn to the glory of God,” in the composer’s words—was performed live in Raleigh’s Meymandi Concert Hall as part of the Duke Medicine Classical Series Raleigh on Friday and Saturday, May 11-12, 2012.

Legendary broadcaster David Hartman hosts tonight’s exhilarating concert program. Listeners are also treated to special access to content not available to concertgoers, including interviews with musicians and soloists and insights into some of the finest compositions ever written.

The program will stream online at wunc.org throughout the week. To stream the broadcast and see the latest details on upcoming Symphony programs on WUNC 91.5FM, visit www.wunc.org/programs/north-carolina-symphony-concert-series.