Wagner One Ring to rule them all...

[Sergeant Rock]

I was literally about to post much the same thing! I was going to say just a bad dream, though ; )

Bad, Karl, bad. Go to your corner.

Sarge

[Walther von Stolzing]

Wow. Now I'm even more anxious to pick up the Solti recording.

The only recording I have is the Janowski, which I purchased largely because I got it for 1/3 the price of what the Solti usually runs. I think it's a great bargain, and overall I'm very happy with the performances. It didn't come with a libretto, but I went ahead and purchased the libretto by Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington, which I think is much preferable to those little booklets anyways.

But one day soon I'll have to bite the bullet financially and pick up the Solti.

[karlhenning]

Bad, Karl, bad. Go to your corner.

For shame, Sarge!  I had in mind the producer's liberties, of course.

[Todd]

I personally really like Bohm. Too bad his set didn't come with a booklet.

My set did.  I guess it depends on which incarnation you buy.

I've cooled on new Wagner recordings over the past couple years, so I'm still stuck with the Keilberth '55 and Krauss '53 as my two favorites.  It's hard for me to imagine how these could be bettered, though I'd love it if they were.

[Sergeant Rock]

For shame, Sarge!  I had in mind the producer's liberties, of course.

Oh, my bad then    Okay, to make up for the undeserved punishment, I'll buy you ice cream 

Sarge

[karlhenning]

Good man!

[Scarpia]

I don't get the Solti. 

Karajan's is my favorite cycle, although the audio engineering is a problem in some places.  One gripe with Solti's cycle is that the singers "sing."  In Karajan's cycle, there is more "acting" with the voices, which tends to draw me in.  Karajan's recording also has some of the most gorgeous orchestral playing I can ever recall hearing.  At one point I was listening to Walkure and one of the orchestral interludes was so breathtaking I had to stop it and listen again.  It was something unique to Karajan/Berlin, where he was able to get them to produce an exhalation of sound with enormous volume, but without harshness.  I put on the Solti in the same passage, and it sounded like a Sousa march.  I will have to look it up, I don't remember exactly what it was.

Beyond Karajan, I do enjoy Bohm's ring a lot, there is a definite excitement in the live performance, although in places it is not polished.  I recall that at the very end of Rheingold you can distinctly hear one of the trombonists run out of air and take a breath.  They were just pushed beyond the limits of endurance.

[Elgarian]

That mirrors my own Ring beginnings. In the early 70s, when I finally had a good stereo system, I couldn't afford Solti. I was newly married, scraping by on a Buck Sergeant's salary. All I had were a couple recordings of the bleeding chunks. I was assigned to Germany in 1974, where records were even more expensive. But there was a shop that operated like a club: you had to agree to buy at least one item per month. It was mostly books but they also had a few records. In exchange for that contractual agreement, they offered significant discounts (at a time discounts in normal shops were non-existent). I found Böhm's Ring there, for the astounding price of 99 DM (about 40 dollars).

It was much the same for us. We started by wearing out an LP of Gotterdammerung highlights (Mackerras/Hunter/Remedios), and with two young children and a new mortgage the idea of spending serious money on a box of LPs seemed outrageous. The Bohm was the most recently released version, and because of the promotional mail order deals, it was the cheapest of the modern recordings. I can't remember just how we scraped the cash together, because Lord knows we didn't have any to spare, but we did it. On the day the Bohm box arrived, my wife phoned me at work, breathless, babbling into the phone: 'It's arrived and I've been listening to Rheingold all morning, and it's even better than we hoped!'



Talk about a picture being worth a thousand words! This photo of yours speaks volumes, Sarge, and makes me realise again what an idiot I was, in my zeal to remove all vinyl from our house, and thinking my 'Wagner phase' had passed, not to keep the booklets from that box.

[kishnevi]

I've had that happen, too, but found that rubbing alcohol and distilled water were adequate solvents to save the discs.

One has to be careful--too much rubbing alcohol, or putting it on the wrong side, will ruin the CD.  I learned that the hard way....but the CD would have been unplayable anyway....

[knight66]

My first Ring was the Solti on LPs, like this....



I would have been about 17 and the friend I had who managed our local LP shop got it for me at cost price. In those days a full price LP would cost about £2.10 shillings. I earned about nine pounds a week. I think I paid about £38 for the box, which had 19 LPs of the Ring and three LPs in the Introduction to...which I seem to recall were free when you bought that box.

But, it was Karajan's way with it the music that I preferred; the lyricism.

Alan, you saying someone could not hear the tunes; after the premier of Tannhauser one supposedly distinguished critic claimed that there were no tunes in it! Guy must have been deaf.

Like Bruce I am very engaged by the Copenhagen DVD Ring and have at last just ordered the Mehta Walkure. I have swithered for so long as the camera work is said to be so irritating. We shall see.

Mike

[Elgarian]

My first Ring was the Solti on LPs, like this....

That brings back memories too, Mike - that of course was the set my friend had, on permanent display in his home-built auditorium. What a spectacular construction that box was - a massive design that perfectly matched the weight and infinite value of the musical contents, as if it contained, sealed away, the Rhinegold itself.

[DavidRoss]

My first Ring was the Solti on LPs, like this....

I'll have to keep an eye out for a copy at the local thrift stores!

Serious devotees will, of course, want need to have this 6kg box set:



Review here: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2010/Feb10/Wagner_Ring_ESSD90021-34.htm

[Sergeant Rock]

Serious devotees will, of course, want need to have this 6kg box set:

$800 and you don't get an English translation. So it's not just the cheap sets that are lacking 

And is his comment "...a Japanese copy of John Culshaw's book; extremely useful" meant seriously or ironically?


I'm disappointed in the review. He didn't tell us why these remasters are better. No examples, no comparisons, just "I bought mine because the rich sound of the Viennese, surely the world's most amazing opera orchestra, can be heard at home as never before" ....whatever that means.


Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

My first Ring was the Solti on LPs, like this....

It looks like it was carved out of a single piece of metal (Direct Metal Mastering? )  Impressive. I've never seen the complete Ring box before.

Sarge

[DavidRoss]

And is his comment "...a Japanese copy of John Culshaw's book; extremely useful" meant seriously or ironically?

$800?  Is that all?  For such an exclusive limited edition guaranteed to make you the envy of all your friends?  (Hmmm, imagine if Wagnerites were as common as Trekkies, wearing funny costumes at ComicCon...or if they were like the Rocky Horror Picture Show fans, dressing up and acting out during performances?  Maybe you can start the trend at Bayreuth!)

I think the poor guy is serious.  Hey!  Maybe we should invite him to join GMG and participate in some of Teresa's threads!

[karlhenning]

English translations is extra, man.

[(poco) Sforzando]

$800 and you don't get an English translation. So it's not just the cheap sets that are lacking 

And is his comment "...a Japanese copy of John Culshaw's book; extremely useful" meant seriously or ironically?


I'm disappointed in the review. He didn't tell us why these remasters are better. No examples, no comparisons, just "I bought mine because the rich sound of the Viennese, surely the world's most amazing opera orchestra, can be heard at home as never before" ....whatever that means.


Sarge

Whuddya mean? He says, "Without any doubt, this issue is the ultimate accomplishment of the recording industry." That's all you need.

[Guido]

Whuddya mean? He says, "Without any doubt, this issue is the ultimate accomplishment of the recording industry." That's all you need.

So many zingers from you on this thread! Keep it up! 

[(poco) Sforzando]

So many zingers from you on this thread! Keep it up! 

For $800 you should be getting the entire Vienna Philharmonic plus noted soloists to perform the entire work live in your living room, as well as hard-bound folio copies of the full scores to all four operas.

[DavidRoss]

For $800 you should be getting the entire Vienna Philharmonic plus noted soloists to perform the entire work live in your living room, as well as hard-bound folio copies of the full scores to all four operas.

If you can get them for that price, I'm sure there are plenty of venues whose management would be interested in hearing from you.