Wagner One Ring to rule them all...

[knight66]

Elements of the Karajan are amongst my favourites, especially the ventilated orchestral sound. But you will have many hours of absorbing listening. A lifetime journey really with no one right or best route.

Mike

[Sergeant Rock]

....so blammo, by Sunday, I cancelled the Solti and replaced it with the Karajan.

You chose wisely...

Sarge

[Lisztianwagner]

I cancelled the Solti and replaced it with the Karajan.

You won't be disappointed by that choice.

Solti's Ring is better than the Karajan just in one aspect: the energetic rhythm and the powerful storm in Donner's theme.

[Mirror Image]

Karajan's Ring is the the one cycle to own. I'm grateful for Solti's set, don't get me wrong, but I like Karajan's more controlled, and magnificently grand, approach of Wagner. I continue to read that HvK's Wagner cycle is an acquired taste in terms of interpretation, but I honestly connected with it immediately. Something I didn't do with Solti, Barenboim, Jurowski, or Levine (the other Ring cycles I own).

[listener]

Maybe I missed an earlier posting : has anyone heard any of the alternative Ring editions?..   A "nearby" company is doing Das Rheingold in October and I suspect a reduced orchestra.  Traveling with require 4 hours each way but the Sunday matinee will not require an overnight stay.  For a reference see http://www.schott-music.com/shop/resources/719138.pdf
and the attached for  the Rhinegold variants.

[Moonfish]

Just purchased
Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen             Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks /Haitink

I keep adding to my castle (sets) of Wagner cycles....   
I have been reading good things about (and hearing good excerpts from) Haitink's studio version of the ring so resistance was futile...
Hmm, so is the consensus that Barenboim's is considered to be the best studio cycle at this point in time?

[asin] B00151HZ3S[/asin]

[Sergeant Rock]

Hmm, so is the consensus that Barenboim's is considered to be the best studio cycle at this point in time?

Barenboim's Ring is a live recording from Bayreuth, not a studio recording. The best studio Ring is Karajan's  ...although the ignorant consensus says Solti 

Sarge

[Brahmsian]

Barenboim's Ring is a live recording from Bayreuth, not a studio recording. The best studio Ring is Karajan's  ...although the ignorant consensus says Solti 

Sarge

Yes, to my ignorance indeed.  However, I cannot comment on the Lizard Man's Ring recording, haven't heard it.  Maybe someday. 

[Moonfish]

Barenboim's Ring is a live recording from Bayreuth, not a studio recording. The best studio Ring is Karajan's  ...although the ignorant consensus says Solti 

Sarge

Thanks Sarge!
Ooops, yes, live it is!  So Solti & Karajan are considered the "greatest" in terms of studio recordings vanquishing other studio cycles such as Janowski's or Haitink's? As always the consensus seems very scattered apart from Solti/Karajan.

[kishnevi]

You are all wrong.    Furtwangler RAI is the best studio cycle..
I can safely say this because I have yet to hear Karajan or Solti.  They currently sit in The Pile. 

Haitink has nothing to be ashamed of.  People seem to dislike his Brunnhilde but I heard nothing to complain of.

[bigshot]

Furtwangler Rai is one of my favorites. Karajan has a really good Rhinegold and Solti has a good Walkure and Gotterdammerung. Janowski has a great Siegfried. With those three, you have the makings of a really good studio Ring. But for complete Rings, I prefer live ones. Right now my favorite is the Valencia Ring, followed by the Furtwanglers and Knas, and then Bohm and Goodall (who are exact opposites in approach!). I have tried to get through the Barenboim video Ring three times and haven't succeeded yet. I don't care for Levine, Haitink or Sawallisch- they're all too bland. Boulez is interesting, but not top tier. Haven't listened to the Copenhagen Ring yet. Looking forward to that.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

You are all wrong.    Furtwangler RAI is the best studio cycle..

The RAI Ring isn't exactly studio. Yes the performances were recorded under what might be called "studio conditions" but this Ring was performed "live" before a radio audience one act at a time performed straight through till each acts' respective completion (in a concert setting, nothing staged). Insert a gap of a few days and then it was on to the next act.

Italian Radio caught and recorded each act "in the act of performance" so to speak for broadcast purposes. The whole thing ended up taking a few weeks to complete, IIRC.

Later EMI took the recordings of each act and cobbled together the "RAI Ring".   

Haitink has nothing to be ashamed of.  People seem to dislike his Brunnhilde but I heard nothing to complain of.

Haitink himself does excellent work with the orchestra but Marton is without question a major liability. Pretty much everything from that stage of her career (late) is more a wobble-fest than singing. I used to have Haitink's Siegfried and I won't tread those waters again.


EDIT: Studio for me: Levine (probably Dohnanyi had he completed it). Live: Sawallisch.

[Sergeant Rock]

Furtwangler Rai is one of my favorites. Karajan has a really good Rhinegold and Solti has a good Walkure and Gotterdammerung. Janowski has a great Siegfried. With those three, you have the makings of a really good studio Ring.

I'd choose:

Rheingold - Karajan
Walküre - Karajan
Siegfried - Solti
Götterdämmerung - Levine

Sarge

[marvinbrown]

Barenboim's Ring is a live recording from Bayreuth, not a studio recording. The best studio Ring is Karajan's  ...although the ignorant consensus says Solti 

Sarge

You are all wrong.    Furtwangler RAI is the best studio cycle..
I can safely say this because I have yet to hear Karajan or Solti.  They currently sit in The Pile. 

Haitink has nothing to be ashamed of.  People seem to dislike his Brunnhilde but I heard nothing to complain of.

Furtwangler Rai is one of my favorites. Karajan has a really good Rhinegold and Solti has a good Walkure and Gotterdammerung. Janowski has a great Siegfried. With those three, you have the makings of a really good studio Ring. But for complete Rings, I prefer live ones. Right now my favorite is the Valencia Ring, followed by the Furtwanglers and Knas, and then Bohm and Goodall (who are exact opposites in approach!). I have tried to get through the Barenboim video Ring three times and haven't succeeded yet. I don't care for Levine, Haitink or Sawallisch- they're all too bland. Boulez is interesting, but not top tier. Haven't listened to the Copenhagen Ring yet. Looking forward to that.

  I am surprised at how different our tastes are....that's good by the way  !

  Now.....GENTLEMEN PLEASE! EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT THE PERFECT RING LIES SOMEWHERE BETWEEN KRAUSS '53 KEILBERTH '55 SOLTI AND BOHM  !

  But seriuosly as wonderfully conducted as that Furtwangler RAI ring is the horrible sound and the dreadful brass section of that orchestra (~Fafner sounds like he's choking on a pretzel...but I digress) are enough to keep me away.  Barenboim is like driving one of those 2.1 liter family Mercedes cars, yes indeed it is a Mercedes but you won't be bragging to your friends that you drive a Mercedes.....but yet again I digress!)  All you know how I feel about Karajan.....at present mine is gathering dust somewhere!

  For a studio recording stick to SOLTI! Krauss '53 Keilberth '55 and Bohm are essential! 


  Hey in the end, listen to what you like............ Wagner is great all around!
  marvin

[PerfectWagnerite]

So many choices, if I have to choose one it would be Solti. The first one I own and the one I come back to time and time again. No audience noises, magnificently recorded (it still comes up better in sound than some modern recordings) and crowned with the distinctive timbre of the Vienna Philharmonic (have they recorded another Ring???), it is just a joy to listen to time and time again. For all the hype of Keilberth, I think it is rather mediocrely conducted with some underwhelming playing from the Bayreuth forces. Yes the Keilberth is essential if you want to hear great voices in their prime but the execution in general is rather pedestrian. In general live from Bayreuth recordings suffer from audience noises.

A series that is also a prime recommendation is the new Janowski/Berlin RSO recording. It is live but the audience is mouse-quiet. The cast is pretty average (Wotan is pretty much unlistenable) but the sound and playing is unparallel. Never have I heard such marvelous, deep rich brass playing.

[Wanderer]

Götterdämmerung - Levine

Definitely. And Karajan.

[Brian]

Hope this is the right thread.

Naxos has announced they are recording the Hong Kong Philharmonic's Ring cycle, for release over 2016-2019. These come from the HKPO's live performances, which are the first time the Ring has been performed in Hong Kong.

Conductor - Jaap van Zweden
Loge - Kim Begley
Alberich - Peter Sidholm
Fricka - Michelle DeYoung
Siegmund - Stuart Skelton
Brunnhilde - Petra Lang
Wotan - Matthias Goerne

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/inthestudio/1333/Hong-Kong-Ring-Cycle-on-Naxos

[kishnevi]

Does this mean they will delete the CD version of the Zagrosek/Stuttgart cycle from their catalogue? The DVD is on EuroArts.
The Siegfried and Gotterdammerung from Zagrosek are worth getting,IMO, but not the Rheingold and Walkure.

[Brian]

Does this mean they will delete the CD version of the Zagrosek/Stuttgart cycle from their catalogue? The DVD is on EuroArts.
The Siegfried and Gotterdammerung from Zagrosek are worth getting,IMO, but not the Rheingold and Walkure.

Probably not - most Naxos discs even back to the mid-1990s are still quite easy to find online, and the label began accepting multiple recordings of works sometime around 2000.

[San Antone]

Hope this is the right thread.

Naxos has announced they are recording the Hong Kong Philharmonic's Ring cycle, for release over 2016-2019. These come from the HKPO's live performances, which are the first time the Ring has been performed in Hong Kong.

Conductor - Jaap van Zweden
Loge - Kim Begley
Alberich - Peter Sidholm
Fricka - Michelle DeYoung
Siegmund - Stuart Skelton
Brunnhilde - Petra Lang
Wotan - Matthias Goerne

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/inthestudio/1333/Hong-Kong-Ring-Cycle-on-Naxos

Interesting cast.  Thanks.