Reference Recording: Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen

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The Ultimate Classical Music Guide by Dave Hurwitz

4 ай бұрын

Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen. Soloists, Vienna Philharnonic, Georg Solti (cond.) Decca

Пікірлер: 66

@maximisaev6974 4 ай бұрын

Hands down, without exception, a "Reference Recording" that will still be highly regarded long after all of us currently alive have kicked the bucket. I can't think of a single studio recording where so much effort, time, and money went into providing us the listening public a recording that can rightly be called a work of the highest cultural significance. Between Solti's Ring and Dorati's Haydn, Decca had in the past what they lack now; vision combined with marketing expertise.

@martinbynion1589 4 ай бұрын

Glad to see someone mention the complete Dorati Haydn. Possibly even more iconic than the Ring, and what opened the floodgates to the brilliance and sheer depth of the Haydn symphonies.

@maximisaev6974 4 ай бұрын

I heartily agree. There are many wonderful recordings, including Haydn recordings out there, but how many over the last 50 years can rightfully be labeled as groundbreaking, setting an outstanding performance standard, and being of enduring cultural significance? Dorati's Haydn is definitely one of those. There isn't a week that goes by when I'm not playing at least one of the symphonies from Decca's box set. Take care!@@martinbynion1589

@djquinn4212 4 ай бұрын

It’s the gift that really does keep on giving. The most recent remastering and reissuing for SACD from last year really does sound even better than the previous incarnations.

@vinylarchaeologist 4 ай бұрын

It does indeed sound great. Of course, most audiophiles were groaning and moaning about the latest remaster, because they peeped into the waveforms and didn‘t like what they saw. Even I was guilty of some „armchair engineering“ from time to time, but when your „audiophilia“ stands in the way of enjoying music, it‘s pretty sad. Luckily I managed to get out before it was too late.

@nyquist5190 4 ай бұрын

@@vinylarchaeologist The problem is that Decca has been marketing this latest edition with very audiophile arguments. It is not that this latest version does not sound perfectly acceptable, it does. It is the dubious marketing claims that the more technically minded audophiles take issue with. But most audiohiles of course believe anything :).

@gavingriffiths2633 4 ай бұрын

I remember listening to the Solti 'Das Rheingold' for the first time - people forget how astonishing the sonics were for the time. That first rumble as the prelude begins.....

@morrigambist 4 ай бұрын

And the storm in Rheingold leading up to the stroke which creates the rainbow bridge (ff!) was showing off every kind of sound system when it was first issued.

@dennischiapello7243 4 ай бұрын

Culshaw went to great lengths to follow Wagner's most outlandish specifications for the orchestra. ALL the harps, ALL the anvils, authentic alpenhorns, and on and on. So the sonics were not merely great in themselves, but they were applied to sounds that one would rarely be able to hear in other recordings, let alone any opera house. It truly is a complete realization of Wagner's intentions, and thus it seems destined to remain the reference recording for, well, all time.

@ER1CwC 4 ай бұрын

He also had a preference for sticking singers at the back. Nilsson was really frustrated by it. If memory serves me right, he told her that each orchestra member playing those specialized parts was a soloist who ought to be heard, and she effectively responded: are people going to buy the set because of an anvil or because of me? Got to love her wit.

@67Parsifal 4 ай бұрын

@@ER1CwCShe came round in the end.

@ER1CwC 4 ай бұрын

@@67Parsifal She said she was happier with the CD release because Decca ended up bringing the voices back up, i.e., negating Culshaw’s preference.

@bbailey7818 4 ай бұрын

@ER1CwC Decca could justify it with Wagner but they also did it with Italian opera c.1960-61. Listen to the (first) Rigoletto with Sutherland. It's a disaster sonically.

@stephenmiller9791 4 ай бұрын

The singers are past it and the orchestra is too loud. Try the Fürtwangler Ring from 1953 in Rome or any of the Knappertsbusch versions from the 1950s. They leave Solti trailing in their wake.

@spitfire3280 29 күн бұрын

I look forward to these recordings so much. Thanks Dave!

@coinneachrussell1116 4 ай бұрын

Great video Dave! I first heard this recording when I was 17 (about 3 years ago), and it absolutely blew me away. It’s what made me fall in love with the Ring Cycle.

@robertjamesstove 3 ай бұрын

One of the earliest birthday gifts which I received in my childhood was the Solti *Walküre*. On LP, of course, in those days; moreover, my copy was already secondhand when my parents bought it (rural New South Wales was not exactly over-endowed with record stores), so there was a fair amount of surface noise. But the periodic clicks and pops didn't matter in the slightest. From the moment the stylus hit the groove at the beginning of Side 1, I was hooked.

@DanielGreineder 4 ай бұрын

Great piece and a balanced account of Solti's Ring. In the past 30 years, it has gone from being near-definitive, to much-maligned and recently back again in critical opinion. The great strengths of Solti's Ring are all-round consistency and the VPO.

@vinylarchaeologist 4 ай бұрын

I can heartily recommend John Culshaw‘s book „Ring Resounding“ for a first-hand behind-the-scenes look into making this Ring recording. It‘s a marvellous book for those interested in classical recordings in general and gives you an idea about how crazy and risky (and expensive!) of an endeavour this recording was.

@davidaltschuler9687 4 ай бұрын

Culshaw was an engaging writer who also did a lot of fiction. It shows here. That self-aggrandizing story of how he fooled Szell in the studio during a Tchaikovsky Sym. #4 finale session does not pass the smell test. Szell had one of the best ears ever and Culshaw must be suspected of having a personal grudge to claim that he played Szell for such a sucker. IMHO.

@vinylarchaeologist 4 ай бұрын

@@davidaltschuler9687 Interesting.

@ftumschk 4 ай бұрын

@@davidaltschuler9687 ... szmell test, surely :)

@petterw5318 4 ай бұрын

If I remember it correctly, the Bayreuth broadcasts from the 1950s and 1960s didn't circulate in acceptable sound until the end of the 1970s, when the owner of the Melodram label "borrowed" the original tapes from the Bavarian Radio and published them in Yugoslavia to avoid legal repercusions.

@cillyede 3 ай бұрын

Ten minutes ago I got me this box set in London (!😅). Danke für die Emphehlung. 🙏 Watching your channel is making me sleeping in the parks one day. 🇩🇪😂😅😂

@langsamwozzeck 4 ай бұрын

Every normal person: "Yes, of course, it's Solti's Ring, how could it be anything else?" Insane Wagner fans: "You uncultured swine, only a bootleg reel-to-reel tape recorded from Bayreuth radio broadcasts in 1934 conducted by Elmendorff capture the spiritual luminosity of the work, with the possible exception of that most treasured of Wagner recordings, Kirsten Flagstad singing "Siegmund! Sieh auf mich!" in the shower in 1941"

@nir0bateman 4 ай бұрын

I will settle for the 1955 Decca recorded Bayreuth cycle under Keilberth.

@robertjamesstove 3 ай бұрын

@langsamwozzeck, if I could give your comment two likes instead of just one, I would.

@MrJdaniel1371 3 ай бұрын

Ha ha, (but listen to Flagstad's Immolation Scene with Furtwangler and the Philharmonia (now on Warner/EMI) to hear a "nobility" and "epic" quality that eludes the often hasty Solti and the frigid, automaton-esque Nilsson. That said, the very latest remastering of the Solti Ring (that "gramps," fails to mention), is an astonishing leap in sound quality. Nothing wrong with at least investigating the vocal artistry of pre- WWII era, is there?

@frankcastle_8513 4 ай бұрын

Hey Uncle Dave!!!! Love seeing you well. Love the content!!!!

@DavesClassicalGuide 4 ай бұрын

Ditto! Hope you're doing great!

@eddihaskell 4 ай бұрын

There was a poll of British Classical Music Listeners on BBC Radio Channel 3 on the greatest recording ever made and the Solti Ring won by a wide margin.

@bbailey7818 4 ай бұрын

The Götterdämmerung is amazing, one of the greatest recordings ever made. We're lucky the "Golden Ring" video focused on the making of it.

@stevemcclue5759 4 ай бұрын

I always loved the documentary of the making of Solti's Gotterdammerung. Where Brunnhilde calls for Grane, they bring on a horse, much to Nilsson's surprise! And Solti flailing away on the podium, trousers falling down: he's at the polar opposite to Richard Strauss conducting.

@eddypauly22 4 ай бұрын

I had a good laugh while I listened to this. I remember getting the 'ring' in the early 1970's and being blown away with the listening experience . Then in the 80's I got the CD's which were an even better sound but then I tried a digital release that did 'not match' the sound of the earlier versions. Go figure !

@timmckay6367 4 ай бұрын

I have it on the single bluray with the full libretto book. I never imagined the whole Ring on one disk!!

@s.k.angyal3768 4 ай бұрын

I agree with you; Solti, Böhm, Karajan, all of them are great achievements in their own right, but if I want to listen to the story (Libretto)… German is my my first language btw, I have to say in Karajans version I can really hear and understand everything (Wortdeutlichkeit). Just saying. All in all Solti really did it, no question about it production wise!

@DavidJohnson-of3vh 4 ай бұрын

Thank you, Dave. I have a mix of Solti/HvK on lp and Janowski/Staatskapelle Dresden on cd. I like them all, as you seem to.

@stephenschroth3616 4 ай бұрын

I suspected that you would identify me Solti as the reference recording. I have the Solti, the Karajan, and the Bohm. I find Karajan's interpretation fascinating and illuminating and I probably reach for the Bohm most often. But it's really impossible to discuss any Ring cycle without mentioning the Solti.

@sjc1204 4 ай бұрын

I think it's time I read "Ring Resounding" because I found the documentary "Wagner The Golden Ring (2007)" to be really interesting. I was hoping you would have discussed the latest of many remastered releases of Solti. I stream them via TIDAL and don't own them but I am so impressed by the fidelity.

@jbbevan 4 ай бұрын

Well, heads up: Ring Resounding is mostly about the recording of Das Rheingold where "The Golden Ring" was a video about Götterdämmerung. They are not redundant.

@jaykauffman4775 4 ай бұрын

Listening to the current version on Apple Music via lossless and the sound is stupendous. Still the best combination of voices, orchestra and conductor. And the care that went into every session. Although Culshaw had intermittent mishaps with vocal/orchestral balance eg the dreadful 1960 Tristan in the Ring he got the balances exactly right. A joy to hear

@bksherm 4 ай бұрын

David Thanks for doing these, wondering if you could do Strauss' Alpine Symphony. Thank You

@DavesClassicalGuide 4 ай бұрын

There is no reference recording for that work.

@jgesselberty 4 ай бұрын

First got this on LP in a subscription with Time/Life. Sumptuos slipcased editions, and including Culshaw's "The Ring Resounding", George Bernard Shaw's "Ther Perfect Wagnerite" and an additional book of the history of the productions of the past.

@bbailey7818 4 ай бұрын

Back when Time Life promoted classics. Remember those "sound sheets" floppy 33s that came with their ads in the mail?

@michelangelomulieri5134 4 ай бұрын

The keilberth’s ring on testament has, in my opinion, the greatest vocal cast ever. Nevertheless, this solti’s one is a reference recording!

@jbbevan 4 ай бұрын

Those who complain about Hotter's Solti Walküre need to hear the Keilberth. I don't find that much difference. Hotter had a manner of delivery that didn't change much over the years.

@ER1CwC 4 ай бұрын

Does anyone have any inside scoops on the Legge-Angel EMI Ring that never came to be? Nilsson wrote about how she had been contracted to do it, but eventually grew impatient and asked to be released from it.

@jbbevan 4 ай бұрын

They did record Nilsson & Hotter in the Walküdre Act 2 Duet, but I think that's all that was recorded.

@ER1CwC 4 ай бұрын

@@jbbevan I think that was intended as a try out, sort of like the Solti Walkure discs with Flagstad. I wonder why Legge wasn’t able to pull the full project off. I think that was the experience though that caused Nilsson to never sign exclusive contracts again, even though she loved recording with Legge.

@jensguldalrasmussen6446 3 ай бұрын

Legge in the 1950s seems to have been more occupied by the budding Rossini-rennaissance than with Wagner...leading to his most unforgiveable, cardinal sin of omission: not to have recorded a complete Ring with Klemperer, while he (Klemperer) still could have dealt with the physical challenges of such an entreprise. Check out Klemperer's Flying Dutchman and his EMI recordings of Wagner ouvertures and bleeding chunks from the Ring, and you will know what I mean!

@kellyrichardson3665 4 ай бұрын

No surprise, indeed! I'm sure I have two copies, different packagings, but I missed that HUGE one...are there hubcaps inside that box?!!!

@DavesClassicalGuide 4 ай бұрын

Yes. Two for each Valkyrie. You know where they fit.

@UlfilasNZ 4 ай бұрын

The reference recording of reference recordings, perhaps? No matter whether you care for it or not.

@DavesClassicalGuide 4 ай бұрын

They are all "whether you care for it or not." That's what a reference recording is.

@martinbynion1589 4 ай бұрын

Cut my teeth on this set on vinyl and still have those discs. Finding it a bit more approachable on CD, away from the psychobabble created more recently by the anti-digital freaks. Also have several mono sets from Bayreuth in the early 1650s and the Karajan set and enjoy them too. However, returning to the Solti is like going home to Mom after a rough time out in the wilds and cuddling up for a big hug! 🙂🙂🙂

@DavesClassicalGuide 4 ай бұрын

Bayreuth in the 1650s eh? Sorry, but it's a wonderful typo.

@episodesglow 4 ай бұрын

I've never heard Bohm, is it more exciting than Solti?

@DavesClassicalGuide 4 ай бұрын

I think so.

@jbbevan 4 ай бұрын

I have Böhm among others. I also heard a live Bayreuth broadcast of that same production the same year that it was recorded. Siegfried got booed off the stage. Stay with the Reference Recording.