The Golden Ring
Decca, 2022
9/10
The first stereo studio production of Wagner’s complete Ring Cycle, this high-definition transfer of the original master tapes illuminates his most honored recording with an enhanced sounds that’s available on vinyl for the first time in 30 years.
“Das Rheingold WWV 86A” opens the listen with soaring vocals alongside dynamic string interaction, booming brass and thundering drums in the dramatic versus bare bouts, and “Die Walkure WWV 86B, Act III” follows with expressive soprano vocals surrounded by busy and cinematic swells of orchestral meticulousness.
In the middle, “Siegfried WWV 86C, Act II” and “WWV 86D, Act III” are packed with firm, baritone singing and firm percussion but can also retreat to dreamy moments, and “Götterdämmerung WWV 86D Act III” exits with a very tense energy that’s immediately striking and entirely memorable.
The Wiener Philharmoniker and Sir Georg Solti are in fine form here, and Birgit Nilsson, Hans Hotter, and Kirsten Flagstad’s contributions won’t go unnoticed either. Voted “The greatest recording of all time” by Gramophone Magazine in 1999 and BBC Music Magazinein 2011, that’s a sentiment that’s hard to disagree with when listening to these exceptional recordings from 1958 and 1965.
Travels well with: Christian Li- The Four Seasons; Voces8- Infinity