Ring Boulez

May 18th, 2007 admin Leave a comment Go to comments

ring boulez
Wagner's "Ring" cycle: do you have more than one set of CD/DVDs? Which do you prefer?

I have the CD set of the Solti/Vienna Philharmonic with Birgit Nilsson(Kirsten Flagstad-Fricka/Das Rheingold).

And the DVD set, of Levine/Met./ with Hildegard Behrens and Siegfried Jerusalem.

If I recall correctly, once viewed a PBS presentation of a Bayreuth production with Pierre Boulez conducting.

And have viewed numerous You Tube excerpts.

With the exception of Siegfried Jerusalem's "Siegfried" on the Met.'s production(he looks like a real Siegfried), I far and away prefer the Solti recording.

What about you? Which/what performance of this epic is your favorite?

Alberich

I have at home 2 sets (both digitally remastered, being recorded long ago) of the "Ring": the same 14 CD set - Solti with Vienna Philharmonic, and another DVD Video set - probably the same You have viewed - 1978 Bayreuth Festival live recording with Pierre Boulez conducting, Gwyneth Jones as Brünnhilde, Manfred Jung as Siegfried, etc. The latter production was my first chance to see the entire "Ring" in 4 consecutive evenings (almost as in Bayreuth) when many years ago the German Goethe Institute arranged a filmed representation. Time passed, CD/DVD players and home theatre systems came, I found that set and bought it.

Comparing both sets, the sound quality of the first one is somewhat better (not surprising for a studio recording). But there is another thing when one can not only listen, but also see an opera - in Bayreuth production for example Hagen (Fritz Hübner) was wearing a contemporary shirt with a necktie - his spear was looking somewhat odd, there were other strangely looking things too, imagining Wagner's world.
Probably this is the reason sometimes, watching TV or an opera, I feel a desire to close my eyes and to listen only.