Der Ring des Nibelungen discography

Last updated

The four operas of Richard Wagner's cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen together take about 15 hours, which makes for several records, tapes, or CDs, and much studio time. For this reason, many full Ring recordings are the result of "unofficial" recording of live performances, particularly from the Bayreuth Festival where new productions are often broadcast by German radio. Live recordings, especially those in monaural, may have very variable sound but often preserve the excitement of a performance better than a studio recording.

Contents

Recordings

The following lists some well-known recordings of the complete Ring Cycle:

YearConductorOrchestraLabelStereo/MonoLive/Studio
1949 Rudolf Moralt Vienna Symphony OrchestraMytoMonoStudio
(radio broadcast)
1950 Wilhelm Furtwängler Teatro alla Scala Orchestra Music & Arts, Opera D'Oro,
Gebhardt, Archipel		MonoLive
1953 Wilhelm Furtwängler Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro della RAI EMI Classics, GebhardtMonoStudio
(radio broadcast)
Clemens Krauss Bayreuth Festival Orchestra Gala, Archipel,
Opera D'Oro, Orfeo		MonoLive
1952–1953,
1955		 Joseph Keilberth Bayreuth Festival Orchestra Testament Stereo
(1955 only)		Live
1956–1958 Hans Knappertsbusch Bayreuth Festival OrchestraMusic & Arts,
Melodram, Orfeo		MonoLive
1957 Rudolf Kempe Royal Opera House OrchestraTestamentMonoLive
1958–1965 Georg Solti Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Decca Records,
PolyGram 		StereoStudio
1961 Rudolf Kempe Bayreuth Festival OrchestraOrfeoMonoLive
1966–1970 Herbert von Karajan Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Deutsche Grammophon,
PolyGram 		StereoStudio
1966–1967 Karl Böhm Bayreuth Festival Orchestra Philips StereoLive
1968 Hans Swarowsky Großes SymphonieorchesterDenon EssentialsStereoStudio
Wolfgang Sawallisch Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro della RAIMytoStereoStudio
(radio broadcast)
1974–1978 Reginald Goodall English National Opera Orchestra EMI Classics,
Chandos 		StereoLive
(sung in English)
1979–1980 Pierre Boulez Bayreuth Festival Orchestra Philips,
Deutsche Grammophon,
PolyGram 		StereoLive
1980–1983 Marek Janowski Staatskapelle Dresden OrchestraEurodisc, BMG StereoStudio
1987–1989 James Levine Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Deutsche Grammophon StereoStudio
1988–1991 Bernard Haitink Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra EMI Classics StereoStudio
1989 Wolfgang Sawallisch Bavarian State Opera Orchestra EMI Classics StereoLive
1991–1992 Daniel Barenboim Bayreuth Festival Orchestra Warner Classics StereoLive
1993–1995 Günter Neuhold Badische Staatskapelle Orchestra Brilliant Classics,
Bella Musica, Documents		StereoLive
1997-1999 Roberto Paternostro Staatstheater KasselArs ProduktionStereoLive
1998–2001 Gustav Kuhn Tyrol Festival Orchestra Arte Nova StereoLive
2005 Hartmut Haenchen Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra EtceteraMultichannel StereoLive
2006–2007Asher Fisch Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Melba RecordingsMultichannel StereoLive
2006–2007 Lothar Zagrosek Staatsorchester Stuttgart Naxos StereoLive
2008 Christian Thielemann Bayreuth Festival OrchestraBBC Opus ArteStereoLive
2011 Christian Thielemann Wiener StaatsoperDeutsche GrammpohonStereoLive
2008–2010 Simone Young Philharmoniker Hamburg Oehms ClassicsStereoLive
2010–2012Sebastian Weigle Frankfurt Opera Orchestra Oehms ClassicsStereoLive
2012–2013 Marek Janowski Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra PENTATONE
(PTC 5186581)		Multichannel StereoLive concert
2015-2018 Jaap van Zweden Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra NaxosStereoLive concert

The recording conducted by Georg Solti was the first stereo studio recording of the complete cycle. In a poll on the BBC Radio 3's long-running radio programme CD Review, this set was voted as the greatest recording of the 20th century. [1] Although Solti's was the first studio stereo recording, the cycle had previously been recorded live in stereo by Decca engineers at the Bayreuth Festival in 1955 under the baton of Joseph Keilberth. Although unavailable for over 50 years, this cycle was finally released in 2006 on CD and vinyl by Testament.

Gramophone , for example, lists the Solti recording as its recommendation on its website. [2] However, when their long-time Wagner critic Alan Blyth reviewed recordings of the Ring for the feature "Building a Library" on the BBC's CD Review (then Stereo Review) in 1986, he favoured the Böhm and Furtwängler/RAI recordings. When John Deathridge carried out a follow-up review for the programme in 1992, he favoured parts of the Goodall, Haitink and Boulez cycles for individual operas and Levine overall. [3]

The Ring Cycle is also available in a number of video or DVD presentations. These include:

The Boulez, Barenboim, Zagrosek, and Haenchen performances are also available as audio recordings.

See also

References

  1. ↑ BBC Radio (2004). "The Greatest Recordings as Voted by CD Review Listeners". BBC. Retrieved 28 October 2007.
  2. ↑ "Recommended Recordings". Gramophone . 2007. Archived from the original on 16 October 2007. Retrieved 22 December 2007.
  3. ↑ BBC (2007). "CD Review's Building a Library". BBC. Retrieved 22 December 2007.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.