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Der Ring des Nibelungen discography

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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.

Recordings

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

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

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References

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  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.