Wagner: Der Ring Des Nibelungen, Solti

	£		74
	$		98

Wagner: Der Ring Des Nibelungen George Solti

The Greatest achievement of the Gramaphone, Not my words but the words of most experts with a taste for great music.

This is the full boxed set of the Ring cycle (Also known as the BRICK) with a cast to die for. 19 records in all, plus It also contains Derek Cookes 3 record set titled “An Introduction To Der Ring Des Nibelungen”

I purchased this around 1971, Mrs Neal who owned the record shop were I purchased it let me pay her £2 per week, I think the full price at that time was £42.

The box is in used condition but I have to say pretty good for thirty six years age. The compartments are also in similar condition. The enclosed booklets have the full libretto translated into English and are in excellent condition with an odd crease on each edition. The gold lettering on the spine of each opera is fading

The records themselves if I say so myself  are as near to mint condition as it is possible to get, “Fantastic Condition”.

This is a heavy item that before packaging weighs 11 Kilos so the postal price will be high £12.50 for Royal Mail Standard Parcels

I could go on and on about this set but to whet your appetite, below is a review by the Wagner expert Charles E Munz

Review by Charles E. Muntz 1998

These recordings were hailed as some of the greatest ever made when they were first issued between 1959 and 1966. Each one won a Grand Prix du Disque and the entire cycle was given a Grammy award and the Dutch Edison award, among others.

Some forty years after Das Rheingold was first recorded, I think this Ring cycle remains the greatest ever recorded by a fair margin. Its crowning glories include the radiant Brünnhilde of Birgit Nilsson, who is easily the finest Brünnhilde since World War 2. Her voice is built like steel, with piercing high notes (more so than her reading for Böhm) and a reading that is as dramatic as it is thoughtful.

For her Siegfried, Nilsson had Wolfgang Windgassen. True, he is not Melchior and lacks the heroic ring and power the role requires. But he sings with conviction and lyricism. He sounds fresher and more involved here than he does for Böhm, probably because of the studio recording. He sounds a bit fresher for Krauss, but is not as convincing overall as he is here. He is a finer Siegfried than any other postwar interpretation I have heard.

The role of Wotan is split. In Rheingold George London takes on the role, providing a powerful, dramatic, authoritative, reading of the younger god. I personally prefer, slightly, Hans Hotter's recording of the role for Clemens Krauss, although Hotter does not really sound as virile for the part as London does. Solti does have Hotter for "Walküre" and "Siegfried", and the bass-baritone shows that although his voice has aged and is a bit wobbly and ragged at times, his authority and interpretation are unmatched and hold up well against his earlier readings. Certainly no Wotan since begins to match him. And no where else is his voice captured in such fine sound.

Regine Crespin brings a beautiful clarity and spontaneity to Sieglinde. Her reading is ecstatic and it matches Leonie Rysanek's best. Against her, James King provides a fine, enthusiastic Siegmund, vocally well suited for the role, although he is a bit more involving for Böhm. It is easy to hear why the great bass Gottlob Frick remarked, "This is the tenor we’ve been waiting for!" when he heard King for the first time.

Speaking of Frick, I feel that he is the best Hagen on record. He manages to combine a perfect legato with a huge, black voice. The dominating power he exerts over the Gibichungs is evident from the first and in Hagen’s watch the full, terrifying extent of his evil is revealed. As Hagen’s father Alberich we have Gustav Neidlinger, who essentially owned the part of Alberich at Bayreuth after the war and here gives a most evil, terrifying reading of the role that is without peer.

For Hagen's half sibilings Solti has Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Claire Watson. Watson provides a beautifully sung, vulnerable, and innocent Gutrune. Fischer-Dieskau is a noble sounding Gunther, and he makes the role into a tragic one as the character's weakness is gradually revealed. His voice is well suited for the role, which he learned specifically for Solti.

The rest of the Ring has been superbly cast as well, right down to the smallest roles. The great Kirsten Flagstad learned the role of Fricka for Das Rheingold. Joan Sutherland sings the Woodbird. Christa Ludwig is both Waltraute and the Walkure Fricka. The Rhinemaidens include Ira Malanuik, Bayreuth’s leading mezzo in the 50s, Lucia Popp and Gwyneth Jones. Jean Madeira is a haunting, foreboding Erda in Das Rheingold. Gerhard Stolze is controversial as Mime in Siegfried--some find his interpretation grotestque. I personally think he is one of the few singers to portray Mime for what he is--a small, vile, evil dwarf who lies and cheats through the opera and gets his just deserves at the end.

The playing of the Vienna Philharmonic is beyond praise. The stunning power and control of the brass, the beauty of the harps--nothing is lacking. The chorus in Götterdämmerung is uniformly excellent.

Finally we come to Solti’s conducting. Unlike Furtwängler, whose mysticism and brooding tended to overshadow the drama, or Karajan, whose homogenizing sound tended to dull it, Solti’s reading emphasizes it. No other conductor produces such an exciting Ring. The emotional power is incredible here. The first time I heard Wotan’s farewell I shed a few tears. And after listening to the second act of Götterdämmerung for the first time I sat in stunned silence for a few minutes. But Solti does not sacrifice musical detail either. Even when the music is at its loudest the amount of detail that can be heard is astonishing.

Much of the credit for this must go to John Culshaw, the producer, and Gordon Parry, the engineer. Culshaw makes full use of the stereo medium and closely follows Wagner’s instructions for special effects. They procured 18 anvils of the exact sizes Wagner specified, provided realistic thunder where needed, and most controversially changing the timbre of Windgassen voice so he sounds like a baritone when he comes for Brünnhilde in Act 1 of Götterdämmerung (Wagner specified that Siegfried was to assume the voice of Gunther). The only effect that does not really come up is the stacking of the gold in Rheingold (they had to use bars of tin). But what results is what Culshaw called "the theater of the mind" and this is the one recording of the Ring where I feel that I am actually experiencing it, not listening to a performance. Sonically, this recording comes close to matching a digital recording in terms of clarity and impact. Although I listen to and enjoy many Ring recordings such as Furtwängler or Krauss, for me this will remain "The Ring".