Wagner – Der Ring des Nibelungen in Slipcase – Solti – German Teldec pressing

$

50

This is a very nice copy of Wagner’s Ring cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Georg Solti.  The four individual operas are housed in regular LP boxes with the booklets and held in an outer slipcase.  The individual glossy opera box sets are in excellent condition with very slight ring wear.  The box lids are firmly attached to the back. Only Das Rheingold has a seam split along the center top edge.  The outer case is in excellent condition with only a small nick along the front left edge.  The LPs are in excellent condition with only two minor scratches (light ½” scratch at end of side 4, Rheingold; ¼” scratch at beginning of side 3 (Walkure).  When I first purchased this set about 15 years ago, I cleaned the LPs with a VPI record cleaner and placed the records in VRP record inner sleeves and treated them with LAST record preservative before playing them.  More recently, I cleaned them again with Audio Intelligent fluids and this got rid of most of the residue from the original plastic inner sleeves. The records have also been demagnetized and provided with an additional cleaning with an Audio Desk ultra-sonic record cleaner. I then listened to several sides but did not re-listen to the entire set. The sound is excellent with very little surface noise. The records are all pressed in Germany by Teldec with all analogue mastering (Blue Decca label).  Based on the date stamped in the inner band, the records appear to have been pressed in 1971 (Rheingold) and 1973 (all others). A booklet is included with each opera but the essays and opera text are only in German. A very nice copy of this set of historic recordings.

The cast of each opera is as follows:

Das Rheingold (3 LPs): George London (Wotan), Kirsten Flagstad (Fricka), Claire Watson (Freia), Waldemar Kmentt (Froh), Eberhard Wachter (Donner), Set Svanholm (Loge), Paul Kuen (Mime), Jean Madeira (Erda), Gustav Neidlinger (Alberich), Walter Kreppel (Fasolt), Kurt Bohme (Fafner), Oda Balsborg (Woglinde), Hetty Plumacher (Wellgunde), and Ira Malaniuk (Flosshilde).

Die Walkure (5 LPs): James King (Siegmund), Regine Crespin (Sieglinde), Gottlob Frick (Hunding), Hans Hotter (Wotan), Birgit Nilsson (Brunnhilde), Christa Ludwig (Fricka), Brigitte Fassbaender (Waltraute), Berit Lindholm (Helmwige), Helga Dernesch (Ortlinde), Vera Schlosser (Gerhilde), Helen Watts (Schwertleite), Vera Little (Siegrune), Claudia Hellmann (Rossweisse), and Marilyn Tyler (Grimgerde).

Siegfried (5 LPs): Wolfgang Windgassen (Siegfried), Hans Hotter (Wotan), Birgit Nilsson (Brunnhilde), Gerhard Stolze (Mime), Gustav Neidlinger (Alberich), Kurt Bohme (Fafner),  Marga Hoffgen (Erda), and Joan Sutherland (Der Waldvogel).

Gotterdammerung (6 LPs): Wolfgang Windgassen (Siegfried), Birgit Nilsson (Brunnhilde), Gustav Neidlinger (Alberich), Gottlob Frick (Hagen), Claire Watson (Gutrune), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Gunther), Christa Ludwig (Waltraute), Helen Watts (First Norn), Grace Hoffman (Second Norn), Anita Valkki (Third Norn), Lucia Popp (Woglinde), Gwyneth Jones (Wellgunde), and Maureen Guy (Flosshilde).

Multiple records can be combined in an order to save shipping costs.