Customer Reviews

Ring Hlts

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was one of the first recordings that Barenboim made with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra when he became their music director in the early 90's. It is also a testament to his status as one of the best Wagner conductors of today's generation. His interpretation here is dramatically compelling yet also sensitive to the music's more tender moments. And even though this is a "bleeding chunks" highlights disc, one has the sense that Barenboim has a firm grasp of the Ring's overall structure, thus preventing his interpretation from sounding episodic. Along with Barenboim's wonderful conducting, the playing of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is the highlight of this disc--they are absolutely superb from the beginning to the end. Special praise must be given to the brass section (Adolph Herseth was still the man back then) which shines especially in the "Dawn and Siegfried's Rhine Journey," the "Siegfried's Death and Funeral Procession," and the "Immolation Scene." Deborah Polaski sings in the Immolation Scene and she is definitely no Birgit Nilsson (but then again, who is?). I found her vibrato to be excessively wide to the point where it became a distraction. But she does handle the aria well enough and her voice has the necessary strength to convey the dramatic power that the music calls for. More than that, the superlative playing of the orchestra under Barenboim's steady hand is what carries the day. The sound quality of this recording is excellent and the full text and translation of Brunnhilde's aria is included.

This must have been one of the first classical CDs I ever bought. It was my first (accidental, actually) outing into the spacious, colourful and deeply emotional soundworld of Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen and I am glad I 'stumbled' upon this recording, and not any other, because it is exactly what I expect of this music, looking back upon hearings of other performances of this music by other orchestras and conductors. It made me begin to love Wagner's Ring and wanting for more.
Barenboim makes the music sound approprately massive and stately, but at the same time does he maintain a sound that is light, fresh and transparent. A grand but clear-headed vision. A Parthenon or a Pantheon in music.
His tempi are generally exactly right for my own taste: not too fast but always pressing along with the right amount of dramatic tension. This recording was made at exactly the same time that Barenboim was conducting the Ring in Bayreuth, and those performances, captured magnificently on CD (and recently also - at last! - available on DVD), also catch (maybe even beter) Barenboim's superb feel for clarity and drama.
On this recording, all instruments are placed in a clear and finely balanced soundpicture, with enough depth and just a little - but I would like to say just the right amount of - reverberation. As if sitting in the front rows nearest to the orchestra. Instrumental playing is finely acute and could be characterized as 'thoughtful': there is a lot of thinking going on here (by orchestra as well as conductor) about the dramatic meaning of the notes.
Recapitulating, I think this is an honest, largely unadorned, clear-headed, but at the same time grand vision of Wagner's music that does not revel in the music for its own sake, but above all things lets the music speak as a purely dramatic narrative. And in the end, honesty is the best policy...

Something wrong is going on here. We've got the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, one of the finest orchestras in America with a reputation for the biggest, juiciest brass sound you can find. You've got a delicious program of Wagner Ring excerpts, mostly focusing on Gotterdammerung, the finale to the Ring cycle. Wagner composed magnificently for the brass instruments and we hear the Chicago brass section really pounce at the opportunity to tackle the massive beast that is Gotterdammerung.

But what in the hell is going on? Why are the tempos so lethargic, why does the music lack enthusiasm? Why is the sound so indistinct, soft-grained, murky and deviod of impact? The fault falls both on Barenboim for some lousy conducting and for the Erato engineers for their subpar, really subpar sound quality. I just can't enjoy listening to this recording.

Barenboim goes for the Furtwangler approach. If you actually ever heard Furtwangler do this music, then upon hearing Barenboim, you'd throw this CD out of the window as soon as possible! This is simply unacceptable. The final track is supposed to summarize the Ring cycle, the Gods are destroyed, Valhalla is on fire and we get to hear some outstanding Chicago brass work but the conducting is not on the same level and the recording is wretched. If the digital sound was top of the line, I might give this 3 stars. But really, what's the point of this if you can get Furtwangler instead? He gets more natural, brilliant sound quality even in old mono and the performances destroy anything that Barenboim could ever hope to do. Stick with Furtwangler or for modern stereo, Szell and Solti.