Customer Reviews

Wagner: Orchestral Music from The Ring of the Nibelung

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4 star:		(1)
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Here is a happy instance of the best performances coming on a generously filled CD which is also budget priced. Hallelujah. George Szell (1897-1970), one of the greatest conductors of the twentieth century, was born in Budapest, studied piano, conducting, and composing in Vienna and Berlin, and learned his craft as a conductor in the opera houses of Europe. World War II brought him to America, where he conducted at the Metropolitan Opera (1942-1946), and finally led the Cleveland Orchestra from 1946 until his death, "molding the ensemble into one of the world's finest," as the Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music notes. Szell and the Cleveland became as distinguished a collaboration as Toscanini and the NBC or Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. Szell brought the Cleveland Orchestra to such a peak of perfection that many good judges considered the Cleveland under Szell the premier conductor/orchestra team in the world.

In the late 1950s and the 1960s, the procession of marvelous Szell recordings with the Cleveland Orchestra that came rolling out of Severance Hall became for discerning music lovers a benchmark of excellence; many of them have never been surpassed. (My own list of these nonpareils would include the complete Beethoven symphonies, the complete Beethoven piano concertos with Leon Fleisher, the Beethoven overtures, the Mahler Fourth Symphony, Strauss's Don Quixote, the Dvorak Slavonic Dances, and the Wagner disc under review here, but there are plenty of other worthy candidates from the extensive Szell/Cleveland discography). Szell's hallmarks as an interpreter were vigor, tension, clarity, avoidance of extremes, excess, and eccentricity, complete lack of sentimentality, and masterful control of an orchestra that had become awesomely virtuosic and perfectly responsive in his hands. In sum, a typical Szell/Cleveland performance was taut, disciplined, bristling with energy, insight, and conviction, and immaculately played. His performances virtually never sounded routine, usually had a fresh-minted quality, and had a way of unfolding with an uncanny sense of rightness, of inevitability, conveying the impression that this is the way this music ought to be played.

This CD contains the six orchestral excerpts from Wagner's Ring that Szell and the Cleveland recorded in 1968. To these have been added two substantial excerpts from non-Ring Wagner operas, Die Meistersinger and Tristan und Isolde, recorded in 1962. All the performances are superb, as fine as any in the catalog. The sound is good, clear and full, if not up to the best standards of today. The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs, in reviewing this CD, awarded it their highest honor, a rosette, and said of it: "The orchestral playing here is in a very special class. Its virtuosity is breathtaking. Szell generates the greatest tension . . . and the improvement in [sound] quality with the latest remastering for CD is little short of miraculous. This is worthy of Szell's extraordinary achievement in Cleveland in the 1960s." As noted, the CD is very generously filled (almost 77 minutes of music) and budget priced. Talk about a good deal! So what are you waiting for?

I share the very favourable sentiments of other reviewers about this recording. Generally the orchestral playing is of the very highest quality and Szell sustains a high level of tension without the music feeling somewhat overdriven, as was the case with some of Toscanini's later recordings with the NBC Symphony. Certainly the Ring excerpts are convincing and the finale of Gotterdammerung, tacked on to the Funeral March without a break, makes a thrilling, apocalyptic impact. The Meistersinger Act I Prelude is played at a sensible tempo, with the multiple polyphony coming through very clearly, and the Tristan excerpts are also very strong and intense, although some listeners might prefer here a slower pace. Szell's work as a general rule was utterly lacking in sentimentality, prefering instead to let the emotion of the music come through discipline and precision. This no-nonsense approach works here. The sound is a bit dated, but that should not deter anybody. The documentation is excellent. At budget price, this can be enthusiastically recommended.

One of the truisms about George Szell is that he was a "cold" conductor (British music critics often recycle this claim). It's a total misrepresentation: you will NEVER hear these selections from the Ring played with such extraordinary emotional intensity. Add to that some of the most breathtaking orchestral virtuosity ever recorded, and you have one of the great classics of recorded music in our century. You'll never hear a better "Siegfried's Funeral Music," I guarantee.

Firstly, this is a five star disc without doubt - spectacularly well-played and passionately - yes passionately - conducted. We Brits are sometimes knocked for considering Szell a 'cold' conductor: I don't hold with that view and never have - I love his records. I do think of him as scary though; I remember seeing him conduct that famous video rehearsal of the Academic Festival Overture when it was entirely obvious the orchestra were terrified of him. Thereafter, he got mixed up in my mind with Laurence Olivier's character in 'Marathon Man', leaning over me with a dental drill and hissing the question 'Is it safe?' with that blank, pitiless stare. To balance that of of course, I always remember Karajan's comment that Szell's demeanour was misunderstood and that 'he was a man with a very full heart'. Ironically, the recording of the Brahms is still my favourite version - tremendously uplifting and exciting - in short, played with a full heart.
My introduction to this collection was the amazing rendition of the 'Funeral March', played loud enough to shake the foundations. An unforgettable feeling of power and menace held masterfully back and then unleashed in a terrfiying, awesome (hate that word these days, but it's the only one that'll do) climax. It still knocks me out, even though I've heard it a hundred times and am only too aware what's coming.
Much has been said about the incredible quality of the playing and also the limitations of the recording. I have to confess that I usually go for colour and passion in Wagner so I still find myself returning to Klemperer, Furtwangler and Karajan for some of this music, particularly for those pieces from Tristan where the timbre and colour of the strings is all-important. If I find this disc lacking anywhere, it's that it doesn't wring that last ounce of intensity and beauty from the strings in the Prelude and Liebestod: the conductor's choice for sure, but Furtwangler's ancient 1938 accounts, although antiques technically, have much more to offer here.
But then there are different ways of manifesting passion, all equally valid perhaps. Truly great wind and brass playing throughout, but not always as well caught as more or less contemporary offerings from EMI or Decca. Could anybody out there honestly claim, hand on heart, that the horns here, wonderful though they are, sound as good as in John Culshaw's Decca recordings of The Ring? Well, in the Rheinfart and Funeral March perhaps. Definitely. But in the Rheingold and Walkure music?
I love Szell's recordings of Haydn, Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven - and Wagner; but I think it's a terrible shame that he didn't fly his band over to Abbey Road or Vienna to make his recordings. EMI landed him too late in the game. Still, if there's one conductor who could sing 'My Way' and be universally believed, it's Szell. He was his own man and thank God for that or we'd all have missed some wonderful music making.
So, 'Is it Safe?' No, it's scaling the heights with absolutely confident virtuosity. It shows you what's possible, but also reminds you also that there's always more than one successful path through these wonderful scores.

If this CD doesn't prove to you Szell and the Clevelanders were the world's finest orchestra in the 1960s (and one of the half-dozen best in the history of recorded music), then you're either dead or deaf. You may hear better recorded versions of "Ride of the Valkries" or "Wotan's Fire Music" (the trumpets are gorgeous here) or "Forest Murmurs" in this digital age, but you will NEVER hear better played versions again.

Sony's "Essential Classics" line is not usually thought of as much of a hunting ground for audiophiles. In the eyes of the purists, the CBS engineers of the 60s and 70s were apparently guilty of all sorts of no-nos: compression, mid-band boosting, multi-miking the orchestra to bring out detail that wouldn't be heard in the concert hall, and so forth. But this recording defies all expectation, even in its budget incarnation. If you have a decent stereo system, this CD is magical. The illusion of concert-hall depth has to be heard to be believed. There is tremendous dynamic range and clarity to burn, even in the climaxes. The sound is detailed--occasional chair creaks are faintly audible--but not, to my mind, artificially so. And there is that sense of space around the instruments that sets apart the greatest recordings from the also-rans. (As an aside, I don't know how much of a role Bejun Mehta has in tweaking the sound of these old recordings, but I have noticed that if his name is in the engineering credits of a Sony CD it is likely to be well above average.) Anyway, this is a real sonic treat. And the music-making is of course superb!

The kind of Wagner I dream about. What an authentic sound! One minute into this great budget-priced CD and you know you're in good hands--hang on, it's going to be a heck of a ride! Truth be told, I bought this one for "Magic Fire Music," and it satisfied. I don't really need another Wagner compilation, but I was in the mood, and this one struck my fancy. Lucky me! I'm sure it will supplant the others. And the pieces here? First-rate choice. After we leave Valhalla there's some Meistersinger, then straight into the Prelude and Isolde's Liebestod (strung together; no singing [anywhere on the album]). It really is a shame that Szell didn't conduct more opera, judging by this CD. Sounds like he and the orchestra were born to play Wagner. And that "Tristan" excerpt, boy oh boy. Szell was like a storyteller with that baton. I was pretty much exhausted at the conclusion of the CD. Highest recommendation.

If you're in the market for a great CD of orchestral excerpts from Wagner's epic Ring saga, this is one of the best purchases you are likely to ever make. This is the first Wagner CD I ever bought years ago and even though I have heard countless recordings of these pieces as well as complete operas since, I always return to Szell's spectacular performances. The orchestral execution throughout is beyond criticism, the Cleveland Orchestra sound as if they were born to play this music, they are that good!

Everything on this disc is very impressive but the greatest performances are the two selections from Gotterdammerung, ( The Twilight of the Gods ), which are uniquely captivating and matched by few conductors, perhaps Solti's classic complete Ring is one of those few.

The Tristan and Isolde Prelude and Libestod is very impassioned, here Szell is great but ultimately can't match the fury of Karajan, whose EMI and DG Karajan Gold recordings of Wagner you should definitely investigate.

The sound on this Szell CD is great but not the best in the world, however looking at the dates of the recordings, scattered throughout the 1960's, you really can appreciate how good the sound is for it's time and still even today! There is plenty of amplitude and power to go around, just listen to the spectacular brass work in the prelude to Die Meistersinger, outstanding! You really can't afford to miss these classic Szell recordings, the Penguin Guide has continually graced this record with it's "Rosette" Award. Don't wait, find this on the used market and buy it as soon as possible!

Although it sounds different today, the Cleveland Orchestra has been, since George Szell's accession, probably the greatest orchestra in the world. Some have criticized Szell's Wagner as being too lean, and perhaps it does sound less tonally refulgent than many other interpretations. Yet, as another reviewer has remarked, the power of the music and the playing is completely overwhelming and the sense of orchestral virtuosity, only in the service of the music, is astonishing. If you love Wagner, and great orchestral playing you must own this disc.

For those who have the other CBS classic recording of overtures...this one is a must for any serious Ring collector. We have Szell on the top of his form giving an incredible performance...sonorities are clean and withouout the plodding sentimentality heard in the 20s. Szell is just the man to give us this music...he has a rather pristine view of Wagner textures...sound is always clean and the melody is allowed to come to the fore.


I have always liked this record...which far surpassed the crappy Ormandy Wagner album...that was a pretty banal attempt at Wagner. I found Ormandy more convincing in Sibelius.