Customer Reviews

Wagner: The Ring - An Orchestral Adventure [Hybrid SACD]

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

 

 

I must confess that Wagner is one of my favorite composers, but I promise to suppress bias as much as I can!
As it is hard to find 15-16 hours to sit and listen to The Ring, and as it contains much that is satisfying when arranged without voices, a significantly shorter orchestral reduction is an obvious opportunity for a composer/arranger to exert his skills. There have been a number of attempts at producing such a work, the results varying in quality. They range from sections of The Ring, with the orchestra filling the vocal lines, the sections being joined together with simple links or musical bridges. This provides the listener with the notes Wagner wrote, but as an overall listening experience the result is not totally satisfying as it lacks unity.
The other extreme is to take Wagner's themes and use them as the basis for an extended symphonic poem. This may produce an enjoyable work, but it is no longer a reduction of The Ring. To my mind, the composer faced with this challenge must remember that he is re-creating Wagner, but he must also be aiming to write a musically satisfying work that can stand alone.
The composer/arranger responsible for the work on this recording has done just that. Taking on what seems an impossible task, Henk de Vleiger, in 1991 produced this work which is the best distillation of The Ring that I have heard. In just over 60 minutes we hear a symphonic synthesis that 'samples' all four component operas (and includes nearly all of the most popular extracts) and creates a cogent, musically satisfying whole that is almost entirely pure Wagner (allowing for the orchestra playing the vocal lines). Rather than extracts pasted together, de Vleiger has managed to produce a near-ideal synthesis, yet it contains no hint of music by de Vleiger, what we hear is Wagner, as he conceived it, presented as an orchestral work which pays 100% respect to Wagner and his structures and orchestration. I am sure Wagner would have given complete approval (and in this performance, so would Stokowski!).
Which leads me to the performance itself: there are many people who are unaware of the very high standard of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (which, I suspect, must have had its numbers almost doubled for this recording), and under the baton of Jarvi, give us playing and a performance that could hardly be bettered by any other orchestra. They play with total involvement and dedication. The quieter parts receive the necessary delicacy, but in the 'full-blown' sections the energy and guts of the playing are unsurpassed. You need a good SACD system to fully appreciate this performance, the dynamic range is so wide, and the orchestral textures become so complex in places; but if you lack SACD facilities, still buy this (most SACDs are CD compatible) for it is a musical treasure not to be missed.
And, finally a comment on the sound (5.0 actually, not the 5.1 claimed by another reviewer - which is not really relevant as, normally, an orchestra does not produce frequencies low enough to need a sub-woofer, not even Wagner). Chandos has risen to the occasion and produced a recording of demonstration quality. Although the Producer and engineers have decided to use an approach that tends to place the listener among the performers (something I don't usually like in symphonic music), here it has been done with musical understanding and sensitivity that seems exactly the right approach in this case.
In short, this is a superb recording that should be in the library of everyone who appreciates Wagner. And for the beginner, two recordings need to be obtained: this one, and a recording that includes Anna Russell's 20-minute dissertation on The Ring - one of the funniest musical monologues in existence. So, in summary, buy it.

I own several versions of Wagner's orchestral ring cycle from conductors like Stokowski,Dorati, Karajan, Ormandy, Maazel, to name a few. What makes this one stand out is the pace of the music, the Scottish orchestra under Jarvi did an excellent job. Tracks 4 & 5 made the hair on the back of my neck rise, equivalent to the "Circus maximus" of Respighi's Roman Festivals. Being that this a 5.1 sacd explains the aural workout to the eardrums. Highly recommended.

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME! It's just orchestral Wagner which is what I love. The only down side is you'll have to play with your volume as you listen (but that's the case for any Wagner music played right...). And I especially liked the opening track... thematically not much going on, but orchestrally it will blow your mind!

I'm not much of an opera fan, but I adore Wagner's (and many other opera's) classical music without the singing. So this is the way for me to enjoy the music, and I really appreciate it when I have the opportunity to enjoy just the music. This is a great mix, too.

Much good has been said about this disc and as a confirmed Wagnerite I have to agree that musically this was a well-executed distillation, but the SACD 5-channel production and mix leaves a bit to be desired.
From a purely technical viewpoint the violins are very veiled, and particularly so in the long introduction to "Rheingold": perhaps I'm more used to Maazel and Solti (or their recording engineers) but I found this lack of orchestral balance irritating. Wagner himself said that he required clarity above all else, and in many of the tracks a lot of fine detail was lost in favour of horns and brass. Don't get me wrong; I love crackling horns but not at the expense of the strings, and harps. The lack of profound bass was curious also: the sound certainly was not hollow or lacking body, but I did miss the power of the lowest registers compared to other recordings of the same exerpts played on the same equipment.
The ambience of the hall is very pronounced - this seems partly due to placing the microphones well back. However this ambience and reverb does diffuse the stereo localization of instruments quite a lot on some tracks giving a sort of "homogenized" sound. This clears up somewhat when the orchestra (and the Valkyries) are in full flight. In fact the famous "ride" of track 5 is a great demo piece and I would buy the disc just for that alone.
The dynamic range of this disc is awe-inspiring: The SACD produces huge surges in volume that make me glad I bought high-end equipment - I can see where all my money went, and so can my neighbours - thank God they like the same music!
So, if you're new to Wagner, this'll get your heart going, but if you are already a follower, you might miss some of the finer details you're used to.

The current recording is the second of this arranger's version, and on all counts superior to the previous one with the horrid cover photo by some wanna-be Maplethorpe photographer. Embarassing! Anyway, my complaint focusses on one issue only, and that is the arranger's obsession to make a continuous flow of Wagner's music. Maazel tried the same thing in his previous arrangement (on Telarc), making the same mistake. Because of the enormous length of the four operas which comprise "The Ring," wouldn't it have made more sense to create a four-movement symphonic version? So who cares about the length (two CDs of Wagner are always better than one)? Why? Because in both the Maazel version and this one, the incredible final sequence of "Das Rheingold" is totally eliminated, meaning the long, repeated rhythmic motif which closes the work. What should follow this, but silence? In fact, I miss it so much that I have manipulated Maazel's recording to include the "Das Rheingold" finale, despite the "click" on my tape. Try it, you'll like it.

Word is out too, that Henk van Vleiger (sp?), the arranger of the Chandos recording, will soon release his arrangement of "Die Meistersinger" ohne worte . . . Can't wait till it gets here!

MJA