Compressed Wagner

[Dave2002]

I thoroughly enjoyed the compressed version of Wagner's Ring on Po3 last night - Friday 19/10. Most of the good bits, and none of that skreetchy singing!

Recommended. If you have to listen to Wagner this will save days of your life - about 1 hour versus 4 days - at maybe 3-5 hrs per day. Surely must be at least 16:1 compression. Of course you don't have to listen to Wagner at all - I only do that rarely, maybe once a year. I did play in Siegfried Idyll once - that's a good piece.

This could be your chance this year - on iPlayer now.

[Gordon]

Try here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wagner-Ring-.../dp/B000003CUJ for Maazel's arrangement or here for the video:


ttp://www.musicweb-international.com...er_2057604.htm


or here for the one you heard on Friday, recorded by Chandos:

http://www.chandos.net/CD_Notes.asp?CNumber=CHSA%205060

[Ferretfancy]

I thoroughly enjoyed the compressed version of Wagner's Ring on Po3 last night - Friday 19/10. Most of the good bits, and none of that skreetchy singing!

Recommended. If you have to listen to Wagner this will save days of your life - about 1 hour versus 4 days - at maybe 3-5 hrs per day. Surely must be at least 16:1 compression. Of course you don't have to listen to Wagner at all - I only do that rarely, maybe once a year. I did play in Siegfried Idyll once - that's a good piece.

This could be your chance this year - on iPlayer now.

As President Eisenhower said to Leonard Bernstein, " My wife and I like music, but not all those arias and barcarolles !

I'm seriously considering going for the deluxe edition of the Solti Ring, with all the tempting extras. It's no longer my top favourite, but this recording has lived with me in some shape or form since Rheingold in 1959. It's very pricey, but has anybody here taken the plunge? It would be nice to hear some comments before I jump.

[Flosshilde]

I thought it was a bit dull - don't know if that was the fault of the compiler/arranger or the performance. I doubt if it would persuade anyone to listen to the music dramas. Better to listen to what we're getting from Covent Garden.

[VodkaDilc]

I thoroughly enjoyed the compressed version of Wagner's Ring on Po3 last night - Friday 19/10. Most of the good bits, and none of that skreetchy singing!
I did play in Siegfried Idyll once - that's a good piece.

It must be a good piece for the trumpeter (is that what you play?) - only one phrase, as far as I can remember.

As for the good bits of The Ring in an hour, the good bits of the first scene of Das Rheingold take an hour!

[jayne lee wilson]

Plug alert! Did write a review of the Wagner on the Tippett Master's Shadow Thread... it was very well received by various press critics too...

[Flosshilde]

Perhaps someone should compile the 'good bits' of a Mozart symphony? In my book it would be the last note.

[jayne lee wilson]

Perhaps someone should compile the 'good bits' of a Mozart symphony? In my book it would be the last note.

You can always rely on Flossie to lower the tone

[Alison]

A tremendously enjoyable performance from the BBCSO on Friday.

I came to feel I had missed a certain weightiness in Pappano's conducting from Covent Garden, superb though the playing had been in many ways.

A reminder of Mark Wigglesworth's altogether exceptional gifts. Ideal pacing, structure, awareness of orchestral timbre, natural delivery.

[Flosshilde]

You can always rely on Flossie to lower the tone

Just responding to the tone of the OP

[Dave2002]

Just responding to the tone of the OP

I suppose we could have the "best" bits of 1000 composers. I suggest the first and last notes of their 10 "best" pieces. Could hear them all in a hour if done at about 6 notes per second, so would fit on a CD!

I was genuinely captivated for at least the first 20 minutes by the Wagner "medley" on Friday. I really love the Flying Dutchman, but some of the others are a bit much to take. Parts of the Ring are indeed superb, but I do think there are some long stretches which are not so. I suspect most of us don't have time to listen to these music dramas in their entirety. I have been to performances of the Ring - though not a complete cycle in a few days. I have listened to the whole on more than one occasion on CD, radio and TV. I'm not rushing to repeat these ecperiences, though if someone wants to offer me tickets to Bayreuth I'll go!

[salymap]

I thoroughly enjoyed the compressed version of Wagner's Ring on Po3 last night - Friday 19/10. Most of the good bits, and none of that skreetchy singing!

Recommended. If you have to listen to Wagner this will save days of your life - about 1 hour versus 4 days - at maybe 3-5 hrs per day. Surely must be at least 16:1 compression. Of course you don't have to listen to Wagner at all - I only do that rarely, maybe once a year. I did play in Siegfried Idyll once - that's a good piece.

This could be your chance this year - on iPlayer now.

Dave, I've only just found this. So glad I'm not the only MBer who can't [and never could, even when I could get to the theatre] sit through The Ring for four nights.

My compressed Wagner takes the form of his overtures, some of which are lovely.

[umslopogaas]

I've been enjoying listening to the current Ring broadcasts and am looking forward to Gotterdammerung on Wednesday. I admit I dont listen closely all the way through. I have the Solti set twice, once on the original LPs and once on a CD reissue, so I certainly wont be going for yet another copy.

I've not seen all of it live, but I did once stand through most of Gotterdammerung. In my student days you could buy a ticket for Covent Garden for one pound, which entitled you to stand at the back of the stalls. I dont know if this is still allowed. Standing through all of Gotterdammerung is a bit of an endurance test and I finally had to admit defeat and sit down for the last bit, so I missed seeing Brunnhilde ride into the flames.

My preferred compressed Wagner is 'The Ring of the Nibelungs: an analysis' by Anna Russell. She recorded it live in New York in 1953 and I'm sure its been issued many times, I remember a school friend had it on LP back in the 1960s. I have it on a Sony Masterworks CD called 'The Anna Russell Album?', no. MDK 47252. She is very funny, and highly recommended as an antidote if you feel all that Teutonic gloom is getting you down.

[Flosshilde]

Standing through all of Gotterdammerung is a bit of an endurance test

You should try sitting on the stalls floor! - which is what I did for the Proms performance back in the 70's.

[Dave2002]

Umslopogaas

i tried the Anna Russell sketches a while back. I didn't find them very funny - maybe 5/10. Actually I do think that some Wagner benefits enormously from good recordings/performances. I listened to some cheap CDs of the Ring a few years ago (Neuhold - they're OK). One day I was in a CD shop, and the man behind the counter put on Solti's version of part of the Ring. No comparison - Solti's was a much better experience. OTOH I did hear at least one of Reginald Goodall's highly acclaimed ENO performances. It was OK, but I felt really not much better than that. Perhaps it's just me - not that fond of all Wagner, and certainly I have been staggered to discover that Wagner is the most performed composer at the Proms.

VodkaDilc: flute - I'm biased, I think it has a reasonable part in Siegfried Idyll.