How Many Rings Do You Need?

[Karafan]

Well, I have been a little self-indulgent again () and have treated myself to a pair of Rings - both Kempe, his 1957 Covent Garden and his 1960 Bayreuth cycles. No prizes for guessing what I'll be curled-up with over Crimbo.....

K.

[Biffo]

Well, I have been a little self-indulgent again () and have treated myself to a pair of Rings - both Kempe, his 1957 Covent Garden and his 1960 Bayreuth cycles. No prizes for guessing what I'll be curled-up with over Crimbo.....

K.

Does this mean his 1960 Bayreuth Ring is available again? I have only managed to acquire half of it from ebay on LPs.

[Parry1912]

None! Not a single one...

If only Ida Haendel had recorded Brunnhilde! :rolleyes: (We really do need a "flogging a dead horse" emoticon )

[Barbirollians]

If only Ida Haendel had recorded Brunnhilde! :rolleyes: (We really do need a "flogging a dead horse" emoticon )

Well if Sarasate had written a Brunnhilde Fantasy I am sure she would have recorded it magnificently !

[pastoralguy]

I HAVE listened to the 'Ring' cycle on both CD and DVD and it's never done anything for me. I know it's my loss (big time) but I really do struggle with it. (I've played some of it too and it left no memory at all.

Oh dear.

[pastoralguy]

Isn't there a 'Wagner Fantasy' at the end of the film with John Garfield and Joan Crawford? Plyed by Isaac Stern if memory (which has defeated me on the title!) serves me correctly.

[visualnickmos]

"How Many Rings Do You Need?"

Just one; BUT, be sure to find one you like, and stick with it, otherwise it will consume your entire lifecycle, and you'll be dead without ever having truly found "it".

I bought on recommendation, Solti's, (Decca) about 18 years ago, and I'm still on the journey of wonderful discovery. I do not intend to ever buy another - unless there is in the next 20 years a wonder-drug development that will double the average life-span.

[Stanley Stewart]

# 51 Indeed, pastoralguy. "Humoresque" (1946) which is still a watchable film from Warner Bros. Star John Garfield was unable to fake the violin sequences and it must have been surreal to have a professional violinist performing the fingering by crouching out of sight, and the bowing by another! Isaac Stern played Franz Waxman's luscious score. I have a Nonesuch label CD (1998) in which the LSO/Andrew Litton with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (violin) play music from the soundtrack. The Tristan & Isolde Fantasie is a delight.

[Karafan]

Does this mean his 1960 Bayreuth Ring is available again? I have only managed to acquire half of it from ebay on LPs.

Biffo: I have bought it in a Golden Melodram 13 CD box, from a chap in Germany. Interestingly, he apparently knew the man who did the transfers in Munich from the mastertapes. The sound is very good indeed from the snippets I have caught and of course Kempe brings something else to the work. His work with the transition music alone is worth the admission fee IMHO. I have never come across a bad Kempe recording in years of collecting.

The seller is a great Kempe aficionado and told me that, wherever he could, Kempe took his favourite Covent Garden Singers with him by which he means the singers who appeared in his Ring Cycles between 1956-1960. Notably Otakar Kraus as Alberich. The set also features Windgassen as Siegmund and Gottlob Frick as Hunding/Hagen; Varnay sings Brünnhilde in Walküre and 'laserbeam' Nilsson in the other two.

What label are your LPs on, Biffo?

K.

[amateur51]

Does this mean his 1960 Bayreuth Ring is available again? I have only managed to acquire half of it from ebay on LPs.

This seems to be the 1960 Kempe Ring, Biffo

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_gnr_fkmr0?rh=i%3Aclassical%2Ck%3AWagner+1960+Kempe&keywords=Wagner+1960+Kempe&ie=UTF8&qid=1324056953

Hope it helps

[Biffo]

Karafan: The LPs (Siegfried & Gotterdammerung) are on the Melodram label and are in reasonable mono sound; there is only minimal notes and that is mostly waffle about the 'New Bayreuth'. Since my last posting I checked Amazon and CD versions of each instalment are available individually on the Myto label. This is a label I have never encountered before and I am unsure about buying them. A couple of years ago I saw a complete CD set on ebay but the price was astronomical.

I do have the Kempe/ROH set but was hoping for a performance with better sound. Also, I know this is heresy but I prefer Hopf to Windgassen as Siegfried. Hopf is a bit wooden at times but has a more heroic voice.

It is a great shame no one asked Kempe to made a studio recording of the Ring. Birgit Nilsson (as well as me) thought he was a wonderful Wagner conductor.

[Ferretfancy]

Just an enquiry, I recently picked up a bargain at Gramex, in the form of Die Walkure, the Leinsdorf recording with Vickers and Nilsson. This was originally a Decca recording for RCA with Kenneth Wilkinson as engineer. It's perhaps not a top recommendation, but I remember it from my early days collecting LPs, and it seemed better then. The CDs carry the Decca label, but are Italian in origin, with notes in Italian. I suspect that something very odd has happened to the sound, which has a rather vague reverberant quality, with voices tending to wander on the soundstage. I wonder whether it has been tinkered with in some way, it doesn't sound vintage Decca at all. Has anybody else heard this recording recently ?

[umslopogaas]

Karafan #56, Technically, Myto are fine: I have several, I used to visit ENO regularly and the ENO shop sells them. You do have to be prepared for the usual limitations of vintage live recording, but if you can tolerate less than perfect audio quality, you get some stunning performances eg Verdi's 'Don Carlo', with Brouwenstijn, Vickers, Christoff, Barbieri and Gobbi, conducted by Giulini, live recording from Covent Garden 1958. The singing is sensational.

And Ferretfancy #57, I've got the original RCA 'Soria' LPs of the Leinsdorf 'Die Walkure': long time since I played them, but I dont recall anything amiss, so it sounds as if something has gone wrong with the re-mastering for CD. They were recorded by Decca for RCA, but according to the booklet, the engineer was Eric Smith: no mention of Kenneth Wilkinson.

[Biffo]

Thanks to all who replied.

amateur51: I somehow missed your post but the recordings in the link are the individual performances I mentioned above. Incidentally, who do Amazon think are going to pay £147 for the ROH Ring when you can get it from Testament for less than £60?

umslopogaas: I might try the Myto Rheingold as an experiment

I have the Leinsdorf Die Walkure on Decca CDs, I listened to some of it a few weeks ago and also noticed nothing amiss but I will give it another spin. The booklet give Erik Smith as producer and Kenneth Wilkinson as recording engineer.

[umslopogaas]

Thanks Biffo, you are right, I have looked more closely at the Soria booklet (its quite extensive); Smith was the producer and Wilkinson is listed as the engineer.

There's quite an amusing description of Decca's recording studio in Norman Lebrecht's 'Maestros, Masterpieces and Madness':

"Exceptionally in class-ridden Britain, Decca demolished social barriers. Arthur Haddy, the chief sound engineer, spoke in a thick Essex Estuary accent and called everybody 'boy'. His number two, Kenneth Wilkinson, would sit at the console, eyes shut, a Player's cigarette drooping from his lips, his fingers touching the buttons of the mixers like a clinical diagnostician's In rehearsal breaks Wilkie would walk around the studio adjusting musicians' chairs. If he disliked the tempo he would mutter 'my daughter couldnt dance to that', and a prudent producer would take heed. Dress at Decca was casual. In studio, everyone wore squeak-proof tennis shoes."