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No sooner had Melodram issued Hans Knappertsbusch's 1956 Bayreuth Ring--far superior to his draggy 1957/8 efforts--than Music & Arts followed suit. The differences lie with the packaging. M&A's jewel boxes take up more shelf space, yet they squeeze Die Walküre onto three rather four discs. They sweeten the ante by selling the thirteen-disc set for the price of ten. M&A's annotations, however, take the cake, as William Youngren underlines Knappertsbusch's virtues and defects with rare perception and fairness. While the M&A discs are mastered at a higher level than the Melodram set, there's more tape hiss--Melodram's master may be a generation closer to the source tape. Both editions let the last note of Act 2 dovetail smack into the Act 3 Prelude with scarcely a second to breathe, but M&A boasts superior side breaks. In truth, if you must have a fifties Bayreuth Ring, the 1953 Clemens Krauss is much cheaper, and crackles rather than creaks. But if you're an unrepentant Knappertsbuschite, 1956 is the way to go. You choose the label. --Jed Distler