Search - Peter Wimberger, Richard [Classical] Wagner, Zubin Mehta :: Wagner: Highlights from 'The Ring'

This one is a hit and miss

Ray Barnes | Surrey, British Columbia Canada | 06/13/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The orchestral playing and conducting is good but not particularly memorable. I would not rank it equal to that of Szell with the Cleveland Orchestra. Wimsberger in the Farewell is decent but not great, and Caballe is regrettably not successful in the Immolation Scene. She scoops the top notes from below rather than singing them cleanly, and her German diction is suspect too. Although I admire many of her other recordings, I do not play this one frequently. Good sound quality and documentation. Probably indispensable for Caballe fans, for better or worse. At this price range I would choose instead the Szell, Solti, Karajan or Bohm (on 2CDs) highlights recordings from the complete operas."

My first Wagner CD and it remains a favourite

Mr. Allan K. Steel | Sydney, AUS | 07/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I got this 16 years ago and it was my very first Wagner CD.



Now I have a large number of Wagner CDs but this remains a favourite.



There are many arrangements of Ring excerpts around, but this has the best versions, in my view, especially for Dawn & RJ.



Mehta's pacing is excellent, particularly for the Goetterdaemmerung tracks, and the sound is superb: so much detail is revealed very clearly.



The Immolation Scene with Caballe was recorded separately (the stereo placing is clearly different from the others) and she is nothing like a Nilsson, but it's OK.



So, overall, a wonderful introduction to some of the key Highlights of the Ring."

Just remove the Immolation Scene

Aanel Victoria | USA | 09/21/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a most excellent album, marred by the fact that when the cassette version was adapted to CD length, a recording of Caballé singing the Immolation Scene was tacked on to fill out the length. This is unfortunate, because it mars the perfect artistry and artistic integrity of the original, and of the rest of the CD. My recommendation is to obtain the CD but rerecord it, excising Caballé's singing track, which I frankly find unlistenable, not to mention terribly out of place in an album of Ring instrumentals.



Other than that, the CD is great, and Mehta is the perfect interpreter of this haunting, inspiring, delicious music. It's a terrible shame that the album was mucked about with like this in making the CD, but rerecording it on your own will eliminate this problem."