Posted by Webster Forrest on January 22, 2008, 17:11:33, in reply to "1955"
217.169.12.203
I have just bought the 1955 Ring and find it to be very good so far. I have only listened to the Rheingold and Walkure. It is fascinating to hear the good old 1950's Wagnerians in excellent sound - and in stereo.
I do feel that the sound quality and the fact that it is in stereo are major selling points for a recording of a performance which otherwise migth not stand out so very much against e.g. the Krauss Ring of 1953. Like the '53, this is a Ring of very accurate playing on the whole, and you couldn't ask for better voices - well, forgiving the Sieglinde and the Siegmund... Unlike the Ring of '53 this is not an intensely dramatic performance. I will listen to the rest of it and then post a review here.
There is something special about the old Bayreuth recordings from the 1950's. I have, I believe, all of them, and it is interesting to compare each to the other in various respects. I will incorporate some of this into my review to follow.
To check this - does anybody know of any Bayreuth Rings that have ever been commercially released on audio CD, (rather than privately on data CD) which are not on this list:
1953:
Krauss
Keilberth
1955:
Keilberth
1956, 1957, 1958:
Knappertsbusch
By the way, this seems to be the only post since the end of last year - is anyone reading this stuff?
Webster
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