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Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
from: Archipel
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Merit - Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen / Knappertsbusch
from: Music & Arts Program
: :Bayreuth Festival Recording, 1956
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Wagner: Siegfried
from: Testament UK
: : This live-from-Bayreuth 1955 Siegfried, in stereo, was professionally recorded by Decca's engineers as part of what was to be the first full Ring Cycle on records. Contractual disputes and producer John Culshaw's desire to produce an 'ideal' Ring in the studio killed the release of this Ring, and the tapes were locked away in some dark chamber until now. The result is breathtaking: Hotter, Windgassen (playing his first Siegfried), Neidlinger (as Alberich), and Varnay at their best, with Joseph Keilberth at the helm. Keilberth was not one for 'interpretation' or anything other ...
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Wagner: Die Walküre
from: Testament UK
: : 'Best' is an overused word, and particularly difficult to apply to performances of operas as huge and multifaceted as Wagner's. There are now dozens of Walküres available on CD, and most have much to recommend them. This one, part of a live Bayreuth Ring recorded in real stereo by the Decca recording crew in 1955 but never before released, is just about ideal: all of the singers, absolute golden-age-of-Wagner-singing performers, are in their prime. Ramon Vinay's baritonal Siegmend is both powerful and sympathetic; Gré Brouwenstijn's Sieglinde is wonderfully womanly, though occasionally troubled ...
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Wagner: Götterdämmerung
from: Testament UK
:Album Description:The is the fourth and final release of the first stereo recording of Wagner's Ring Cycle, Gotterdammerung recorded during the 1955 Bayreuth Festival and featuring Astrid Varnay, with Joseph Keilberth, conductor. : Testament's 1955 Bayreuth Festival Götterdämmerung completes their release of that extraordinary Ring cycle. As in the previous operas of the tetralogy, this Götterdämmerung scores on several counts. As part of the first Ring cycle to be recorded in true stereo it has important historical interest. As an example of Joseph Keilberth's revelatory conducting, it reminds us that he was a ...
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Wagner: Das Rheingold
from: Testament UK
: : This, the third installment in the first stereo Ring (once thought lost), from the stage of the Bayreuth Festival in 1955, is as impressive and crucial to any collection as the previously released Siegfried and Die Walküre. Joseph Keilberth, whose devotion to Wagner was so great that he died conducting the second act of Tristan, leads an incredibly tight performance--almost jaunty in its storytelling. The opening chord, depicting the Rhine, is not played softly as marked; it does rather plunge us into the action with more energy than usual. The singing is ...
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Great Recordings Of The Century - Humperdinck: Hansel Und Gretel / Karajan, Schwarzkopf, Grummer, Metternich, et al
: :Humperdinck's supremely ingratiating opera has an astoundingly starry recorded history. Its singable, easily learned roles have become sort of a drop-in-for-divas occasion (as in the recording by Christa Ludwig and Frederica von Stade, for example), often with extremely big names singing minor roles. This pre-stereo recording starring Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Elisabeth Grümmer in the titles roles with the youngish Herbert von Karajan would seem to be a forerunner to that, though, in fact, those starry names prove to be window dressing. All the secondary roles are sung by names not familiar to us ...
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Sena Jurinac Volume 2 - Eugene Onegin (2 CD) (Lys)
from: Della Voce Luna / Lys
: :Humperdinck's supremely ingratiating opera has an astoundingly starry recorded history. Its singable, easily learned roles have become sort of a drop-in-for-divas occasion (as in the recording by Christa Ludwig and Frederica von Stade, for example), often with extremely big names singing minor roles. This pre-stereo recording starring Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Elisabeth Grümmer in the titles roles with the youngish Herbert von Karajan would seem to be a forerunner to that, though, in fact, those starry names prove to be window dressing. All the secondary roles are sung by names not familiar to us ...
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Wagner: Siegfried
from: Gala
: :Humperdinck's supremely ingratiating opera has an astoundingly starry recorded history. Its singable, easily learned roles have become sort of a drop-in-for-divas occasion (as in the recording by Christa Ludwig and Frederica von Stade, for example), often with extremely big names singing minor roles. This pre-stereo recording starring Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Elisabeth Grümmer in the titles roles with the youngish Herbert von Karajan would seem to be a forerunner to that, though, in fact, those starry names prove to be window dressing. All the secondary roles are sung by names not familiar to us ...
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Wagner: Götterdämmerung
from: Gala
: :Humperdinck's supremely ingratiating opera has an astoundingly starry recorded history. Its singable, easily learned roles have become sort of a drop-in-for-divas occasion (as in the recording by Christa Ludwig and Frederica von Stade, for example), often with extremely big names singing minor roles. This pre-stereo recording starring Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Elisabeth Grümmer in the titles roles with the youngish Herbert von Karajan would seem to be a forerunner to that, though, in fact, those starry names prove to be window dressing. All the secondary roles are sung by names not familiar to us ...
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