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Solti’s Siegfried

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solti_siegfriedThe remastered SACD release of Siegfried from the Solti Ring cycle is now out.  There’s only so much I can add to my reviews of Die Walküre and of the sampler disk of the whole cycle.  Overall observations about the technical side of the record remain valid and the Vienna Philharmonic is again fabulous.  The packaging is as with Die Walküre… luxurious.

The singing is also very fine and I didn’t have any reservations about anyone sounding “dated”.  Hotter and Nilsson are again fantastic and Wolfgang Windgassen’s Siegfried combines beauty and power in full measure. Gustav Neidlinger and Kurt Böhme are back as Alberich and Fafner to good effect.  Gerhard Stolze is effective (and not too affected) as Mime and there’s the famous cameo as the Woodbird by Joan Sutherland.  Solti’s conducting is once again thrilling.  He’s not afraid to take things at pace but can also be intensely dramatic and lyrical; sometimes at the same time.  Culshaw’s “soundstage” effects come off really well, especially in the Fafner’s lair scene.  This is another impressive instalment in an impressive project.

The version I listened to is the the four SACD disk release.  It’s also available (for roughly the price of a Nibelung’s horde) as five vinyl LPs or much, much cheaper digitally in formats ranging from MP3 to 192kHz/24 bit FLAC which I suspect will be very good but not quite up to SACD quality.

Catalogue number: Decca 4853161

Flashbacks

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I’ve been banished from the living room and so the home theatre by the lemur practicing for a dance recital.  As a result I’m listening, on my iPod, to Solti’s recording of The Ring, which I was introduced to nearly four decades ago.  Listening to Das Rheingold again today after a long lay off I’m struck by how utterly brilliant it is.  Gustav Neidlinger’s Alberich is a marvel.  He’s singing lyrically not snarling or barking and it sounds quite lovely.  Solti’s command of rhythm is astonishing.  One could dance to this!  And has John Culshaw’s sound engineering ever been bettered?

Still wonderful as it is it’s having much the same effect as Proust’s madeleine.  I first heard this recording (on vinyl of course) courtesy of the man who taught me Applied Maths for ‘A’ level .  He was a rather sad old chap but he introduced me to Wagner, Quad electrostatic speakers and gin.  He’s long dead of course.  So it goes.