I'm looking for a collection with nice sound, although not necessarily state-of-the art.
Which one is recommended, from the above or not? The Barenboim, the Solti and the Decca seem to me the most promising.
Best regards, Luís Martins.
It could be that there are better recordings than Solti's for every single opera, although to handpick them you need to find which ones they are, and truth be told ask 5 people and you will get 5 different answers. Boxset to boxset though, which conductors have a more consistently good set of the 10 Wagners than Solti?
Bingo! And I would also suggest that Solti's recordings are among the finest 2 or 3 available of nearly every Wagner and Strauss opera that he recorded.
My new favorite boxset is the Janowski. To my ears the conducting is miles ahead of all the other boxsets, studio or live. Janowski's cycle has the melodic continuity of Karajan, the orchestral verve of Solti, and the swiftness of Boulez.
My new favorite boxset is the Janowski. To my ears the conducting is miles ahead of all the other boxsets, studio or live. Janowski's cycle has the melodic continuity of Karajan, the orchestral verve of Solti, and the swiftness of Boulez.
Compared to original RCA boxset newest Sony has 24 bit mastering seen along bottom of box (top image)
The old RCA set is very expensive used at Amazon, good luck selling them now
Just made a cool discovery......it will cost you money to read on :devil:
Amazon USA just recently started to carry these CD sets under Keilberth search......
These are from the 1952 Keilberth Ring at Bayreuth, and the live mono sound quality is very good, better than the 1953 Krauss Ring! Price is very cheap at Amazon sellers USA $6.99 each, another no brainer purchase, nice artwork using Rackman illustrations seals the deal
This does not spare you the duty to purchase the expensive 1955 stereo Keilberth Ring on Testament label, it is spectacular but this makes nice addition next to it on my shelf
Just made a cool discovery......it will cost you money to read on :devil:
Amazon USA just recently started to carry these CD sets under Keilberth search......
These are from the 1952 Keilberth Ring at Bayreuth, and the live mono sound quality is very good, better than the 1953 Krauss Ring! Price is very cheap at Amazon sellers USA $6.99 each, another no brainer purchase, nice artwork using Rackman illustrations seals the deal
looks like DGG is putting out a Wagner box too.
BIG errors imho though in choice of versions.
DGG is using Solti's Lohengrin and Parsifal which are also included in the Solti box.
duuummmbbbbb.
DGG should have chosen Abaddo's Lohengrin and Karajan's Parsifal and Solti's 2nd Meistersinger.
They would then have an ALL DIGITAL Wagner box.
Good selling point, no?
The new Deluxe Limited Edition of Solti's Ring, just released by Decca is a "must" for Wagnerians. A more than great reissue to honour such a milestone of the recording history. The "Limited Edition" contains much more than the once more reissued and better transferred 14 CD Ring. It is the most comprehensive Edition one could expect from Decca on this matter.
Its quite high price is absolutely justifiable, at least to me. In any case it is much cheaper than the exorbitant skyrocketed price of the SACD edition of Esoterique, which, anyway, has been sold out at prices reaching almost $900-1000!
The main selling point here is not the fancy packaging but the lossless 24 bit audio blu ray disc containing entire Ring on one disc......this could be a game changer, I am waiting to hear reviews of sound quality.....
The main selling point is the final product (including the blue ray disc). Otherwise, to pay about $300 for (predominantly) the blue ray is a bit exorbitant.
By the way, the blue ray sounds really good. Surprisingly, even the newly "transferred" CDs sound better than before. However, I haven't ever heard the notoriously expensive and uniquely prepared SACD edition of Esoterique to tell the difference.
In sum: a great, extremely carefully and brilliantly prepared final product: a true superb tribute to this most monumental recording of the past century.
anybody interested in the new EMI,DGG complete Wagner opera boxes?
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Classical Music Forum
2.6M posts
40.5K members
Since 2004
A forum community dedicated to classical music for musicians and other enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about composers, compositions, arrangements, collections, recordings, techniques, instruments, styles, reviews, classifieds, and more!