Decca Testament – SBTLP61393 – 180 gram Vinyl

Deluxe Box Set – 28 Page Booklet – Pure Analogue Audiophile Mastering

THE LOST RING CYCLE – NOW AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER

“…In brief, instead of a baton, Keilberth seems to wield a lean, sinewy whip, driving the Bayreuth band to peaks of tension from which the music then seems to leap straight skyward…The effect is so exhilarating because what Keilberth makes happen seems impossible: so large an orchestra and chorus shouldn’t be able to move so deftly, so gracefully, so precisely, at such speed…This is the best performance of the Gotterdammerung ever released, and it concludes one of the two or three best recordings of the Ring ever made.” – Richard Lehnert, Stereophile, June 2007

The most coveted performance of Wagner’s legendary epic Ring Cycle was in fact recorded by Decca in Stereo live at the 1955 Bayreuth Festival. But until now, that lost performance has remained but a memory.

Thrillingly conducted by Joseph Keilberth (called by Astrid Varnay, “a conductor with so much love, who was always there for you”), the cycle provides the opportunity to hear complete for the first time on commercial release the definitive performances of Hans Hotter, Astrid Varnay, Ramon Vinay, Josef Greindl and Paul Kuen, in addition to the much-loved Siegfried of Wolfgang Windgassen, here heard in his prime.

These live Bayreuth performances were taped by a Decca team led by Peter Andry and including the noted engineers Kenneth Wilkinson and Roy Wallace, with Gordon Parry as assistant. Using a new six-channel mixer designed by Wallace, the team made both stereo and mono recordings of each opera. Three microphones were placed in the sunken orchestra pit and three were hanged from a lighting bridge about 20 feet above the stage. “This was brilliant; it worked beautifully,” remembers Wallace. The company prepared for an expected release, but John Culshaw, recently returned to Decca, vetoed the project. He disliked “live” recordings and already had plans for a studio Ring with Solti, which began four years later. Decca’s recording vividly captures in wonderful stereo sound the unique acoustic and stage/pit balance of the Bayreuth Festival theatre with its sunken orchestra, in addition to preserving the leading singers from a Wagnerian golden age in live performance.

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Der Ring des Nibelungen
A Stage Festival for Three Days and a Preliminary Evening
Ein Bühnenfestspiel für drei Tage und einen Vorabend
Un Festival scénique pour trois jours et une soirée

Third Day/Dritter Tag/Troisième journée
Götterdämmerung

Brünnhilde – Astrid Varnay
Siegfried – Wolfgang Windgassen
Gunther – Hermann Uhde
Waltraute – Maria von Ilosvay
Alberich – Gustav Neidlinger
Hagen – Josef Greindl
Gutrune – Gré Brouwenstijn
Woglinde – Jutta Vulpius
Wellgunde – Elisabeth Schärtel
Floßhilde – Maria Graf
Erste Norn – Maria von Ilosvay
Zweite Norn – Georgine va Milinkovi?
Dritte Norn – Milna Bolotine

Bayreuth Festival Chorus & Orchestra
Chorus master/Chorleitung/Chef des choeurs: Wilhelm Pitz
conducted by/Dirigent/direction: Joseph Keilberth

Recorded/Aufgenommen/Enregistré: Festspielhaus Bayreuth, Thursday/Donnerstag/jeudi 28 July/Juli/juilliet 1955

Original Sound Recording made by The Decca Record Company Limited
Remastering 2006 Testament