Search - Richard [Classical] Wagner, Eugene Ormandy, Robert Shaw :: The Best Of Wagner

A hidden diamond

davidissimo | Chapel Hill, NC | 10/03/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This unassuming budget classic reissue is among the finest of its genre: The Wagner orchestral highlight album, and features the contents of 1973 LP recital the farthest thing from run-of-the-mill, spaciously recorded with the palpable feeling of the presence of the musicians, not merely an amorphously gorgeous orchestral sonority. The music unfolds without self-indulgent pointing, in a free-wheeling manner that is simply right.The original Ormandy program is supplemented with a track by Robert Shaw doing a luscious rendering of the famous Bridal Chorus from with his divine women's chorus, a version as good or better than any ever anthologized or appearing in complete opera recordings, its 1959 atmospherically recorded sound barely showing its age. My only caveat is that this stuff really merited more respectful packaging than this ersatz "Best of" series, but at the price, who should complain?"

Ormandy is underrated!

davidissimo | 02/07/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I did a test by listening to Szell, Klemperer, Karajan, Kubelik, Bohm, Jochum, Gerdes, Ozawa, Stokowski, and Ormandy play Wagner overtures and excerpts from "The Ring". My verdict: it's Ormandy. What can I say? I feel as is he's underrated, especially in the annals of Wagner worship. I like Stokowski's energy, but he plays around with scores (horrors!) too much. The Szell was great, but a tad limp. Other conductors have their high points, but Ormandy ranks consistently at the top. His conducting is full and rich and the orchestra always sounds great. I ranked the Szell orchestral music from Wagner at 5 stars, so Ormandy rates 6 stars."

Classical Music At Its Best

D. Woodruff | Houston, Texas United States | 02/04/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Of course, Richard Wagner is by far one of the greatest classical artists that ever existed. On this CD you get all of his great songs except for The Flying Dutchman. You get the greatest piece ever composed "Ride Of The Valkyries" and you get the great Funeral March Of The God's (Gotterdammerung)! This is a great CD and should be a great purchase for the classical music fan."