Search - Richard Wagner, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Rome RAI Orchestra :: Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen [Box Set]

"Zum Kampfe kies' ich den Tag: fur Todte zahl'st du mir Zoll

Eric S. Kim | Southern California | 10/27/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This Ring recording, recorded live in 1953 with Wilhelm Furtwangler and the RAI Rome, is one of the finest recordings in the classical library. And thanks to Gebhardt's revolutionary remastering, we can hear it loud and clear, unlike EMI's filter-fest.



The 1953 RAI Ring should be a must-have (even if you have another Ring on your shelf). Yes, it's true that Furtwangler favors slow tempi, but he makes even the slowest of his tempi intense and spine-tingling. Just listen to how he handles "Hagen's Night Watch" and "Descent/Ascent into/from Nibelheim". Now you can't call that atrocious, can you?



I think that much of the criticism that's been given to RAI are simply insensitive. Yes, it doesn't rank with other, more experienced orchestras, but what you get is the final result of what the great Furtwangler wanted. Woodwinds in "Wotan's Farewell" are marvelous, the brass in "Wotan Summons Erda" simply stunning. Maybe if people listened to the Gebhardt release instead of the EMI, then they would appreciate the orchestral playing a bit more.



The singers make it all the more fantastic. Ferdinand Frantz has something that other Wotans can't touch. Maybe it's that when he sings "Abendlich strahlt der Sonne Auge" he makes people swoon (back in the day, of course). Maybe it's that when he sings "In eig'ner Fessel fing ich mich" he scares the hell out of people. I think it's that when he sings "Auf wolkigen Hoh'n wohnen die Gotter" amazement spreads like . . . I can't think of a perfect simile at the moment. So anyway, Frantz is a great Wotan.



The only thing that Martha Modl's voice lacks is sensitivity. She's rough, she's sensuous, she's lyrical, and that's pretty much it. There seems to be no innocence or intelligence in the voice. But I could be wrong, since my ears are different than everyone else's.



Wolfgang Windgassen and Hilde Konetzi are simply stunning as Siegmund and Sieglinde. Maybe they're not on par with Vickers and Janowitz in the Karajan recording, but they work very well with each other. Personally, I prefer Windgassen as Siegfried, but here he never loses it. Konetzi may sound a bit weak at times, but she's an exceptional Sieglinde nonetheless.



I'll just describe the singing of Ludwig Suthaus in three words: Oh So Good! His Siegfried is near ideal for many ages, but Windgassen is still the golden standard. His Forging Scene is powerful, and his presence in Gotterdammerung Scene One amesk it all more uplifting.



Gustav Niedlinger as Alberich has a heaviness that overwhelms a few other baritones. When he sings his only sequence in Gotterdammerung Act Two Scene One, his emotion is so pure that his son Hagen would've drowned himself in tears (Too melodramatic? Sorry about that.). The only problem is that his character sounds too one-dimensional. Alberich isn't just some cardboard-cutout bad guy. He has a very good reason why he wants to take revenge on the world. Overall, Niedlinger is amazing throughout Wagner's Ring (He deserves many awards for "Bin ich nun frei?"). Reminder: In Furtwangler, Neidlinger is replaced by Alois Pernerstorfer in Siegfried and Gotterdammerung.



What do Julius Patzak and Paul Kuen (in the Krauss Ring) have in common? Why, they both sing their parts without any caricaturing in the way. They both sound luminous and painless in every way possible. Kuen is slightly below Patzak's level, but that's okay. They're both excellent Mimes.



Why the heck would the conductor have Wolfgang Windgassen play both Siegmund AND Loge? The demi-god needs to sound different from a Walsung. All in all, a Loge that's marred by lack of cunning.



The other singers are good, too. Josef Griendl is a grand Hagen, but not as grand as Matti Salminen (from Janowski, Levine, and Sawallisch Rings). Donner, Froh, and Freia make it all okay in Rheingold. Gottlob Frick as Hunding sounds creepy. The two Erdas (Ruth Siewert in Rheingold and Margarete Klose in Siegfried) both sound equally ethereal and memorable. Ira Malaniuk's Fricka is a notch better in terms of tone than Elsa Cavelti's. Rheindaughers and Valkyries have it good, too.



Gebhardt's 24-bit remastering has really done this Ring justice. I recommend this over EMI's inferior sound quality."

Revelatory Remastering

Jukeboxtheater | Georgia | 03/17/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Furtwangler's Italian ring cycles are the stuff of legend. This 1953 cycle was recorded in Rome for radio broadcast. Featuring a superior cast to his 1950 Milan cycle, the Rome RAI ring has stood as arguably the best record of Furtwangler's art. First released on compact disc in 1990, EMI's engineers had gone back to the original master tapes in an attempt to reconstruct this historic recording for the (relatively new) high fidelity medium... with mixed results. Now Gebhardt Records has delivered this new 24-bit remastering using the latest in digital processing. The result is sound quality that's not merely acceptable a'la the EMI set, but one that actually engages the listener by opening a new window on this historic recording. Never before has the RAI ring sounded so clear and open, with orchestral details previously obscured by EMI's heavy-handed filtering now brought to light. Voices too are much better captured and now resemble something akin to actual human beings singing in real space. This remastering also reveals that the RAI studio was a rather reverberant acoustic, and not the dry, airless vacuum that EMI gave us. The vibrancy and immediancy are so compelling that one can forgive the slight increase in audible hiss (I believe one reviewer described this Gebhardt remastering as more "raw" than EMI's heavily filtered version, which I think is apt.) In short, thanks to Gebhardt Records, the RAI ring has never sounded so good!



As an aside, I would like to make a brief comment on another review in which the Gebhardt remastering is described as "unlistenable." First of all, I own both the EMI and Gebhardt versions of the RAI ring cycle. Comparing the two I feel that with the exception of some additional tape hiss, the Gebhardt is superior in every way. So why did that other reviewer condemn the Gebhardt sound quality so severely? Of course I can't be certain, but I do have a couple of theories. One theory is that equalization was undoubtedly used during the restoration process. It is therefore possible that part of the frequency spectrum was boosted slightly during remastering, probably no more than a dB or two, but in a range that the aforementioned individual happens to be particularly sensitive. Aural sensitivity can vary wildly from person to person. Another theory is that some "audiophile" speakers are notorious for having a rising top end in deference to the typical audiophile customer, i.e. men over the age of 45 with high frequency hearing loss. Not even to mention the myriad of bright sounding mass-market speakers out there, voiced so as to draw attention in the store. Such an elevated treble response could be exacerbated by a historic recording such as this, and obstensibly make the high-frequency filtered EMI sound more natural. These are just theories of course and are not meant to disrespect that fellow reviewer or his opinions. All I know is that to my (relatively young) 36-year-old ears, this Gebhardt remastering is hardly "so bad as to be almost unlistenable." Indeed, it's a revelation!"

Same Ring, better sound

Andrew R. Weiss | Raleigh, NC USA | 06/22/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the classic Furtwangler 1953 Rome Ring cycle previously released on EMI and reviewed elsewhere, but in much improved, clearer and brighter sound. This release is clearly to be preferred to the EMI version."