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Alan D Group: Members Posts: 3670 Joined: Aug. 2004 Posted: April 28 2008, 14:19 I thought it might be worth mentioning a remarkably affordable way into Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelungs that I've encountered recently. It's a CD called The Ring - An Orchestral Adventure (here it is, on Amazon). This is an extraordinary piece of music, and it's worth explaining why. There are two things that people tend to find daunting about The Ring. The first is its sheer length - the four separate music-dramas that comprise it occupy typically 14 CDs. That's not only daunting in terms of expense - it also requires a substantial commitment in terms of time that many people won't be willing to make. You can of course buy CDs of 'highlights' - but that way any sense of the overall unity across the vast scale of The Ring is missed. You just get bits. Wonderful bits, but still bits. The second issue many people have is that they think they won't like all the singing. Well - The Ring - An Orchestral Adventure solves both problems. First, if you think you won't like the singing in Wagner - here's the solution. This is purely orchestral music. And second, you won't just get bits - you get a complete work. This is constructed like a kind of Ring Symphony, in which all the great themes are present - 14 CDs-worth of some of the greatest music ever written, compressed into an hour, and restructured in symphonic form to produce a continuous 4-movement symphony. You start at the beginning, in the depths of the Rhine; you spend an hour completely engrossed in the parallel universe of The Ring; and you end with the death of the gods. It's thoroughly satisfying in itself (it's superbly played), and there's a feeling of completion at the end. I was very sceptical of it initially, but it won me over. It does seem a bit strange without the singing, I must say - but I wouldn't want to miss the option of taking this exhilarating ride. If you ever wanted to try Wagner but balked at the prospect, this might be worth trying as a way in. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: April 28 2008, 17:37 Alan, thanks for the wonderful tip. This release looks just like it's perfect for me... what I find boring, in opera of general, is the singing.  Of course Wagner's Ring contains lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of singing... and in German. However, I admit that his orchestral stuff is absolutely fantastic, so this looks very promising to me... ... but ... ... but it is a SACD. I don't have a SACD player. Is this release a hybrid SACD? Is it playable on ordinary CD players? The Amazon page doesn't say it. If you can find more info about its playability on ordinary equipment (or, even better, if you manage to find a straight CD-DA version), I'll certainly rush to buy it. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Alan D Group: Members Posts: 3670 Joined: Aug. 2004 Posted: April 29 2008, 04:31 Quote (Ugo @ April 28 2008, 22:37) Is this release a hybrid SACD? Is it playable on ordinary CD players? The Amazon page doesn't say it. If you can find more info about its playability on ordinary equipment (or, even better, if you manage to find a straight CD-DA version), I'll certainly rush to buy it. My thoughts were exactly the same as yours, Ugo (my CD player is very ancient). So I emailed Chandos (the record company) before I bought it. They replied that it's a hybrid SACD and assured me that it would play perfectly well on any player (but as ordinary stereo and not, of course, with surround-sound). And indeed it does play perfectly well on my player. So there's nothing to stop you, Ugo. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: April 29 2008, 07:36 Thanks very much for this precious bit of info, Alan! *Ugo reaches quickly for the mouse to click the Amazon link above...* -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Alan D Group: Members Posts: 3670 Joined: Aug. 2004 Posted: April 29 2008, 10:28 Well, I think think it will blow you out of your chair, Ugo. I listened to it again today. I set aside an hour to do nothing else: just listening, mostly with eyes closed. The music is so vividly descriptive that I think the roughest of rough summaries of the plot would be enough to set on fire the imagination even of someone completely new to The Ring. Close your eyes, and you're there: the dance of the rhinemaidens, the appearance of the Rhinegold, the descent into Nibelheim to the sound of the hammers. (Actually they sound more like teaspoons hitting eggcups than hammers on anvils, but that's the only weakness I've found - I suppose they are goldsmiths, so I imagine the anvils are very small ...) The pieces are welded together very fluently on the whole, so as you listen, it's as if the whole story is unfolding before you: Siegfried's fight with the dragon and the music of the woodbird in the forest are so obvious you can't miss them. You can feel the heat of the flames around Brunnhilde's rock when Siegfried rescues her. And the music leaves you in no doubt at all when Siegfried is killed - it's devastating. From there to the end is just one tremendous sensation leading into another, while the huge tunes envelope you (it seems unbelievable that anyone could write tunes this big): the funeral of the great hero; Brunnhilde's call for her horse; her riding into the flames of the funeral pyre; the Rhine at last overflowing and taking back the ring; and Valhalla falls and the time of the Gods is over. Every bit of it is there, in the music - a hour set apart from ordinary life, living on some kind of different plane. When it's all over, I look around and think something fundamental must have changed in the world, while I was gone. Of all the pinnacles of musical experience, for me this is the pinnacle of pinnacles. Back to top

Alan D Group: Members Posts: 3670 Joined: Aug. 2004 Posted: April 30 2008, 04:31 Listening to this yesterday reminded me of a friend (died a few years ago) who once bought a ruined cottage and spent years virtually rebuilding it. The centrepiece of this rebuild was a music room, laid out as a small concert hall with about a dozen comfortable seats facing a low stage. Looking up, you saw this large domed ceiling covered with paintings of clouds and cherubs! Anyway, on the stage, behind a sheet of gauze that acted like a curtain, were two big Quad electrostatic loudspeakers, part of what was then (mid-70s) a state-of-the-art audio system. At the back of the room was a projector, which could be switched automatically to project various moving optical effects onto the gauze curtain: flames, rippling water, clouds - that sort of thing. Listening to The Ring in this room was quite something. It would start in darkness. Then as the music began, the moving forms would start to appear on the gauze curtain, changing all the time as the music changed - clouds, fire, water, mist. And the sound quality, at realistic (sometimes overwhelming) sound levels, was probably the best I've ever heard. That was certainly the way to listen to The Ring .... Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: April 30 2008, 19:44 The more you keep telling me your stories about your and other people experiences, Alan, the more I'm eager to listen to this. I've just got a mail from Amazon.co.uk stating they dispatched the item today... I just hope it doesn't get lost because of the very bad postal service in Italy. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

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