FYDS? OM? Charlie Clown?

Andy @ Allerton · January 18, 2007

Can't remember who it was that said they knew a decent copy of the Ring Cycle by Wagner, but I'm considering buying

Wagner: The Goodall Ring Cycle [ENGLISH LANGUAGE] [box set] - ~ Reginald Goodall (Artist, Conductor), English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus (Orchestra)

Audio CD (25 Jun 2001)

Number of Discs: 16

Format: Box set

Label: Chandos

ASIN: B00005LZVY

Average Customer Review: based on 4 reviews. (Write a review.)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 54,647 in Music

Off Amazon for £105.99 - which sounds like a great deal..

Any opinions on this version?

The Customer reviews for it are;

Reginald Goodall's Ring, 14 April 2005

Reviewer: David J Cook (UK) - See all my reviews

I grew up in the 1970s listening to this Ring cycle. It stands out from all the other Wagner recordings that I have heard, including the abomination which was the German 1976 centenary Ring, which was complete with booes and hisses. Goodall brought out many melodies which can often be overlooked. The performances of Rita Hunter, Alberto Remedios and Norman Bailey have never been surpassed. Andrew Porter's translation works very well, to the extent that when I now hear a Ring in German, I remember Porter's words. Noone has ever surpassed Rita Hunter; only Gwynneth Jones is her equal. Emile Belcourt remains the benchmark by which I measure Loge's, and noone has done better since, and Gregory Dempsey is both comic and menacing as Mime "I'll simply chop off your head" he sings ingratiatingly, unaware that Siegfried can hear. The forging scene in Siegfried has some really blood-curdling Hoi-Hos from Remedios, just as it should be, and Fafner is very loud and convincing. I would especially recommend this Ring to a young person. This was a classic Ring, with none of the modern dress nonsense seen in the Cherraux Ring at Bayreuth, the recent R.O.H. cycle with Terfel, or the dreadful (and insulting to the memory of Wagner) current ENO production, with an exploding Brunnhilde. Bring back the 1970s/80s ENO Ring - it was a perfect combination of medieval costume and space age scenery. The Goodall ENO Ring was copied at R.O.H. in the early 80's, and included Remedios, Jones, Bailey and Altmeyer. It was perfect, as was the Goodall Ring.

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A Unique and Majestic Edifice., 23 Jan 2005

Reviewer: Geoff Stelling (London.) - See all my reviews

The first thing to be said about this recording is that it is essential to listen to it with a good pair of headphones. A great many details and incidental effects are lost otherwise. As with the recordings by Karajan and Solti, so much can be missed if it is merely listened to 'in the background' as it were. Unlike those performances though, this is recorded live, but with a surprisingly intimate sound which makes one feel almost present. (Unusually, soft rumbles of laughter are audible in some of the wittier scenes with Alberich and Mime, which add to the sense of theatrical occasion.)

The second thing to say is, of course, that it is in English (though sung with a Welsh lilt by some of the cast througout). And although Andrew Porter's is by far the finest singing translation (the Barry Spencer version is probably slightly better for reading along with German performances), it inevitably misses some of the intended Wagnerian performance ethos. Inherently, there is no doubt that German sounds both more menacing and more metaphysical than English. Take the simple example of a crucial word like Schwert, and it's English equivalent, sword. Whereas the latter will well equip Sir Galahad in a tale of courtly love, the former alone sounds fit to eviscerate a fire-breathing dragon or shatter Wotan's world-ruling spear. Likewise Spitze, or as Andrew Porter has it: 'spear-point'. When the vengeful Brunnhilde swears her oath in Act II of Twilight of the Gods, her pledge of 'Spitze!' at the betrayal she feels from Siegfried at that moment, sounds immeasurably more venomous. The translation just doesn't sound as bitter. And there are numerous other examples that could be given. Most of all it is a question of music. Quite simply, the English words can't help sounding musically different even though the note qualities are the same.

And yet, despite such genuine reservations, the more one immerses oneself in these performances, it is remarkable how seldom even the differences mentioned above seem to matter. And the principal reason for this is the conducting of Reginald Goodall. This brings me to the third point about this Ring. It is MUCH slower than other cycles. Even Knappertsbusch seems to race by in comparison. The Rheingold is spread over three discs; Twilight takes five. But what treasures this leisurely approach yields. I have seldom heard the Rheinmaidens' lament, Siegfried' Rhein Journey, the Dawn Music and the Funeral March sound quite so momentous. Similarly, the scene of Wotan's frustration in The Valkyrie and Waltraute's visit in Twilight take on even more ominous connotations that usual. And the sheer beauty of delineation throughout Siegfried is remarkable. Many details and nuances that I had scarcely noticed previously come to the fore. Indeed, so different is it to other recordings that it can feel almost like listening to Wagner's Ring for the first time. It does not just, as the Gramophone Guide suggests, sound like a different work from the Solti version, it also sounds a different work entirely from Furtwangler or Knappertsbusch (both idolised by Goodall). And the net effect of Goodall's approach is to create a seamless, genuinely circular Ring in which the whole can be experienced in the consituent parts. (That's not to suggest that the four operas are indistinct - Twilight in particular is quite remarkable.)

Of course even such conducting insights would be to some extent wasted if the singing was not up to scratch. More than almost any operatic work, The Ring demands astonishing feats of the singers. And, bearing in mind the above mentioned reservations about Wagner in English, and the expansive tempi of Goodall, the cast are all the more under scrutiny in this version. Happily, they are uniformly up to the task. Indeed, Alberto Remedios as Siegfried and Siegmund, Rita Hunter as Brunnhilde, and Norman Bailey as Wotan are amongst the finest exponents of these roles ever recorded. Also fine are Derek Hammond-Stroud as Alberich and Katherine Pring as Fricka and Waltraute. And Auge Haugland as Hagen, whilst sounding undeniably Scandanavian, has a quite remarkable voice, (to my ears almost reminiscent of classic pre-war voices like Schorr). The orchestral playing is also superb throughout.

However, I think it is only fair to point out here that this Ring is utterly unique. I would be loath to recommend it to the first time buyer. They may love it, and consequently find virtually all other Wagner recordings disappointing; conversely, it may put them off Wagner for life, and stop them even looking at these other recordings. Because, despite what may have been written by other Wagner enthusiasts about its similarity to Furtwangler/Knappertsbusch etc, the sound really is quite different. It is not merely a case of tempo. There is none of the 'heavy' Wagner sound that one associates with these two legendary Wagnerians, or even with conductors as different as Keilberth or Solti. But whilst it may lack some of the dramatic storminess of Furtwangler or Knappertsbusch, it moves along with a glacial cosmic certainty that even those great Wagnerian masters can't match. Perhaps controversially, I actually think it has more of an organic similarity to the so-called 'chamber music' set of Karajan. By which I mean that it is astonishingly mellifluous, incredibly 'quiet' and remarkably detailed. As with that recording, restraint is the key characteristic. There is no 'Sturm und Drang' here. But despite its brilliance, regardless of the fact that it is sung in translation, I cannot give five stars to a Ring cycle quite so idiosyncratic.

A final note about this set: it is quite beautifully produced. Some Ring cycles are scarcely better packaged than fast food; but this one is, like Goodall's majestic achievement, built to last. The notes are interesting, the photographs evocative, and the slip box as sturdy and reliable as Grane. The set may not be budget price but, unlike some other more costly sets, you get every penny's worth.

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Conspicuous reverence versus bare facts, 10 Jan 2005

Reviewer: Khan Tengry "khan_tengry" (Brazil) - See all my reviews

We urgently need a balance here, judging the performance not the interpreters. There is a huge difference between good intentions and actual results. Unfortunately, unbiased listening will immediately reveal very lean beef indeed, washed-up Wagner without mystery, evil or power. Who wants "cosy" Wagner? In "Siegfried", for example, one finds a well-behaved Mime, no despair or greed, and a plaintive Fafner sounding like a (quite) dead Titurel, not menacing at all. The brass section is underpowered too -- to put it lightly -- sometimes verging on the comical (check the Fafner-Alberich confrontation in Act 2, for example). Of course, the gargantuan Ring -- especially a very slowly paced Ring such as this one -- is much more than "Siegfried." Among the singers, some very good performances and not all is lost to bare bones -- only your pulse won't change, the whole experience badly impoverished. Some listeners, obviously native English speakers, who won't be content or willing to listen to these operas in their only language (German as intended by Wagner), should not hesitate and might even be delighted to find Wagner at times sounding almost like... Purcell. A non-starter curiosity, for sure and for those with money to spare. Otherwise, please, try the Solti or the Krauss complete "Ring" sets first, if you're new to this repertoire.

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Triumphant release of a superb achievement, 4 May 2002

Reviewer: mail@bertcoules.co.uk (Kent, England) - See all my reviews

This magnificent set of CDs - previously available as four separate releases - is a record in the original and most valuable sense of the term: live performances from the London Coliseum, home of the English National Opera, made during that company's first great golden period and capturing for posterity one of their finest achievements: Wagner's huge Ring cycle of music-dramas, performed not by jet-setting international star names but by an ensemble company of (mostly) home-grown singers and orchestral players, the whole thing painstakingly, lovingly and thrillingly moulded by a shy little man whom next to nobody had heard of until the company brought him into the limelight.

Above everything else this is conductor Reginald Goodall's Ring; his knowledge and love of the music pervade every second. And then it's the singers' Ring: Rita Hunter, Alberto Remedios, Norman Bailey and so many others, performing with a lyrical and dramatic intensity which they rarely equalled elsewhere. And though I come to him last, perhaps it should have been first: this is writer Andrew Porter's Ring: few who were there as it was unveiled stage-by-stage will forget how his newly-commissioned English translation brought the conflict to such vivid life.

Of course, there are minor quibbles: some tempi are too slow and the pace falters; those who dislike such things should know that there are various stage (and occasionally off-stage) noises, thumps and bumps. An audience member who should have been taken out and shot blows his or her nose during one of the very quietest orchestral passages. But if you're in tune with the atmosphere, the excitement, the sheer sense of a great project triumphantly brought off - then it doesn't matter. None of it matters. This set is vibrant and alive from beginning to end; you can practically smell it.

In sum: a splendid, vivid, invaluable experience of a revelatory production that has never been equalled. I thought I knew The Ring - and then I heard these performances. If you were there, you'll want these CDs. If you weren't there, buy them anyway, listen and marvel - and then wish devoutly that you had been.

matty · January 18, 2007

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