Richard Wagner - Der Ring des Nibelungen

Das Rheingold: cd 1 and 2
Die Walkure: cd 3,4,5, and 6
Siegfried: cd 7,8,9, and 10
Gotterdammerung: cd 11,12,13, and 14

Although the actual music is exactly the same, this version is not the deluxe one with the booklets and nice slip covers.  It's the budget one.  So to make up for that, I've included M.Owen Lee's great intro to the ring.  After conversion with the OCR proggie, I used word to create and format the document then I converted to pdf.  So if anyone wants a .doc or .docx version just PM me.  

It's a fact that there are over thirty Ring recordings available in the Classical Market. Each recording is at least greatly different from each other. Solti focuses on the drama of the Ring, which makes his recording very explosive and engulfing. It's the one I'd recommend new-commers to start with.  Karajan focuses on the beauty of the music: it's a very heavenly experience, but the tension and power of the Ring are taken right out of the framework. Goodall's live recording is sung in English and the pacing is VERY slow, but the small details can be heard loud and clear. Levine isn't as slow as Goodall, but his singers (with two exceptions) aren't up to those from the 40-60's; though the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra is superior to many other orchestras. Janowski's reading may sound a bit too neutral to some, but his complete faithfulness to the score is one of the highlights to his recording. Every Ring recording in general has its ups and downs. Here, we have Karl Bohm, and this is one of the top Ring recordings of all time.

This version is live and features many of the same cast members as the Solti version.  Bohm ratchets things up to red-hot with his burning tempi.  The for the most part sound great, better by far than any cast that could be assembled today.  The sound quality is good, but not great.  Personally, I think Wagner putting the orchestra under the stage and sheilding it from the audience by plywood hood that directs the sound towards the stage compromised the acoustics.  His rational was to remove all the distractions he could so people would concentrate on the stage, and from what I hear it does have that effect.  Nonetheless, the sound is still good, just not great.  Of course it would be nice to hear what the acoustics are in person, so if anyone has extra tickets for Bayreuth fest 2010/11/12/etc and would like to make a Wagner fan very happy, PM me.

(For Ring Geeks) Here is a list of some of the major versions of the cycle and their running times:

Bohm (67)           13:33
Boulez (81)         13:44
Keilberth (52)      13:53
Janowski (83)       14:02
Haitnk (92)         14:23
Krauss (53)         14:35
Solti (65)          14:37
Neuhold (95)        14:41
Keilberth (53)      14:43
Furtwangler (53)    14:47
Keilberth (55)      14:51
Levine (89)         14:55
Karajan (70)        14:59
Barenboim (94)      15:31
Knappertsbusch (57) 16:39
Goodall (75)        16:51