Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen - Herbert von Karajan Blu-ray Review
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, July 10, 2017
Don't let anyone ever tell you there's no such thing as karma. During my younger years, I studiously avoided virtually all Richard Wagner, aside
from some assignments I received in my piano studies or, later, with some composition and theory professors. (I once completely ruined a final
exam in a theory class by blurting out the "solution" to analyzing Wagner's famous "Tristan chord".) That refusal to indulge in one of the titans of
music probably was nowhere more pronounced than in my complete (or near complete) lack of interest in
Der Ring des Nibelungen,
Wagner' epochal multi-show extravaganza which requires what some might cheekily aver is a major commitment. I was actually quite interested
in the
Nibelungenlied, the epic poem that served as the basis for Wagner's "music drama", and so had more than a passing knowledge of
the underlying mythology, but with regard to Wagner's "musicalization" of the source material, aside from the old warhorses like "Ride of the
Valkyries", I wasn't that aware and frankly not all that interested in any case. Well, guess what a multi-year stint as a Blu-ray reviewer can do for
your classical music edu-ma-cation? As if some cosmic force was aware of my youthful indiscretions (or at least the ones related to Wagner's
Ring cycle), I've thus far reviewed
several versions, including
Wagner: The Ring Cycle,
Wagner: Der Ring Des Nibelungen,
Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen - Highlights (see the review for links to the individual full
length releases),
Wagner: Der Ring Des
Nibelungen, and
Wagner:
Der Ring des Nibelungen - Georg Solti. Just for good measure, individual works from the
Ring Cycle have also ended up in my
review queue, including
Wagner: Die Walkure.
Speaking of "youthful indiscretions", Herbert von Karajan had a bit of a one himself, and one that plays into the subtext of him even approaching
the music of Wagner and the
Ring Cycle in particular. Karajan was one of countless artists who joined the Nazi party during the war years,
later claiming it was merely "part of the job", and there have been a number of rather adamant defenders of the conductor's choices and
reputation through the years. No matter how one feels about Karajan's choices from an era fraught with dangers no matter
what choices
were made, it's probably impossible to divorce this personal history from the larger historical fact of how Wagner and the
Ring itself were
used in Nazi propaganda efforts.
Salzburg is probably more associated with a certain Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart than it is with a certain Richard Wagner, but as one of the very
interesting essays contained in the book part of this release reveals, there's a definite Salzburg connection the von Karajan
Ring Cycle.
Salzburg's more intimate stage sizes led to what some have called a "chamber music" aspect to Karajan's interpretation of Wagner's immense
scores (an appellation the maestro evidently hated), and while the general sense of that term may in fact be a misnomer when applied to pieces
this
gargantuan, there's an attention to detail in these readings that is almost always fascinating, if sometimes passingly anachronistic.
Three of the four original recordings included in this set met with quite a bit of critical acclaim in terms of awards being doled out, with
Das
Rheingold winning two 1969 Grand Prix du Disque trophies,
Die Walkure winning the Grand Prix International du Disque, as well as
major Italian and Spanish recording prizes, and
Siegfried scoring a Grammy along with supplementary German and Italian recording
awards.
Though some of von Karajan's initial casting choices struck some longtime Wagner followers as ostensibly unexpected, the results here are often
sumptuous in the vocal department, with singers who achieve traditional Wagnerian timbres and approaches even if their perceived strengths were
not supposedly in the Germanic tradition.
That said, one of the chief allures of these recordings is the incredible energy, but also the often restrained nuance, that the orchestral forces bring
to the recordings. The Berlin Philharmonic achieves some real luster throughout these readings, with fine, rich brass tones predominating, but
with Wagner's often florid string writing receiving precise playing as well. Von Karajan's approach is perhaps not quite as alert as Solti's (for
want of a better term), but it's probably more deliberately passionate (even sensuous at times) and often viscerally exciting, building to an
appropriate apocalyptic fervor
once
Gotterdammerung wends its
way to its fiery conclusion.
