Not just one of the most sprawling epics in classical music, but one of the largest-scale works of art ever conceived, Wagner's epic masterpiece was written to be performed in at least 14 hours over four nights (famously, a theater was built in Bayreuth just for Der Ring Des Nibelungen). Not only are a world-class orchestra and chorus necessary to mount it, but so is a conductor well versed in theater as well as music; those elements are all in place here, as Bernard Haitink leads the Symphonie Orchester des Bayerischen Rudfunks and a remarkable cast. The complete, rapturously beautiful cycle (Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdamerung) on 14 CDs!
Not just one of the most sprawling epics in classical music, but one of the largest-scale works of art ever conceived, Wagner's epic masterpiece was written to be performed in at least 14 hours over four nights (famously, a theater was built in Bayreuth just for Der Ring Des Nibelungen). Not only are a world-class orchestra and chorus necessary to mount it, but so is a conductor well versed in theater as well as music; those elements are all in place here, as Bernard Haitink leads the Symphonie Orchester des Bayerischen Rudfunks and a remarkable cast. The complete, rapturously beautiful cycle (Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdamerung) on 14 CDs!