Thread: More Wagner on SACD!

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Post by Domimag November 8, 2010 (21 of 24)
Fitzcaraldo215 said:

[...]
I think the cast is terrific, with possibly the only weakness being Bruennhilde. Matti Salminen's Hagen is especially terrific in modern garb. I had seen him do it many times at the Met in the traditional staging. And, I rather like Lance Ryan's Siegfried. He is certainly not lyrical, but projects the brash, youthful character quite well, I think.

The orchestral playing is first rate by this youthful orchestra. My esteem for Zubin Mehta has also risen dramatically. He does a terrific job and his love for Wagner is quite obvious.

Best of all, the sound of this incredible production is absolutely over the top. I do not know of a better sounding recording of anything in any medium, including SACD.

Unless you insist on traditional theatricality, this is a real winner in my book. At the asking price, it's a steal.

Totally OK ! Wonderful releases and what a imaginative Ring !

and yes the sound (DTS HD M.A) is top notch and very few SACD (even in DSD !!!) have sound as good as those blu-ray !

Post by Jann November 9, 2010 (22 of 24)
Fitzcaraldo215 said:

I think the cast is terrific, with possibly the only weakness being Bruennhilde. Matti Salminen's Hagen is especially terrific in modern garb. I had seen him do it many times at the Met in the traditional staging. And, I rather like Lance Ryan's Siegfried. He is certainly not lyrical, but projects the brash, youthful character quite well, I think.

The orchestral playing is first rate by this youthful orchestra. My esteem for Zubin Mehta has also risen dramatically. He does a terrific job and his love for Wagner is quite obvious.

Best of all, the sound of this incredible production is absolutely over the top. I do not know of a better sounding recording of anything in any medium, including SACD.

Unless you insist on traditional theatricality, this is a real winner in my book. At the asking price, it's a steal.

Curious that you find that the only weakness is the Bruenhilde of Jennifer Wilson. I find her voice the revelation of this Ring. She has a huge vocal power, a creamy middle register with beautiful color and high notes which are about the best you can hear. A very promising wagnerian soprano. A voice without any wobble, something wchich is rare with today dramatic sopranos.

Something a regret in this recording is the balance between voices and orchestra in multichannel. When you switch between MCH and stereo you become aware of a problem : in MCH voices are too laid back and the orchestra is enormous (surround effect is excessive). I have remarked that the voices are essentially on the left and right speakers, and almost nothing in the central channel ! Exactly the opposite of the Ring on SACD from Haenchen. Neither is very good.
When I listen to the final scene of Siegfried in the Mehta Ring, I have to say that I prefer listening the stereo track then the MCH track so that I appreciate at their best the voices.

Post by Fitzcaraldo215 November 9, 2010 (23 of 24)
Jann said:

Curious that you find that the only weakness is the Bruenhilde of Jennifer Wilson. I find her voice the revelation of this Ring. She has a huge vocal power, a creamy middle register with beautiful color and high notes which are about the best you can hear. A very promising wagnerian soprano. A voice without any wobble, something wchich is rare with today dramatic sopranos.

Something a regret in this recording is the balance between voices and orchestra in multichannel. When you switch between MCH and stereo you become aware of a problem : in MCH voices are too laid back and the orchestra is enormous (surround effect is excessive). I have remarked that the voices are essentially on the left and right speakers, and almost nothing in the central channel ! Exactly the opposite of the Ring on SACD from Haenchen. Neither is very good.

I do not disagree with your comments about Jennifer Wilson. I guess I would prefer an even more powerful Bruennhilde, but then, I have not seen the Immolation Scene at the end of Goetterdaemmerung yet. I know exactly what you mean about wobble, having seen the great Hildegard Behrens do it live many times, especially late in her career. I loved her anyway.

I do not have a big problem with the orchestral/vocal balances on my system or another Mch system I watched excerpts on. I found the singing quite clear and intelligible at all times. The vocal imaging sounds quite plausible to me as I have experienced it live. I will say that I have other opera discs where the orchestra is more clearly in the pit and the singers above, on stage. Here, the sound of the singers and orchestra seems to be somewhat more compressed vertically into the same plane or space than on other disks. But, never does the orchestra overwhelm the singing on my system. Andy Quint and I were at the Met Rheingold HD Live together recently and he commented on how well the orchestra imaged in the pit below the singers. I do not mind this Valencia balance at all, though. I have heard far worse on some BR operas, even some highly praised at bluray.com. And, I do consider the orchestral sound quite amazingly good.

Post by Fitzcaraldo215 November 10, 2010 (24 of 24)
Coincidentally, the new issue of Fanfare arrived yesterday. The Mehta/Valencia Ring is on two Want Lists for 2010, that of Andy Quint and also that of Peter J. Rabinowitz, who put it as #1 on his list. I thought Rabinowitz put it quite aptly:

"The production is sometimes deep, sometimes daffy, and nearly always dazzling; and for all its wrong turns (hardly unavoidable in a work of this length) it's guided, unlike so many radical re-imaginings these days, by a profound understanding of and love for Wagner's score."

He considered the cast exceptional.

Truly, this is the great 21st Century Ring so far and Mch Blu-ray makes it something really, really fabulous. Technically and artistically, it rises considerably above that other famous radical Ring from decades ago by Chereau.

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