Cheap Ring recordings

[Vicious Tyrant]

I keep seeing a couple cheap Ring recordings on eBay and I wonder if anyone knows anything about them, if they're worth dropping a couple bucks on...

Anyone know anything about the Moralt or Neuhold recordings?

 

[bigshot]

The Neuhold is just OK. Not terribly good. It's a live performance from a small theater with a third string cast. For who they are, they do an admirable job, but they can't compete with the major sets.

Check out Berkshire Record Outlet www.broinc.com. They always have cutout Rings. I got the Barenboim ring there for around $60 shipped.

See ya
Steve

 

[PSmith08]

Compared to the Solti and Von Karajan sets, the Levine, Janowski, and (rereleased) Barenboim sets are all fairly cheap. In fact, I think I paid almost as much for my Barenboim Walküre as they want for the whole set now.

[Local advice]
The Levine and Janowski sets occasionally available at Borders. I found both of them there, for what it's worth. B&N doesn't have the opera selection that Borders does now, but - as you probably already know - they stock more of the obscure titles.
[/Local advice]

 

[mbhaub]

Rudolf Moralt was certainly a fine Wagnerian, and one of the better maestros to inhabit the Vienna opera house and Musikverein. Unfortunately, the sound of the recordings is very poor. This was after all post-WWII Europe. The orchestral executing is sloppy at times, too. This set is strictly for specialists and those interested in historical performances. I think it was the first recording of the Ring in its entirety.

More and more I'm becoming convinced that there are no top-notch budget Rings. Splurge for Solti, Bohm, Boulez, Karajan, etc.

 

[PSmith08]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbhaub More and more I'm becoming convinced that there are no top-notch budget Rings. Splurge for Solti, Bohm, Boulez, Karajan, etc.

Come now, all three modern Rings (Janowski, Levine, and Barenboim) of repute have been released at budget prices. The Boulez cycle is only out on DVD; hopefully, it will reappear on CD. The Barenboim set is being supplemented by the addition of the filmed Kupfer staging. Böhm is OOP in the US, and that might be a long-term situation; despite the fact that it was on bargain status at the end of its printing life. The budget-budget cycles are spotty; however, the "mere bargains" have some really solid cycles.

 

[mbhaub]

PS Smith: I should clarify: I meant super-budget. Naxos prices -- or less. Like the Capriccio. Or the Swarowsky. You are absolutely correct in your rebuttal to my comment.

 

[FalconP]

Most budget Ring recordings do not come with librettos and translations, but here is a site that has both.

The translation is in a rather hackneyed pseudoarchaic English though.

 

[PSmith08]

This site also has some very good libretti.

Most super-budget Wagner discs don't contain libretti, but in today's age, that is less of a problem. I hold, more and more, that if one really wants to get into the words, music, and staging, then DVDs are the only choice. The Chéreau staging to the Boulez cycle (back out on DGG) is very good. However, it is solidly in either the George Bernard Shaw or Karl Marx (so to speak) schools of interpretation. However, compared to Harry Kupfer's work at Bayreuth and others, it is fairly conservative.

 

[Vicious Tyrant]

A quick thought about cheap libretti to go with cheap recordings: our public library sold out their old vinyl collection a while back for a quarter each, and I was able to buy lots of operas (mostly on overused scratchy records) and keep the libretti. The nice big pamphlet size feels really nice in your hand, too. The only drawback is I now have a bunch of records I'll probably never listen to in the basement b/c I can't bear to just throw them in the trash. But they're all too scratched to do much else with . Pitiful, I know....

The old record libretti are a cheap way and you can often pick them up at the Goodwill or a garage sale.