vinylfanatics.com

When Sir Georg Solti passed away in 1997, the classical music world lost one of its most formidable interpreters of Wagner's colossal Ring cycle. His legendary Decca recording with the Vienna Philharmonic, completed in 1965 after seven painstaking years, had already cemented his reputation as the definitive Ring conductor of the stereo era. The irony is delicious: a Hungarian-Jewish conductor who fled Nazi persecution became the supreme interpreter of music co-opted by the very regime that drove him into exile.

Today, more than half a century after its completion, Solti's Ring remains the gold standard against which all other recordings are measured. It was the first complete Ring cycle recorded in stereo, and Decca's engineering team captured every thunderous climax and intimate whisper with crystalline clarity that still sounds revelatory today. The set has never been out of print, spawning countless reissues and remasterings, and continues to serve as many listeners' first encounter with Wagner's sprawling mythological epic. It's the recording that proved opera could be a bestseller – this Ring actually made money, lots of it, transforming how record labels approached large-scale classical projects.

The cast reads like a who's who of Wagner singing: Birgit Nilsson's laser-beam soprano cuts through Wagner's orchestral tsunamis as Brünnhilde with supernatural ease, while Wolfgang Windgassen brings heroic nobility to Siegfried. Hans Hotter's Wotan is a masterclass in vocal acting, conveying the god's transformation from power-hungry ruler to tragic figure with devastating emotional precision. George London's Alberich seethes with malevolent intelligence, and Kirsten Flagstad, coaxed out of retirement for her final recording, lends her legendary voice to Fricka in "Die Walküre."

But it's Solti's conducting that elevates this from mere star vehicle to transcendent art. His approach is unabashedly dramatic, favoring swift tempos and razor-sharp orchestral precision over the more contemplative interpretations favored by some Wagner purists. The Vienna Philharmonic responds with playing of breathtaking virtuosity – their strings sing with silken beauty during the "Forest Murmurs" in "Siegfried," while their brass section unleashes apocalyptic power during Götterdämmerung's finale. Solti never lets the music wallow; even in the cycle's most introspective moments, there's an underlying sense of forward momentum that keeps the 15-hour journey from feeling interminable.

The standout moments are too numerous to catalog completely, but certain scenes achieve genuine perfection. The opening of "Das Rheingold," with its famous E-flat major chord emerging from primordial silence, sets an otherworldly tone. "Die Walküre" contains the cycle's most human drama, and Solti navigates the emotional minefield of the Wotan-Brünnhilde confrontation with devastating impact. "Siegfried" benefits enormously from the conductor's energetic approach – this is often considered the cycle's weakest link, but Solti's refusal to let it drag makes even the lengthy forging scene feel purposeful. The final "Götterdämmerung" builds to a conclusion of such shattering power that you understand why Wagner considered this his life's work.

Solti's path to this triumph began in the 1930s when, as a young repetiteur at the Budapest Opera, he absorbed Wagner's musical language from the inside out. His career was interrupted by World War II – he fled Hungary for Switzerland, where he spent the war years in exile. Post-war appointments in Munich and Frankfurt allowed him to develop his Wagner interpretation, but it was his appointment as music director of Covent Garden in 1961 that provided the final preparation for this monumental project.

The recording sessions themselves became the stuff of legend. Decca producer John Culshaw approached the project with unprecedented ambition, using the latest multi-track technology to create a truly cinematic experience. The famous anvil effects in "Das Rheingold" were recorded in a separate session, with Solti himself wielding the hammer. The engineering team positioned microphones to capture not just the music but the spatial relationships Wagner intended, creating a sense of theatrical space that brings listeners into the mythological world.

This Ring doesn't just document a great performance – it captures lightning in a bottle. Solti, his cast, and the Vienna Philharmonic were all at their absolute peak, and the result