A Natural ‘Ring’ from the Garden: David Breckbill savours Rudolf Kempe’s Royal Opera cycle

Three decades ago, as a fledgling collector of Wagner recordings, I first learnt from Alan Blyth’s Opera on Record that Rudolf Kempe’s conducting of the Ring had been greatly admired, but that not much of it (namely, only a single LP of studio-made excerpts from Das Rheingold, plus several orchestral excerpts) had been preserved on commercial recordings. Since then, various unofficial labels have circulated a complete broadcast recording taken from the first season of Wolfgang Wagner’s 1960–64 Bayreuth Ring production, and when that set came my way I was a little disappointed; the cast is uneven, while Kempe’s conducting seems restrained and lyrical, in accordance with his reputation, but a little stiff and bland as well. Kempe was apparently not happy with conditions at Bayreuth.