A Ride on the Munich Ring Road: Matthew Rye enjoys Rattle’s way with Wagner, even if his choice of cast has its ups and downs

Review of Die Walküre, conducted Rattle, Munich, 2019 (BR-Klassik, 4 CDs).

July 2020, Volume 14, Number 2, 84–5.

One might expect Wagner in Munich to be the preserve of the Nationaltheater and its unsurpassed Staatsorchester, but in the concert hall of the Residenz a few doors away on the city’s Odeonsplatz, a rival has been plotting to wrest the Ring for itself. The equally renowned Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is at the time of writing halfway through a long-term, multi-year project to perform and record the cycle under the baton of a conductor not previously associated with Munich, Simon Rattle. Following this team’s Rheingold in 2015 (also available on BR-Klassik), two concert performances of Die Walküre were given in February last year, and these form the basis of this recording alongside, presumably, takes from the preceding week of rehearsals, given the lack of applause and audience noise, and the date range stated in the booklet.