Battle of the Giants: Strong casting and conducting both feature in rival new ‘Rheingold’ recordings, reports Niall Hoskin

Reviews of Das Rheingold, conducted Rattle, Munich, 2015 (BR-Klassik, 2 CDs); Das Rheingold, conducted van Zweden, Hong Kong, 2015 (Naxos, 2 CDs).

March 2016, Volume 10, Number 1, 71–4.

These two recordings of Das Rheingold both derive from concert performances last year: neither relates to a production, nor do they suffer from stage or audience noise. Neither cast is ideal; both use a number of veteran performers, with varying success; neither recording has enough, or sufficiently weighty, anvils.

The similarities end there.