Broadly Satisfying: Niall Hoskin welcomes the final instalment of Mark Elder’s Hallé ‘Ring’

Review of Siegfried, conducted Elder, Manchester, 2018 (Hallé, 4 CDs).

November 2019, Volume 13, Number 3, 92–4.

About a year after Manchester audiences heard this concert version of Siegfried under Mark Elder, it has appeared on the Hallé’s own label, completing the first cycle to be recorded on these shores since the Goodall English-language Ring some forty years ago. (What a shame that the Opera North, Longborough and Covent Garden cycles of recent years have not been similarly documented.) The influence of the 1970s ENO project was immense, and it affected Elder no doubt: he offers us a reading all but unique among contemporary conductors in its broad pacing. His Siegfried is some 20 minutes longer than many recent versions; for the most part, the benefits in terms of clarity and expressiveness and the conductor’s ability to respond to long paragraphs outweigh the strain imposed on some of the singers, compelling them to break phrases, and certain longueurs in dialogue scenes.