‘Ring’ Returning: Arnold Whittall reviews two parts of a classic recording that still offers plenty to enjoy

Reviews of Die Walküre, conducted Janowski, Dresden, 1981 (Sony Classical, 4 CDs); Siegfried, conducted Janowski, Dresden, 1982 (Sony Classical, 4 CDs).

July 2016, Volume 10, Number 2, 74–5.

This latest manifestation of two ‘evenings’ from the first Janowski Ring appears four years after the complete cycle was reissued on 14 CDs. The issue may be incomplete - part of a miscellaneous series of opera reissues, and coming with only a synopsis in the booklets – but it revives all the familiar ifs-and-buts about studio versus live recordings. Its historical interest is undeniable; the first digital Ring on disc, it has been hailed by some as the best of all the modern recordings in the overall quality of its cast and orchestra, and the interpretative strengths of its conductor. Purely as a recording, it might not manage the natural spaciousness of some of its rivals, although its carefully engineered balances between voices and orchestra still ensure a properly vivid aural experience: the sizzling execution of the tricky string writing as Siegfried questions the Woodbird in the closing stages of Act II is just one of many such instances.