Sonic Echoes: David Breckbill compares two roughly contemporaneous historic ‘Ring’ releases

Reviews of Der Ring des Nibelungen, conducted Franz Konwitschny, Royal Opera House, London, 1959 (Walhall, 12 CDs); Der Ring des Nibelungen, conducted Leinsdorf, New York Met, 1962 (Walhall, 13 CDs).

November 2013, Volume 7, Number 3, 53–6.

These sonic echoes of two complete performances of Der Ring des Nibelungen, given within thirty months of one another at Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera, unexpectedly feature only one cast member in common (Gottlob Frick as Hagen). This lack of overlap on paper signals a stylistic disjunction that is more fundamental than might be expected. One might argue that the Covent Garden cast (especially in non-leading roles) is more cohesive and stylistically integrated, whereas the Met emphasises the performances of individual singers; but at this date, and from a recording-only perspective, the primary difference seems to stem from the men on the podium: Erich Leinsdorf and Franz Konwitschny understand and project Wagner in radically different ways.