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Wagner: Die Walküre

11/06/2006
The Canberra Times (Australia)
Bill Hoffmann

An event of considerable significance for classical music recordings in Australia took place this week (June 7) when Melba Recordings launched its four-disc set of Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre, the first release in its live recording of the State Opera of South Australia’s internationally acclaimed 2004 production of Wagner’s complete Der Ring des Nibelungen. This recording of the four operas comprising the Ring has been hailed as the largest recording project ever undertaken in Australia, and has been made possible by the Australian Government through the Melba Foundation.

The Melba Foundation Limited was established in 2003 by founding benefactor Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, with Dame Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge as patrons, and with a board of directors drawn from the arts, politics and commerce. Its aim was simply stated, “supporting excellence in the field of classical music.” In May, 2004, the Federal Government awarded the Foundation a grant of $5 million over five years for the production of high-quality music recordings to showcase Australian artists on the world classical music stage.

The Adelaide Ring Cycle of 2004 certainly fell into that category. Apart from the conductor, Asher Fisch, and 3 of the 27 principal singers, it was a massive all-Australian production, with an orchestra of 129 and 70 chorus members. It was highly praised internationally, the London Sunday Times saying “One of the most resplendent Rings of recent times”, the UK critic of Opera magazine writing “this Adelaide Ring counts as a triumph”, and Musical America stating “Australia’s first home-grown Ring takes its place in the international sphere.”

Now with the release of this recording the performances can be enjoyed in all their power and beauty by Australians who could not get to Adelaide, as well as by Wagner-lovers around the world. Maria Vandamme, who founded Melba Recordings in 2001 and is co-producer of these Ring recordings, has had a wide experience in the recording industry, both in Europe and in Australia, most recently ten years with the ABC.

She told me when I spoke to her last week that “the recording project itself was a massive venture, involving 65 microphones recording 60 hours from the live performances of the four operas in the Adelaide Festival Centre.”

This complete Ring recording has benefitted from new recording technology developed by Sony / Philips – the Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD) – a digitally superior version of the sterephonic compact disc. Vandamme explained: “In a time of transition in the recording industry we have access to recording techniques unimagined before the digital age. Our aim is to exploit these in recordings that will endure. Just as it is important to perform the Ring to the highest standards as was done in Adelaide, so it is important to create recordings which will become a lasting legacy.”

But while this Ring recording employs SACD technology, being made in six-channel surround sound for those with the equipment to play it, the Melba discs are hybrids – playable on both the new SACD players with the superior sound, and also on current CD players.  

The four operas are initially being released separately, with Die Walküre as the first release this month, and with the remaining three following at four-monthly intervals. And this was probably a good choice, for Walküre is the most lyrical of the four, and contains some of the loveliest music ever written.

I did not have a new SACD surround sound player for this review, but even with a current CD player the aural impact is immediately arresting, with a broad stereophonic effect and a particular clarity of instrumental sound, while also capturing with great realism the quality of the voices. From the orchestral prelude I was caught up in the performance, so much so that instead of an intended selective first hearing I was impelled to play on through the whole 63 minutes of the first act.

Further playing has confirmed my initial reaction. This is indeed a great performance, with the singing of Deborah Riedel as Sieglinde and Stuart Skelton as Siegmund bearing out the opinion of the London Sunday Times critic at the initial Adelaide performance that this was singing that “would grace any performance of Walküre in the world.” With the dark timbre of Richard Green’s Hunding, the powerful tones of the Wotan of John Bröcheler, and the glorious expression of Lisa Gasteen’s Brünnhilde, these are marvellous performances which the recording has captured with great fidelity.  

The four discs come in an attractive box with a 160-page booklet containing details and photos of the performers, informative notes on the opera, and a full libretto in German with English translation.

An event of considerable significance for classical music recordings in Australia took place this week (June 7) when Melba Recordings launched its four-disc set of Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre, the first release in its live recording of the State Opera of South Australia’s internationally acclaimed 2004 production of Wagner’s complete Der Ring des Nibelungen. This recording of the four operas comprising the Ring has been hailed as the largest recording project ever undertaken in Australia, and has been made possible by the Australian Government through the Melba Foundation.

The Melba Foundation Limited was established in 2003 by founding benefactor Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, with Dame Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge as patrons, and with a board of directors drawn from the arts, politics and commerce. Its aim was simply stated, “supporting excellence in the field of classical music.” In May, 2004, the Federal Government awarded the Foundation a grant of $5 million over five years for the production of high-quality music recordings to showcase Australian artists on the world classical music stage.

The Adelaide Ring Cycle of 2004 certainly fell into that category. Apart from the conductor, Asher Fisch, and 3 of the 27 principal singers, it was a massive all-Australian production, with an orchestra of 129 and 70 chorus members. It was highly praised internationally, the London Sunday Times saying “One of the most resplendent Rings of recent times”, the UK critic of Opera magazine writing “this Adelaide Ring counts as a triumph”, and Musical America stating “Australia’s first home-grown Ring takes its place in the international sphere.”

Now with the release of this recording the performances can be enjoyed in all their power and beauty by Australians who could not get to Adelaide, as well as by Wagner-lovers around the world. Maria Vandamme, who founded Melba Recordings in 2001 and is co-producer of these Ring recordings, has had a wide experience in the recording industry, both in Europe and in Australia, most recently ten years with the ABC.

She told me when I spoke to her last week that “the recording project itself was a massive venture, involving 65 microphones recording 60 hours from the live performances of the four operas in the Adelaide Festival Centre.”

This complete Ring recording has benefitted from new recording technology developed by Sony / Philips – the Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD) – a digitally superior version of the sterephonic compact disc. Vandamme explained: “In a time of transition in the recording industry we have access to recording techniques unimagined before the digital age. Our aim is to exploit these in recordings that will endure. Just as it is important to perform the Ring to the highest standards as was done in Adelaide, so it is important to create recordings which will become a lasting legacy.”

But while this Ring recording employs SACD technology, being made in six-channel surround sound for those with the equipment to play it, the Melba discs are hybrids – playable on both the new SACD players with the superior sound, and also on current CD players.  

The four operas are initially being released separately, with Die Walküre as the first release this month, and with the remaining three following at four-monthly intervals. And this was probably a good choice, for Walküre is the most lyrical of the four, and contains some of the loveliest music ever written.

I did not have a new SACD surround sound player for this review, but even with a current CD player the aural impact is immediately arresting, with a broad stereophonic effect and a particular clarity of instrumental sound, while also capturing with great realism the quality of the voices. From the orchestral prelude I was caught up in the performance, so much so that instead of an intended selective first hearing I was impelled to play on through the whole 63 minutes of the first act.

Further playing has confirmed my initial reaction. This is indeed a great performance, with the singing of Deborah Riedel as Sieglinde and Stuart Skelton as Siegmund bearing out the opinion of the London Sunday Times critic at the initial Adelaide performance that this was singing that “would grace any performance of Walküre in the world.” With the dark timbre of Richard Green’s Hunding, the powerful tones of the Wotan of John Bröcheler, and the glorious expression of Lisa Gasteen’s Brünnhilde, these are marvellous performances which the recording has captured with great fidelity.  

The four discs come in an attractive box with a 160-page booklet containing details and photos of the performers, informative notes on the opera, and a full libretto in German with English translation.