Wagner: Götterdämmerung

01/02/2008
Arnold Whittall
Gramophone (UK)

The Australian Ring closes on a triumphant note

If you’ve been collecting the Adelaide Ring, and finding more positive than negative aspects in the process, this final instalment shouldn’t disappoint. It builds to a commanding account of the closing scene, with Lisa Gasteen conveying immense depths of feeling as well as titanic conviction: and Asher Fisch shapes the orchestral epilogue in so fervently an upbeat manner that you could almost imagine the gods in Valhalla redeemed rather than destroyed. No wonder the audience cheers as soon as (and not before) the last chord dies away…

Gary Rideout, the Siegfried of the Cycle’s third episode, is replaced here by another American, Timothy Mussard. He sounds pleasingly youthful and has stamina to spare… Elizabeth Campbell impresses as Waltraute...

[An] inspiring account of the Funeral Music and the closing scene… the Adelaide Ring delivers an unusually powerful punch.