Georg Solti's most enduring achievements are his recordings of Richard Wagner's music dramas, made in the 1960s and '70s for Decca. His classic renditions with the Vienna Philharmonic of Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Parsifal, and the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen are not to be missed by any serious student of great opera recordings. This reissue in Decca's The Originals series presents overtures from Wagner's other works, Rienzi, Der fliegende Holländer, and Tannhäuser, with the latter ...
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Georg Solti's most enduring achievements are his recordings of Richard Wagner's music dramas, made in the 1960s and '70s for Decca. His classic renditions with the Vienna Philharmonic of Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Parsifal, and the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen are not to be missed by any serious student of great opera recordings. This reissue in Decca's The Originals series presents overtures from Wagner's other works, Rienzi, Der fliegende Holländer, and Tannhäuser, with the latter's Venusberg Bacchanale, all recorded in 1961; the lyrical tone painting Siegfried Idyll, which members of the VPO recorded in 1965. The intense drama and soaring lyricism found in the full-length operas is encapsulated in the overtures and listeners can form a clear impression of Solti's handling of Wagner's operas from these much shorter examples. The orchestra is, of course, one of the world's greatest ensembles, and under Solti's exacting direction, it performs with dynamic...
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