I have no idea about the packaging, but the performance of the Vienna PO, the cast and the recording producers and engineers is staggeringly good.
All of which explains why the ‘Solti Ring’ is constantly at the top of just about any list of the greatest recordings of classical music.
I’ll let you know my opinion in the coming weeks, FWIW… 
I bought the remastered Decca LPs which have been released this year, and am intending to play them through in the days between Christmas and New Year.
If I bought a Ring cycle it would take me years to stomach that and keep it down.
No-one’s forcing you to buy ‘The Ring’, so why the snarky comment?
Oh, lighten up. We’re all friends here. It was tongue-in-cheek. Not everyone likes Wagner.
No Kleiber recordings were injured in my snark. 
Like the music some, can’t stand the singing, meself.
Same with most Lieder too.
I actually like some of the Wagner overtures, but I don’t care for the dramatic parts so much.
As a musicology/theory student, I enjoyed the challenge of musical analysis on his scores, a skill I forgot long ago.
My theory teacher did use this as a game. He mentioned the initial key and then started the piece of Wagner. After a minute or so he paused the music and asked us in which key we are at that moment.
Being grown up in a straight forward baroque oriented family, this was really difficult for me.
Absolute masterpieces of counterpoint.
Touché!
Roger
Try one of the ‘lighter’ operas. ‘Das Rheingold’ would be my suggestion.
Solti’s recording is the obvious candidate.
Coming fresh from Florilegium’s recent disc of early symphonies, thought I’d listen to a few of Dorati’s complete cycle of Haydn symphonies. Without the context of the landmark pioneering effort that these recordings represented, the performances seem to me to still be very listenable, but aged; and the opposite of what I expected: it’s the wistful, minor and reflective passages where I seriously prefer more modern performances, while they just sound cookie cutter, but slower, under Dorati’s baton.
Cheers
EJ
I too have this set which was a major achievement in its day. Haydn performance practice has changed considerably since then. Now I’m much enjoying the Haydn 2032 recordings under Antonini. Of course Hogwood and Pinnock both pioneered the movement towards the use of original instruments, with often quicker tempi and of course a different pitch.
For Haydn’s symphonies, I strongly recommend Frans Bruggen.
Not a complete set of course.
Sturm und Drang symphonies,
Paris symphonies,
London symphonies.
Excellent live performances in great Philips sound.
Colin Davis made recordings of the last 10 or 12 Haydn Symphonies for Philips with Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra. I never heard them, but they attracted very high praise in their day 30-odd years ago.
So much Haydn recordings lack soul! I have a few recordings by Harnoncourt with the Concertgebouw and his own Concentus Musicus Wien - objective, swift, smooth but doesn’t linger in the mind. I’m not convinced by Davis either, and by comparison to all of these, Dorati really stood out. I wonder if people still listen to Klemperer or Karajan in this music: I can’t anymore.
I found the new Florilegium album with early symphonies a real ear-opener and have listened to it more than a dozen times since getting the disc. In their hands, the symphonies sound vital and essential. From what I’ve heard of Antonini, he seems to foster the same sound world and expressiveness and I really look forward to hearing more of him.
Thanks for these insights - I have a few other recordings on the shelf (both Kennedy’s, Perlman, and Tasmin Little) which I’ll give a spin shortly, and will remember your advice to hear the work in a more nostalgic, wisful light.
Cheers
EJ
Cheers
EJ
Well, I just bought the Klemperer box, so I’ll let you know.
Bernstein and Szell were (IMHO) two older conductors who knew their way around Haydn.
