No need to apologise: I well understand why Currentzis is controversial and I tend to take him in very small doses. However, that version of “The Rite” is one that I enjoy because his approach—and that of the orchestra (who should surely feature on the cover)—bring out (for me) the visceral nature of the work.
It’s strange isn’t it, how some works seem particularly to bring out a never-ending search for performances that feel (to an individual listener) that the performance (for him or her) gets to the very heart of the work? (I’ve not expressed that well, sorry!)
The recording captures very well the sound of the hall. You can clearly heard the reverberation of the horn in the opening of the second movement. Recommended.
I have been listening to this all day. Absolutely stunning arrangements by the Attacca Quartet from Renaissance composers, Philip Glass and Arvo Part. It completely captures the thread of clarity running from the Renaissance to the modern minimalists. The Allegri Miserere is one of my favorite choral works that I have listened to and performed many times (check out Voces8 or The Sixteen for fantastic versions, and if you don’t know the fascinating history of the piece, including how a young Mozart figures into it, I urge you to go down an Internet rabbit hole, or read Jan Swafford’s new book on Mozart), but the string quartet version here reveals new colors and textures that I hadn’t noticed before. Happy listening!
Fascinating book on Solti and his making of the Ring. Nothing in the book about Culshaw’s personal life which I suppose is fair enough.
The DVD based on the recordings shows the enegy Solti had. Some might call it pushy, but not me.
His wife (Valerie Pitts), Lady Solti died earlier is year.
In recording the cycle the sequence goes from the first to the third opera, not the second. I always wondered if this was deliberate meaning they would have to return to the second and then the fourth.
Financially Decca took a gamble regarding costs. It worked well in their favour in the end. I must have three in various formats. Its been re-issued so many times I have lost count.
One of the books b/w pictures shows some of the team listening to a playback. D F-D is shown smoking a cigarette. Try that these days!
I believe that EMI hoped to go on, after Furtwaengler’s recording of Walkuere, to record the rest of The Ring, but that the eminent conductor’s sudden death prevented that.
One of the recording world’s great ‘might-have-beens’. Of course, if that had happened, we might never have got to hear Solti’s great Decca ‘Ring’, so maybe just as well.
