Taken from several live performances at the Gasteig in Munich in early 2023, this recording of
Wagner
's
Siegfried
made classical best-seller charts later that year. It is part of a series that began in 2016, intending to record the entire
Ring Cycle
live. The recordings have all been successful, and this is testimony to the skills of conductor
Simon Rattle
. There are conductors'
performances, and there are singers'
performances. This is the former. The
Bavarian Radio Symphony
seizes the listener's attention from the opening bell, and the energy never flags. There is nothing objectionable about the singers, but few of them will stick in one's head. The exception, perhaps, is soprano
Anja Kampe
as Brunnhilde (and
Danae Kontora
as the Voice of the Forest Bird);
Kampe
, of course, doesn't enter until the end, but at that point, everything comes together for a really thrilling conclusion of "radiant love, laughing death." Although these were live performances, they might just as well have been made in a studio; Bavarian Radio's engineering in its hometown is superbly detailed, and the audience discipline is awesome (no applause or other crowd noise of any kind is retained). There is a liveliness to
Rattle
that sets it apart from performances in the German tradition, and it is fully on display in this recording. ~ James Manheim