Copied from the grammophone site,
"Wagner Der Ring des Nibelungen – orchestral highlights. Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Lorin Maazel.
Telarc (CD) CD80154 (70 minutes: DDD)..................
The title of this CD is "The Ring Without Words" and it comprises a series of linked episodes from all four Ring operas—what in times past might have been described as a 'symphonic metamorphosis'—and although each section is left as Wagner scored it, the dovetailing is not always wholly convincing. In the accompanying notes the excerpts are given a colloquial narrative description relating to each of the 20 tracks.
The recording, made in the Philharmonie Berlin, is undoubtedly spectacular in its vividness yet there is an element of fierceness in the more vehement climaxes. We discover the limitations of this studio-based evocation in the early Das Rheingold sections, when the "hammering dwarfs smithying away" sound like a collective of glockenspiels (rather Disneyesque in effect) while Donner's thunderbolt produces a huge, almost bizarre drum explosion. Later in Die Walkure the Valkyries ride excitingly enough and Wotan makes a passionately romantic farewell to his daughter, with the Berlin strings creating a movingly powerful climax. Yet at times there is a hint of coarseness in the sound-picture, unexpected from a Telarc source, though it suits Maazel's rather aggressive pressing on in Siegfried's Rhine Journey and it certainly gives great impact to Hagen's call and Siegfried's Funeral Music.
In short, while there may be a place for a selection like this in the catalogue (though it would be better extracted from Solti's complete Decca set), it would not find a niche in my personal collection. But audiophiles who like blazingly spectacular sound and plenty of adrenalin flowing in the music-making, should find this worth trying. Certainly the heavy brass sounds are very tangible.
IM "
