I was able to fully enjoy the historical records by the French stuff. It is wonderful that the confusion of the audience after the performance is recorded firmly.

The fault was on the CD. Andy replaced it at no charge to me and the replacement plays perfectly. Many thanks, Andy. Great service.

This set is worth hearing just for Zoltan Kelemen's breathtakingly scary Alberich. Truly astonishing. My first experience at the Bayreuth Festival was in 1980 for the final year of this Ring, and the commercially released LPs that followed are still a treasured part of my collection. That later Rheingold can't hold a candle to the sheer visceral excitement generated by this 1976 performance, which is completely in the moment with some of the most rock steady, generous singing I've ever heard in Wagner (either live or on LP/CD). As an aside, track 15 of CD 2 of my copy wouldn't play (Wotan's "Abendlich strahlt..."). I dont know if the same error occurs in the download version, but it certainly doesn't affect my enthusiasm for this set. Magnificent.

We all know the 1980 video of this production with almost the same cast as here, but listening to this performance from 1976, I can hear plainly: by the time they made the video in 1980, all these guys were past their peak. Here in 1976, they're so much FRESHER! Especially Donald Mcintyre and Matti Salminen sing totally without inhibition, as if they're thinking the lines for the first time. The differences in cast also make this performance stronger than the 1980 video: Bengt Rundgren is much better than Fritz Hubner was as Fafner in 1980. Hubner sounded tired and woolly but Rundgren is fierce and intimidating. And while Hermann Becht in 1980 got the pathos of his character (Alberich), Zoltan Kelemen here is much scarier. He sounds as if he were ready to bite off Wotan's nose. If there's a flaw, it's that he shouts a bit too much, rather than singing. (Earlier Alberichs like Adolf Vogel and Alois Pernerstorfer from the 1940s often performed the role this way; one of Gustav Neidlinger's innovations was to sing the role rather than grunting and barking through it.) But Kelemen's fearsome personality more than justifies these liberties.Boulez's conducting is very tough minded but also tender in places; reminds me of Karl Bohm.