This a great performance in outstanding sound, the best sound I have heard of the 50’s Bayreuth performances except for the ‘55 Keilberth stereo recording. Hotter and Varnay are a little past their best but still commanding. My one problem with this performance is Aldenhoff, I find his voice unpleasant, but that may just be me — Ralph Moore, in his survey of Rings for Musicweb International, praises his performance. Of Knappertsbusch’s Rings, I prefer ‘56, also available at Opera Depot in really good sound, only a step below this one.

First, the sound of this is astounding for a 50s Ring — only the ‘55 stereo Keilberth ring sounds better of the ones I have heard. Kna’s conducting is superb and joins (for me) a short list of conductors who make the Ring work at slower speeds— I usually prefer the swifter Rings of Bohm, Krauss, Boulez, Furtwangler (Milan 1950), Keilberth, and Janowski. The conducting has weight wedded to forward momentum and concentration. And the singing overall is typical of the era, excellent overall. Yet there are some oddities that keep this from being an absolute favorite, even though it is highly recommendable. This Rheingold is one of the oddest I’ve heard. There are a lot of stage and pit coordination problems, perhaps stemming from Knappertsbusch’s infamous disdain for rehearsal. Then we get the “alarm clock” electronic beeping in place of the anvils, apparently recommended by Carl Orff. It sounds weird. Lastly the Niebelungs were directed not to scream but but to growl and grunt as if they are acting like cavemen in a bad ‘50s movie. Just weirder. Things improve by Die Walkure, and while Hotter and Varnay are off their peaks, they are still better than most other postwar exponents of these roles. Nilsson is great as Sieglinde. The main sticking point that keeps this one from the absolute top for me is Aldenhof as Siegfried in the third opera. He might have the stamina, but his wobble is too much for me. Windgassen is an improvement in Gotterdamerung. Even with these criticisms, this is an extraordinary Ring, great overall and a bargain at this price.

This cycle was my first Live from Bayreuth set, then issued on Discocorps LPS. I was fascinated by it because of all the terrific reviews it had garnered in various magazines and books. It was not a disappointment. The singers really were as great as the critics said they were and Knappertsbusch's conducting was a revelation. Over the years I had this cycle on various labels, but those got sold off or given away so it was a great relief to have Opera Depot put this back out on CD in such excellent sound.My thoughts about each opera are recorded under the individual titles so I won't go into them here. Suffice it to say that 1957 found everyone at the height of their powers, Knappertsbusch in particular. The 1956 cycle is available on the Orfeo label in great sound and the 1958 used to be available on Walhall. They can also be heard (all four parts) on YouTube. They're both excellent in their own ways, but if forced to choose I might well choose this one. Perhaps Opera Depot will make the others available in the future. If you're a Wagner and/or Ring fan, you need this cycle in your life.

A record that became the pinnacle of Bayreuth after the war. This is the end of my journey to find better sound quality. It sounds more vivid than Golden melodram ❕

Solid all around. Today this cast would be an once in a lifetime event to witness. Hotter ‘s authority in the role is never in doubt. Varnay and Nilsson are both superb. What first hit me is the sound-the diction is so clear. Either the masters were exceptional and/or Andy has done wonders.

In my interest bias to the approach of the conductor, I will look at this briefly from my experience of Knappertsbusch' conducting. Knappertsbusch is a conductor from whom, well, you can't always be sure what you are going to get. There are moments where the tempo seems yes, inappropriately slow, and justifies his perhaps unfortunate reputation as one of those old dead mystical Romantic German conductors whose bombastic, unsystematic, seemingly unrelentingly instinctive approach is best left 6 feet under the ground and 100 years buried in history and ignorance, lest it disturb our cold, modern, analytical, anecdotic and statistic sensibilities in music.I am convinced that Knappertsbusch was at his best and most inspired when he conducted Wagner's operas rather than symphonies. He seemed to be able to imbue the Ring cycle with a creative vitality which I do not hear to the same degree in his symphonic conducting recordings.This Ring cycle of 1957, of the three he conducted, seems to have the best combination of sound quality and performance level. I am not an expert here but my observations are based on some comparisons of important moments in the cycles. The '56 I think had a more convincing Immolation, but the sound is weaker and other parts are not as magnificent as '57. My impressions of the '58 cycle were consistently weaker than the latter two.The Ring cycle, for better or worse, is a (very long) series of moments. But Knappertsbusch is a master of those moments. At his best he feels the weight, warmth, and variety of colors in the orchestra and lets them speak at their own pace, from their inner dynamic. The singers communicate with astounding clarity and breadth this way, even though they may very well have wanted to kill him. The result is that one becomes immersed, possessed by the music-drama in a very unique way. You must have patience and forget about 'comparing' tempos to the simpletons who 'execute' (guillotine) the cycle in 12 hours. The finale of Das Rheingold under Knappertsbusch is an epic tone poem in which the final culmination is not merely a crudely tacked-on gesture, but the inevitable crashing of a tremendous wave, a stream of an amplitude which has been building gradually and unequivocally, perhaps like the crescendo of an epic poet who gives sufficient time and pause for his oratory to hit its mark. There are many such moments in the cycle and on that basis I am a fan. Finale of Walküre Act 3, absolutely honoris causa. That being said, even though I like to say a few nice words, this cannot be a sort of greatest Ring cycle. There are appallingly sloppy places in terms of rhythmical playing and other things... what can you do? What Kna had and could transmit he seemed able to better than anybody else. Thank you to Opera Depot for making this available, it sounds great.