Reduce the Ring in a symphony: won bet

Wagner is one of the greatest orchestrators but has little composed for orchestra alone (and even then it is only of works by youth). We now understand the frustration of orchestras around the world, who toil to program anyway Wagner by drawing here and there in the symphonic pages operas, with varying degrees of success.
The success of this double album holds, precisely the quality of the choices made: exeunt the usual openings, which are only set the conditions for the future. Only large orchestral scenes are kept there, forming a clever condensed the Ring, almost a symphony, but far more convincing than attempts medley like "The Ring without words" (yes, it exists). The greatest success of this view is undoubtedly Rheingold, where orchestral interludes allowing scene changes (going from the Rhine to the celestial Walhalla and underground mining world without intermission ...) were very skilfully connected in a continuous musical flow.

The recorded performance is exemplary here: it crowns the phenomenal work done by Philippe Jordan and the musicians of the orchestra of the Paris Opera since 2010. The orchestra is at his best, managing to sound idiomatic in a directory that it unfamiliar without losing transparency and clarity that make the value of the French orchestras. Above all, the leadership of Philippe Jordan is absolutely and fully narrative precision. This was already the orchestra which was the biggest success of the Parisian Ring: it is he and he alone who has the benefits of disk. As such, Siegfried's funeral march is absolutely shocking and enrolled as one of the best interpretations of this extract. Nina Stemme joined the orchestra for the immolation of Brünnhilde and stands out as the best current holder of the role, far from the great organs of the past (Varnay, Flagstad) but fully invested with a role which she masters every intonation.

In absolute terms, the extracted records have always reminds me of a sad lightened yogurt. But here yield to guilty pleasure, hoping that one day we will offer Jordan completeness.