The first part of Naxos’s new Ring cycle has just been released, the first in an ambitious project to record all four of Wagners operas with the Hong Kong Philharmonic under Jaap van Zweden.
Das Rheingold was performed on two evenings in concert in January this year (interestingly, the occasion marked its Hong Kong premiere); the album is an edit from those two live performances; and we have here, available as a stream, the Prelude and the first scene.
Reviewing the disc, Andrew Clements wrote: “The arrival of a new cycle made available at a super-budget price would be hard to ignore even if it was only half decent, and to judge from this first instalment, the Naxos Ring could be much better than that.”
“The orchestral textures have a spaciousness and transparency, and an unforced sense of architectural shaping and dramatic flow; some may prefer their Wagner more monumental and confrontational, but that is not Van Zweden’s way. In terms of classic Rings on disc, his approach is much closer to that of Herbert von Karajan than any other conductor.
But the real surprise here is Matthias Goerne’s performance as Wotan. His handling of the text is as exemplary as anyone would expect from such a seasoned lieder singer, but it’s the power and gravitas that Goerne brings to the role that are so startling. There’s real dark authority to the lower reaches of his voice, and a range of colour of the upper registers that conjures up an intriguingly complex character psychologically.
