I must be going deaf because I didn't hear the Rheingold, Ring or curse themes in this hodgepodge. Without those three items, there is no Ring - especially the curse. What a crock !!

Reference has been made here to two Leopold Stokowski Ring recordings which made use of lush
Philadelphia Orchestra performances of transcription orchestrations by Stokowski of music from the Ring including
singing by Lawrence Tibbett as Wotan and Frederick Jagel as Siegfried. Stokie did even better with his Tristan and Parsifal orchestra only symphonic syntheses. Dokie had auditioned me for the heldentenor role on a program to mark his return to the Philadelphia Orchestra, at his residence on 5th Avenue opposite the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His proposed program involved a large cast, a large chorus AND the Philadelphia Orchestra. The Board of the Orchestra decided it would be too expensive. So he decided to remain with the Houston Symphony. Stokie was an icon, a super charismatic and often cointroversial conductor. But, he was GREAT! Kenneth Bennett Lane, director of the Richard Wagner Music Drama Institute, Boonton, NJ
.My website; www.WagnerOpera.com contains 37 complete selections recorded LIVE from my four Carnegie Hall Isaac Stern Auditorium 3 hour long solo concerts, downloadable, free, from the "Recorded Selections" venue.

I sent my comment last night Re:Grill from Eatontown.
I am vey disaapointed that you didn't post my comment as your not (Post Comments.
Please post my commen and reply.
Thank you
SL

Great concert! My only quibble, how could Maazel omit the finale of Act 3 of Die Valkure and Forest Murmurs? No Ring is complete w/out these. Otherwise very nice.

Is the Vienna Philharmonic such a "great" orchestra? What are all those brass instruments playing out of tune? The Metropolitan Opera orchestra is better even conducted by fabio Luisi and the New York Philharmonic is also better orchestra.

Is that a woman I see in the cello section in that photo? Amazing!

Just brilliant. Bravo.

Not a very good rendition of "The Ring" without words. Sounds like the entire thing was slapped together. Very disjointed musically. I could definitely do a much better rendition and conduct it from pure recall without a score. Leopold Stokowski would have done a great rendition of this as he did with "Tristan" many years ago.

As I write, I listen and it gets worse as it goes along, Maazel should scrap the whole thing and restudy the "Ring" scores and redo the entire project. If he needs help, I'll assist him.

Well, I trudge through this and await the "The Redepemtion through Love" at the end of "Gotterdammerung" - Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

Nice sound quality, but my stream backtracks repeatedly. I have always
Found Maazel mannered and arrogant, but
I bow to musicians who like playing for him.

What's old is new again. Did anyone have the Stokowski Ring highlights with some vocals including a fantastic Wotan's Abschied sung by LAWRENCE TIBBETT?? !!! It was recorded between 1933-34 with one exerpt from 1927 with Agnes Davies & Frederick Jagel. Now that's great music. But Wagner without words has been around for years. It serves a purpose ONLY if it draws the listener to the real thing. (and not necessarily the Met's current Ring).

So how many women will be performing at this night's concert? Two? Maybe three if we're lucky? I have to say that it's disheartening how a nonprofit institution like Carnegie Hall turn a blind eye to the VPO's discriminatory practices year after year and not a single dissenting voice is heard.

For an analogy, could you imagine if they gave David Duke or the KKK a platform for three nights every winter? There would be a huge outcry. Somehow gender discrimination doesn't count.

Will this concert be rebroadcast? Thank you.