Richard Wagner ( 1813-1883)
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Rolf Polke, Gerald McKee, Nadezda Kniplova, Ruth Hesse
Ditha Sommer, Fritz Uhl, Rudol Knoll, Takao Okamura
Herold Kraus, Otto von Rohr, Heidemarie Ferch, Rolf Kühne
Grosses Symphonieorchester
With members of the Czech Philharmonic and the Orchestra of
the Prague National Theatre
dir: Hans Swarowsky
Profil Medien (2013) ADD 14 CDs - Recorded in 1968
[flac&cue; cover, boxset, booklet& disc scans]
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I discovered this ring, of which I was unaware of its existence, by pure chance. After listening to Smetana’s Dalibor conducted by Krombholc, I was fascinated with the Czech soprano Nadiezda Kniplova. Looking for other operas where she sang I found this ring.
The history of his recording is rather curious but to tell it I leave you with Gary A. Galo who explains it better than me:
"In 1968 the German company Polyband and the Italian book publisher Fratelli Fabbri joined forces to produce a recording of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen that can, at the very least, be described as unique. It was the first recording of the cycle in which all principal roles in all four music dramas were performed by the same singers. The recording was made in Nuremberg, with an ad-hoc orchestra consisting of a large quantity of Czech musicians, including many from the Czech Philharmonic and Prague National Theater orchestras. Nuremberg is, after all, only a three hour drive from Prague. The booklet notes for the Profil CD reissue state that the completion of the recording was a "small miracle" because "In August 1968, in the midst of the Nuremberg recording sessions, Soviet troops marched into Czechoslovakia. The borders were closed and musicians of the Czech Philharmonic were faced with the frightening prospect of not being able to return home. Heinz Schurer, production head, sound engineer and director in one, recalls that orchestra members would fail to turn up at rehearsals and recording sessions whenever it was reported that the borders had been opened up for a short time. Thanks to the cooperation of members of the local Nuremberg orchestras, the gaps could always be filled on short notice."
Something does not quite ring true about Schurer's recollections. According to the dates provided in the Profil booklet (which are the same as those given in the previous CD release on Weltbild), the recording of Das Rheingold began on 26 July; Götterdämmerung was completed on 19 August, and on the evening of 20 August Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia. How could the Soviet-led invasion have jeopardized the recording sessions if the sessions were completed a full day before that invasion? Could Schurer have confused the Ring sessions with those for Lohengrin which, as Profil notes, "immediately followed" the Ring?
Fratelli Fabbri's original 1968 release of the Swarowsky Ring was most unusual--the cycle was issued on thirty-two 10-inch stereo LPs, the only Ring cycle to have ever been published in that format. The packaging included dark blue velvet jackets with gold lettering and generously illustrated booklets and annotations, all in Italian, of course. The publisher's choice of 10-inch LPs seems downright bizarre, and copies of this first release are extremely scarce. In my many decades as a record collector, I have seen only one copy of the complete, original edition, at a long-defunct used record dealer in New York City called A Classical Record. A copy of Das Rheingold turned up on eBay early in 2014, but I have never seen an eBay listing for the original issue of the complete cycle.
In 1972 the American label Westminster issued the cycle on nineteen conventional 12-inch records as part of their Westminster Gold series "...
If you want to read an interesting review by Ralph Moore in his Wagner’s Ring cycle survey at MusicWeb International, this is the link:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2019/Feb/Wagner_ring_survey.pdf
Ditha Sommer, Fritz Uhl, Rudol Knoll, Takao Okamura
Herold Kraus, Otto von Rohr, Heidemarie Ferch, Rolf Kühne
Grosses Symphonieorchester
With members of the Czech Philharmonic and the Orchestra of
the Prague National Theatre
dir: Hans Swarowsky
Profil Medien (2013) ADD 14 CDs - Recorded in 1968
[flac&cue; cover, boxset, booklet& disc scans]
I discovered this ring, of which I was unaware of its existence, by pure chance. After listening to Smetana’s Dalibor conducted by Krombholc, I was fascinated with the Czech soprano Nadiezda Kniplova. Looking for other operas where she sang I found this ring.
The history of his recording is rather curious but to tell it I leave you with Gary A. Galo who explains it better than me:
"In 1968 the German company Polyband and the Italian book publisher Fratelli Fabbri joined forces to produce a recording of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen that can, at the very least, be described as unique. It was the first recording of the cycle in which all principal roles in all four music dramas were performed by the same singers. The recording was made in Nuremberg, with an ad-hoc orchestra consisting of a large quantity of Czech musicians, including many from the Czech Philharmonic and Prague National Theater orchestras. Nuremberg is, after all, only a three hour drive from Prague. The booklet notes for the Profil CD reissue state that the completion of the recording was a "small miracle" because "In August 1968, in the midst of the Nuremberg recording sessions, Soviet troops marched into Czechoslovakia. The borders were closed and musicians of the Czech Philharmonic were faced with the frightening prospect of not being able to return home. Heinz Schurer, production head, sound engineer and director in one, recalls that orchestra members would fail to turn up at rehearsals and recording sessions whenever it was reported that the borders had been opened up for a short time. Thanks to the cooperation of members of the local Nuremberg orchestras, the gaps could always be filled on short notice."
Something does not quite ring true about Schurer's recollections. According to the dates provided in the Profil booklet (which are the same as those given in the previous CD release on Weltbild), the recording of Das Rheingold began on 26 July; Götterdämmerung was completed on 19 August, and on the evening of 20 August Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia. How could the Soviet-led invasion have jeopardized the recording sessions if the sessions were completed a full day before that invasion? Could Schurer have confused the Ring sessions with those for Lohengrin which, as Profil notes, "immediately followed" the Ring?
Fratelli Fabbri's original 1968 release of the Swarowsky Ring was most unusual--the cycle was issued on thirty-two 10-inch stereo LPs, the only Ring cycle to have ever been published in that format. The packaging included dark blue velvet jackets with gold lettering and generously illustrated booklets and annotations, all in Italian, of course. The publisher's choice of 10-inch LPs seems downright bizarre, and copies of this first release are extremely scarce. In my many decades as a record collector, I have seen only one copy of the complete, original edition, at a long-defunct used record dealer in New York City called A Classical Record. A copy of Das Rheingold turned up on eBay early in 2014, but I have never seen an eBay listing for the original issue of the complete cycle.
In 1972 the American label Westminster issued the cycle on nineteen conventional 12-inch records as part of their Westminster Gold series "...
If you want to read an interesting review by Ralph Moore in his Wagner’s Ring cycle survey at MusicWeb International, this is the link:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2019/Feb/Wagner_ring_survey.pdf