This set, the first to appear in EMI’s original Ring recording almost a quarter of a century ago, was reissued by that company on CD in 1991. The Peter Moores Foundation, which supported the project in the first place, has now sensibly arranged its transfer to its Opera in English series on Chandos (the same has already happened to Julius Caesar and Mary Stuart from the same source). The remainder of the cycle will appear over the coming year, so that once again one will be able to marvel at its substantial achievement and historic significance.
Those of us old enough to have been in on the origins of the venture still recall the profound satisfaction at finally hearing the veteran Goodall given his head, and at the chance to listen to some of the most considered and thoroughly prepared Wagner ever to appear on disc. Those feelings aren’t in any way diminished in returning to this Valkyrie. There is something inevitable, even eternal about Goodall’s long-breathed, full-toned, often ideally articulated reading. The ENO management’s faith in him was handsomely repaid in his ability to convey his lifetime vision to his regular cast and eventually to his audiences. On paper, tempos may look unacceptably slow; in practice there are very few places – perhaps Siegmund’s Spring song and Sieglinde’s reply – where they seem too tardy. That is largely due to his ability to find the Hauptstimme for every paragraph of the music, indeed for a whole act and, perhaps even more, to his ability to persuade players and singers alike to sustain a long line. Listeners familiar only with the Solti cycle on Decca will hardly recognise this as the same work.
By 1976 all his singers were entirely inside their respective roles and so able to project a feeling of familiarity with their music that is evident in every bar. Like all the most satisfying sets of the Ring, it benefits enormously from being heard live in a theatre acoustic, and here no compromises have to be made, so superb are producer John Mordler’s and his team’s skills. You seem to be seated in centre stalls imbibing the performance, as I recall doing at the Coliseum.
Rita Hunter bestrides the role of Brunnhilde in a confident manner achieved in relatively modern times only by Birgit Nilsson, whose bright tone and effortless top Hunter’s so much resembles. She is also a thoughtful, very human interpreter of the role, keen with her words and investing them with the right import. By her side Bailey confirms that he is as excellent a Wotan as any since Hans Hotter. His reading of the taxing part is virtually tireless and his interpretation combines authority with fatherly concern. The great monologue, finely articulated, is a pleasure from start to finish, his anger at the start of Act 3 fearsome, and his farewell suitably moving.
Remedios’s Siegmund remains one of the most sweetly sung and appealing on disc. If Curphey is not quite in his class vocally, she offers a deeply felt and sympathetic Sieglinde. Ann Howard is, rightly, a termagant of a Fricka, with a touch of asperity in her tone. Clifford Grant is a sonorous, towering Hunding. The Valkyries, comprised of many of the most promising female singers of the day (among them Elizabeth Connell and Anne Evans, who later sang at Bayreuth), acquit themselves very well. All the cast benefit from Andrew Porter’s carefully wrought, very singable translation. So a hearty welcome back to a great recording.'