Wagner: Overtures & Preludes
This is a dazzling collection of nonvocal excerpts from Wagner's operas, from the peace and loveliness of Rafael Kubelik'sSiegfriedIdyll to the passionate, disturbed Prelude to the first act ofTristan, led by Karl Bohm, and the wildRide of the Valkyries, with Herbert von Karajan in a particularly rambunctious mood. Other highlights in the two and a half hours of music are transcendent readings of twoParsifalexcerpts by Eugen Jochum and the Bavarian Radio Orchestra and aFlying Dutchmanset. But couldn't DG have tried to include some information aboutanythingin their teeny paper insert?--Robert Levine