Wagner: Götterdämmerung

With the fourth part of the “Ring des Nibelungen”, the curtain descended on the central work of Richard Wagner. After “Siegfried, OehmsClassics presents “Götterdämmerung” from Hamburg with an excellent cast. Simone Young created a sensation with the Hamburg Philharmonic at the premiere; Claus Guth’s directing concept was well received by public and press. The features of the 4-CD box are of high quality, as with the previous productions from Hamburg: alongside an extensive preface by Udo Bermbach, the booklet also includes the libretto in German and English. REVIEW: I was very taken with the Walküre from this same source, praising in particular the conducting of Simone Young. Again here, in the Cycle’s final installment, Young is impressive...her sense of dynamics, her feel for the one-on-one moments versus the crowd scenes, the tender versus the violent, seem to me to be ideal. The Waltraute/Brünnhilde scene is the most humanly interactive I’ve ever heard, and the summoning of the Vas