Recording Review: The Complications of a Family Business

Jaap van Zweden leads Siegfried in Hong Kong.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

SImon O'Neill, shown here as Siegmund in Die Walküre, sings the title role of Siegfried in Jaap van Zweden's new Hong Kong recording of the opera. Photo © The Metropolitan Opera.

Richard Wagner intended Siegfriedto be a romp. Certainly, there is a fairy-tale quality to this recording, the third installment of Jaap van Zweden's Ring, recorded in Hong Kong in 2016 with that city's Philharmonic Orchestra and an international cast. But does it do enough to help the reputation of this, the least known and least-loved of the four operas that make up this massive mythological cycle?

Recordings Review: Everything Louder Than Everything Else

Jaap van Zweden releases the hounds (and more) with Die Walküre.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Stuart Skelton (left) and Heidi Melton, seen here in an English National Opera
production of Tristan und Isolde are the incestuous twins Siegmund and Sieglinde in the
new Hong Kong Philharmonic recording of Die Walküre. Photo by Catherine Ashmore © 2016 English National Opera.

The first thing you notice on the Hong Kong Philharmonic's recording of Die Walküre, released in 2016 as part of conductor Jaap van Zweden's recently completed cycle of Wagner's Ring operas, is the sheer volume. The orchestra is loud, mixed bright and forward in the crisp, clear concert acoustic. They thunder through the opening prelude with gusto, with the Wagner tubas (those hybrids between French horn and euphonium suggested, if not actually designed by the composer himself) leading the charge.

Recordings Review: A Castle in the Air

The Naxos Ring starts with Das Rheingold.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Ring leader: Jaap van Zweden at the helm of his Hong Kong forces.
Photo © 2018 Naxos Records/Hong Kong Philharmonic

There are, by this writer's count, at least thirty commercial versions of Wagner's epic Ring Cycle available to the consumer today. So what's the need for one more?

This new Ring, which was produced by Naxos Records in a series of live concerts by the Hong Kong Philharmonic marks the arrival of Jaap van Zweden as a major Wagnerian voice. The Dutch conductor is doing double duty in Hong Kong and New York as music director of both cities' respective Philharmonics, but is still building his international reputation. A complete Ring such as this (Götterdämmerung was released this month) is a major step toward music stardom and this recording of Das Rheingold, in glowing stereo sound with a bright and fresh dynamic range is a good start to the cycle.