Come on, it may not be fashionable to admit it, but when you first encountered the Solti Ring you were mightily impressed. Whether it was as a young child embarking on your first journey along Wagner’s River Rhine, or whether you are of the generation that remembers the colossal occasions that were the individual operas’ first releases. I well remember inheriting my father’s cassettes, devouring them avidly and simultaneously reading John Culshaw’s imagination-firing book about the recording, Ring Resounding. The tales of international quests to find an authentic horn for Hagen’s call to the Vassals, or the right kind of gold for Alberich’s hoard, never mind the sonic experiments carried out to render Donner’s hammer blow suitably cosmic were simply incredible. And, though fashion dictates that we turn our noses up at Solti’s forceful conducting, listening again, he’s neither as hard-pressed nor as impatient as legend would have it. In a sense, though, Solti’s interpretation is almost irrelevant to this story. Fifty years ago the Hungarian maestro and his English producer Culshaw set out to create history with the first studio recording of the Ring. They said it couldn’t be done. And if it was done, they said it would cost, and lose, a fortune. Well, it did cost a small fortune but went on to become one (actually four) of the best-selling recordings ever made, repaying its investment many times over and kick-starting the craze for recorded Rings. There is more to this story, other perspectives, than you will find in Culshaw’s book. To mark this anniversary I asked Mike Ashman, one of our most knowledgeable and eager Wagnerians, to seek out and talk to everyone of interest he could find who was present at the sessions to compile an oral history. Added to this, I suggested he talk to later generations of Wagner interpreters who were raised on Solti’s achievement to glean whether and how it influenced them. So a remarkable dramatis personae has been assembled, ranging from Lady Solti and Gwyneth Jones to John Tomlinson and Antonio Pappano. Enjoy the article – and discover the Solti Ring all over again. More from the Gramophone online front. New features are being frequently added (alongside regular news updates and more) and, to keep things simple, we’ve decided to revert to our original www.gramophone.co.uk address for the home page. Watch out for an exciting revamp of the website, due very shortly!

james.inverne@haymarket.com