After more than 25 years, these recordings remain gripping for reasons similar to those applying to the other sections of the English Ring already reissued by Chandos (12/00; 5/01) – even if I feel that they should, after all this time, be available at mid-price. In spite of speeds that in other hands would seem often unreasonably slow, or to an extent because of them, Goodall’s interpretation has an unerring sense of lyrical and dramatic concentration, every paragraph, phrase and bar carefully considered and executed with loving care by singers and players alike, all so closely coached by their veteran conductor. Above all there is the refined legato observed by all the singers. And the sense of real-life occasion, the theatre’s acoustic clearly felt throughout.
Andrew Porter’s wonderfully lucid translation is given its full due by all the soloists, who once more sound an utterly convincing team. In Rhinegold the main honours are carried off by Emile Belcourt’s plausible, witty and articulate Loge, Hammond-Stroud’s imposing, strongly sung Alberich, Robert Lloyd’s sympathetic Fasolt and Bailey’s ever-authoritative Wotan. With a pleasing trio of Rhinemaidens headed by Masterson’s gleaming Woglinde, Clifford Grant’s gloomy, louring Fafner and Anne Collins’s deep-throated Erda, the strength of the ENO roster at the time is there for all to hear.
In Twilight, Hunter and Remedios excel themselves as a more heroic than tragic pair, their singing steady, keen with words and very much in character following so many performances, by 1977, of the complete cycle. The recently departed Aage Haugland offers a welcome souvenir of his career as a louring Hagen, though I seem to recall Clifford Grant used to bring a more idiomatic English and greater presence to the part. Welsby uncovers the right touches of weak will for Gunther while Curphey is suitably alluring as sister Gutrune. Pring offers an appropriately urgent and strongly sung Waltraute. The Norns could hardly be more strongly cast.
By and large, the playing of the ENO Orchestra is of an equally consistent nature, responding to Goodall’s long-breathed conducting with playing of beauty and strength adding up to a formidable traversal of the score. The recording, masterminded by John Mordler, need not fear comparison with anything more recent. Indeed the absence of unwanted reverberation and excessive sound effects is most welcome. What we get is the music unvarnished and truthful, for which many thanks again to the foresight of the ENO directors of the day and to Peter Moores for providing the wherewithal to execute it. Anyone wanting the work in the vernacular, who hasn’t already acquired it in its previous incarnations, need not hesitate