I'm looking forward to tomorrow's instalment (Die Walkure). It could even be a clean sweep for Keilberth, although I suspect they will shy away from that. As well as making recommendations for each opera, I assume they will make a recommendation for someone who wants all four by the same forces. It would also be interesting to recommend one live and one studio cycle, as I think the ideal is to have both for dramatic works. Much as I admire the Keilberth, it is also nice to have a recording that doesn't have coughing, stomping around on stage and in which the orchestral details can be heard more clearly, even if some artificial mixing in the studio has gone on.

Keilberth is my favourite overall, but then I've only got that and the Solti complete, with highlights by Boulez and Boehm. I'm very impressed, having read similar threads on TOP, with those people who seem to know a dozen or more versions intimately. I just don't know how they get the time to do it.

So you didn't manage to catch it on a Britannia Music introductory membership offer then

Twenty quid it cost me, in '98 when I was a poor student... admittedly I had to promise to buy six more CDs from Britannia to qualify, but it still worked out a great bargain.

The cheapest Ring disc I have ever found was the Neuhold set, which I'm ashamed to say I haven't listened to yet, after two years! The highest price I had seen for the set was £20; MDC had it for £10; Superdrug (which usually doesn't stock CDs, but occasionally has loads of copies of one recording of something worthwhile - I know several people who got the Barshai Shostakovich set for £7) had it on a half price deal at £5, and I happened to drop in on a "25% off everything" day and got it for £3.75!  A whole Ring for £3.75!  Even though I've yet to listen to it, frankly even if it's dreadful it was worth it at that price

Am hoping to hear the whole programme this week: last week, about half-way through, I got a phone call from Porlock ...

Ah, Superdrug used to have some bargains, unfortunately they don't seem to stock cds anymore.  I too got the Neuhold for £3.75 and the Barsai for £7, plus a double cd of Handel's organ concertos for 99p!

I'm listening to the R3 programme now.

Thought-provoking edition, wasn't it?! Martin Handley approached this BaL very well, illustrating his argument with well selected excerpts and not as much storytelling as Hilary Finch in Rheingold. I was very surprised by the fall of Solti, Keilberth, Barenboim and Boulez at the very first fence but, against my instincts, was impressed by the bits of Karajan's recording played (as I was by the Böhm which also caught my ear last week). Haenchen and Fisch were also dismissed early on - I'd like a chance to hear some of the Adelaide Ring which seems to have caused a bit of a stir.

One question I posted over on the R3 boards (but haven't had a response to yet): How important is it that the singers in a Ring cycle stay in their roles across the operas? It's always bothered me that Wotan in Solti's Rheingold is sung by George London rather than Hans Hotter (I understand that Hotter was considered past his best by the time it came to be recorded) and I notice that on the new Adelaide Götterdämmerung, Siegfried is sung by Timothy Mussard, whereas in Siegfried it's Gary Rideout. Karajan, in his cycle, has two Wotans, two Brünnhildes and two Siegfrieds...doesn't this mess up any sense of continuity? Are there any other disconcerting 'switches' in other cycles and does it make a difference?

Am I the only one for whom this programme seems to be about not so much Building a Library as Culling a Collection? 

I've always thought that the Culshaw book reads like a carefully constructed PR-job (with a few 'scare' stories - such as Nilsson getting the hump over her volume in 'Gotterdammerung' - to prevent it from seeming too obvious).  Hotter sang the Rheingold Wotan all over the place in the 50s, so it seems odd - to say the least - that he wasn't chosen for the Decca project.  My guess is that American Decca (or 'London') stuck their oars in and demanding a 'transatlantic' Wotan, as Hotter had minimal exposure in the U.S. (along with so many German artists).  Then when London proved less than satisfactory, Culshaw and co pressed to have him replaced (significantly, Culshaw doesn't really mention London's performance in any depth in 'Ring Resounding').  I've always felt that London was given the Leinsdorf Walkure as a consolation prize for not getting the Wotan gig in the rest of the Decca Ring.

As to changes of personnel...yes, they are irritating, though I find I can get past them easily. It's fashionable to knock the Karajan Siegfried because of Jess Thomas (who may not have been a natural for the role, but who nevertheless seems wholly 'in tune' with Karajan's concept of this opera).  I do think, though, that Karajan pulls off parts of it that no one else (not even Furtwangler) managed to do - most notably the prologue to Act 3 (a sensational moment).