WAGNER: Die Walkure - Bayreuther Festspiele, Christian Thielemann (4 CDS)

Endrik Wottrich (Siegmund), Eva-Maria Westbroek (Sieglinde), Albert Dohmen (Wotan), Linda Watson (Brünnhilde), Kwangchul Youn (Hunding), Michelle Breedt (Fricka)

Bayreuther Festspiele, Christian Thielemann, Tankred Dorst

Recorded live at the Bayreuth Festival in 2008, this is the second part of Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle. Christian Thielemann, one of the most sought-after conductors in the world, takes the baton with the Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra.

“ ... there is no doubt that this year's Ring at Bayreuth belongs to... Thielemann... [who] creates a musical experience epic in its scale and inexorable in its apocalyptic, shattering power.” The Guardian

“Thielemann’s conducting again creates the opera’s unique mystery… The first scene between Sieglinde, Siegmund and Hunding is really dramatic with Eva-Maria Westbroek’s vividly sung Sieglinde, Kwangchul Youn’s fine Hunding and Endrik Wottrich’s Seigmund now dramatically developed. …the wholeness of music, performance and human joy and suffering leaves the audience deeply moved and passionately enthusiastic.” The Stage