It took Richard Wagner (1813-1883) 26 years to complete his magnum opus, the opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, which consists of four separate operas tied together by leitmotifs, recurring musical themes which link plot elements. In some of his essays, Wagner speaks about the Gesamtkunstwerk (‘total work of art’) which is his ideal way of unifying all works of art via the theatre. It is a union of opera and drama, in which the individual arts are subordinated to a common purpose. Der Ring des Nibelungen, and specifically its components Das Rheingold and Die Walküre represent perhaps the closest that Wagner, or anyone else, ever came to realizing these ideals.

The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and conductor Marek Janowski, one of the great masters and exponents of the music of the German tradition, recorded the four operas Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung at the Berlin Philharmonie in 2012 and 2013. All recordings were made during a unique series of live concertante performances, which allows for an orchestral clarity that is impossible to achieve when the orchestra is placed in a pit. This is the first multichannel surround sound recording ever of the Ring is now released by PENTATONE in a luxurious collector's book (30cm x 300cm) containing 13 SACDs and more than 250 pages rich with content including liner notes, biographies and full librettos in English and German, among others.

‘Janowski’s dramatic instincts and his ability to obtain orchestral playing of great intensity and presence are as keenly honed as ever – there are some thrilling interludes in this Rheingold.’ - The Guardian

‘The real secret ingredient here is the conductor himself. This is both a great start to Janowski’s new Ring cycle and a competitive Rheingold in its own right.’ - Gramophone

Cast:

Das Rheingold:
- Wotan: Tomasz Konieczny (baritone)
- Donner: Antonio Yang (baritone)
- Froh: Kor-Jan Dusseljee (tenor)
- Loge: Christian Elsner (tenor)
- Fricka: Iris Vermillion (mezzo-soprano)
- Freia: Ricarda Merbeth (soprano)
- Erda: Maria Radner (alto)
- Fasolt: Günther Groissböck (bass)
- Fafner: Timo Riihonen (bass)
- Alberich: Jochen Schmeckenbecher (baritone)
- Mime: Andreas Conrad (tenor)
- Woglinde: Julia Borchert (soprano)
- Wellgunde: Katharina Kammerloher (mezzo-soprano)
- Flosshilde: Kismara Pessatti (alto)

Die Walküre:
- Wotan: Tomasz Konieczny (baritone)
- Fricka: Iris Vermillion (mezzo-soprano)
- Siegmund: Robert Dean Smith (tenor)
- Sieglinde: Melanie Diener (soprano)
- Hunding: Timo Riihonen (bass)
- Brünnhilde: Petra Lang (soprano)
- Gerhilde: Anja Fidelia Ulrich (soprano)
- Ortlinde: Fionnuala McCarthy (soprano)
- Waltraute: Heike Wessels (mezzo-soprano)
- Schwertleite: Kismara Pessatti (alto)
- Helmwige: Carola Höhn (soprano)
- Siegrune: Wilke te Brummelstroete (mezzo-soprano)
- Grimgerde: Nicole Piccolomini (alto)
- Rossweisse: Renate Spingler (mezzo-soprano)

Siegfried:
- Der Wanderer/Wotan: Tomasz Konieczny (baritone)
- Siegfried: Stephen Gould (tenor)
- Brünnhilde: Violeta Urmana (soprano)
- Erda: Anna Larsson (alto)
- Fafner: Matti Salminen (bass)
- Alberich: Jochen Schmeckenbecher (baritone)
- Mime: Christian Elsner (tenor)
- Voice of the Woodbird: Sophie Klussmann (soprano)

Götterdämmerung:
- Siegfried: Lance Ryan (tenor)
- Brünnhilde: Petra Lang (soprano)
- Hagen: Matti Salminen (bass)
- Gunther: Markus Brück (baritone)
- Gutrune: Edith Haller (soprano)
- Alberich: Jochen Schmeckenbecher (baritone)
- Waltraute: Marina Prudenskaja (mezzo-soprano)
- Woglinde: Julia Borchert (soprano)
- Wellgunde: Katharina Kammerloher (mezzo-soprano)
- Flosshilde: Kismara Pessatti (alto)
- First Norn: Susanne Resmark (alto)
- Second Norn: Christa Mayer (mezzo-soprano)
- Third Norn: Jacquelyn Wagner (soprano)