50 years since Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker stepped inside Jesus-Christus-Kirche in Berlin to record Wagner’s masterpiece, Deutsche Grammophon proudly presents the entire Ring on one single High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-ray disc with an extensive hardback book containing the full libretti in original German with English translations. Includes rare artist photos from the recording sessions and from the rehearsals for the live Salzburg productions.

The new remastering was done by the Emil Berliner Studios in 2016.

According to Karajan’s own account, it was during the summer of 1965, while he was working on Boris Godunov, that he had a vision of the future: “I suddenly sensed a burning desire to stage and conduct Wagner in Salzburg.” His dream – very much in the spirit of Wagner himself: “My baton shall teach future ages which road they have to take.”

Karajan’s Wagner was concerned with beauty, lyricism and structure, and for his monumental Ring cycle he assembled a world-class cast of singers who possessed instrumental tone and were able to deliver a vivid and clear declamation of the text; and his Berliner Philharmoniker were more than capable of rising to the occasion.
 
“The artistic result is extraordinary (with a wonderful BPO and Karajan on the very top level) - but what strikes me even more is the wonderful sound quality of these recordings.” - Gramophone, 2005

“A superb work of art in itself, aided by some brilliant playing from the Berlin Phil.” - BBC Music Magazine, 2008

“Weber was the first composer with a sense of living nature which goes through all Wagner’s work. If you do not carry this sense of the identity of music and nature you are not telling the truth to the audience. What is the Ring in the end but a parable of violated nature?” - Herbert von Karajan