Positive Feedback

There is cause for celebration with any new performance of the complete Ring Cycle, and when it is as well recorded as this live performance recording from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, there is even greater reason for anticipation. The recording was made by the illustrious Sound Mirror team, and the sonic results are indeed excellent. The original recording format was PCM 192 kHz, but I listened to the DSD256 conversion made by Tom Caulfield from the edit master source and released by NativeDSD.

And, I have not yet listened to all 15 hours* of it—just the first opera: Das Rheingold. But this has been so deliciously good that I am looking forward to diving into Die Walküre, Siegfried, and finally Götterdämmerung. Some people are likely to skip ahead to listen to famous excerpts and then draw conclusions from isolated passages. That is not my approach. I dislike “bleeding chunks”—I want to experience each much-anticipated  moment in its proper dramatic and musical context.

…

Das Rheingold is very well performed. If the remaining three operas are as of the same standard (and I fully expect them to be), this set will stand as a significant and musically impressive achievement, especially for a live performance. In Das Rheingold, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra plays with expressive refinement and a level of polish that rivals many of the leading European orchestras whose recorded performances I have heard. Music director Fabio Luisi provides exceptionally clear, structurally intelligent leadership throughout.

The orchestral sound benefits from strong transparency of inner lines and orchestral color, captured with wide dynamic range, excellent soundstage imaging, and a rich hall ambiance. Is it perfect? No. There is some thickening of texture in the climaxes compared to some of the best studio Ring recordings. Even so, this is one of the finest live Ring recordings I have heard—impressively natural and powerful.

Rushton Paul - Source