To mark the 25th anniversary of Georg Solti’s death, his cycle of rings will be remastered in four separate releases.
The Hungarian-British composer, who died on 5 September 1997 at the age of 84, won 31 Grammy Awards during his career, making him the most Grammy-winning artist of any genre.
Music label Decca Classics has announced a new remastered version of Ring Cycle (Der Ring des Nibelungen) composed by Richard Wagner. This was made possible by a complex restoration project to preserve the master tapes of the recordings.
Ring Cycle was recorded between 1958 and 1965, contains four operas and lasts fifteen hours.
The record sold millions and is famous for soundtracking the tense helicopter scene in the 1979 film Apocalypse Now.
The four remastered operas will be released in installments between November 2022 and May 2023, with Golden Ring, a selection of the best scenes from the cycle to be released on September 30, 2022. will be
The master tape recordings, which have been in the Universal Music vault since recording sessions took place in Vienna in the 1950s and 60s, have been expertly processed into high-definition digital audio using state-of-the-art audio technology. increase.
Partially degraded portions of the tape were baked in a specialized oven at 55°C for 10 hours to restore integrity.
These new high-definition transfers of 38 original master tapes are done at 24-bit/192kHz resolution, delivering never-before-heard detail and dynamic range.
Tom Lewis and Laura Monks, co-presidents of Decca Label Group Tom Lewis and Laura Monks, shared their excitement about the remaster, saying:
“What’s even more intriguing is the idea that the engineer was able to revert to the original tape just before it became unusable.
“It’s your last chance to go back to the original masterpiece before it’s lost forever.”
This release is also the first and only complete Wagner ring cycle available with Dolby Atmos, a cutting-edge surround sound audio technology, making it more immersive, as was the intention of the late classic record producer John Culshaw of Decca Records. It creates a listening experience with
Dominic Fyfe, Decca Classics label director and audio producer for the Ring Cycle reissue, said:
“Half a century later, it is still the gold standard artistically and technically.
“Culshaw was, above all, an iconoclast and a visionary who reveled in new technologies.
“We have no doubt he approves of our efforts to utilize Dolby Atmos and the latest suite of remastering tools to make this new HD transfer the most immersive and vibrant yet. There is none.”
