DAS RHEINGOLD by Richard Wagner (Audio + Full Score) [RE-UPLOAD]

pf: Georg Solti cond/ Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Year/Date of Composition: 1853-4

Wotan: George London
Donner: Eberhard Wächter
Froh: Waldemar Kmentt
Loge: Set Svanholm
Alberich: Gustav Neidlinger
Mime: Paul Kuen
Fasolt: Walter Kreppel
Fafner: Kurt Böhme
Fricka: Kirsten Flagstad
Freia: Claire Watson
Erda: Jean Madeira
Woglinde: Oda Balsborg
Wellgunde: Hetty Plümacher
Floßhilde: Ira Malaniuk

0:00 - Scene One (The Rhine River)
4:13 - (Woglinde's lullaby)
5:25 - (The dwarf Alberich appears)
6:38 - (Alberich tries to catch Woglinde...but fails)
7:36 - (Wellgunde's seduction)
9:12 - (Flosshilde's seduction)
11:09 - (Alberich's anger and accusation as he falls for the Rhinemaidens' pranks)
11:36 - (The Rhinemaidens don't give a damn)
13:57 - (The sun shines on the Rhinegold)
17:17 - (Wellgunde: "Making a ring from the gold grants world-power.")
17:56 - (Woglinde: "One must renounce love to make the ring of power.")
19:46 - (Alberich renounces love and steals the Rhinegold.)

24:11 - Scene Two (On a meadow outside Valhalla. Construction of Valhalla has just been completed.)
25:29 - (Fricka: "A debt is due.")
33:04 - (Freia fleeing from the Giants)
35:04 - (Entrance of Fasolt and Fafner)
41:22 - (Fafner considers taking the Golden Apples from Freia)
42:31 - (Froh and Donner try to defend Freia)
43:25 - (Wotan intervenes with his Spear)
44:12 - (Entrance of Loge)
47:57 - (Loge talks of his search for payment for the giants, and his hearing the Rhinemaidens' tale)
59:21 - (The Giants take Freia)
1:00:57 - (The Gods grow older)
1:07:22 - Interlude (Wotan and Loge descend to Nibelheim to steal the Rhinegold from Alberich)

1:09:48 - Scene Three (Nibelheim)
1:10:31 - (Alberich takes the Tarnhelm, forged by his brother Mime)
1:13:51 - (Wotan and Loge converse with Mime about Alberich's tyranny over the Nibelungs)
1:29:25 - (Alberich transforms into a dragon, then a toad, and gets captured by Wotan)
1:32:30 - Interlude

1:35:55 - Scene Four (Outside Valhalla)
1:46:12 - (Alberich curses the Ring)
1:50:21 - (The mist clears)
1:56:17 - (Loge and Froh heap treasure on top of Freia)
1:59:51 - (Fafner turns his attention to the Ring, which Wotan refuses to give)
2:01:26 - (The goddess Erda rises from the ground: "A darksome day dawns for your godhood:
be counseled, give up the Ring!)
2:07:55 - (Wotan gives up the Ring, releasing Freia)
2:09:17 - (The curse takes effect...the giants fight over the Ring; Fafner kills Fasolt)
2:14:22 - (Donner clears the fog on the mountain top with his hammer)
2:16:16 - Rainbrow Bridge Scene; The gods (all except Loge) cross the bridge to Valhalla
2:22:03 - (The Rhinemaidens lament the loss of the Rhinegold.)

[krischan]

A single sheet of the score with about 30 instruments covers just 10 seconds. What an enormous amount of work it must have been... and it's so grand. The greatest beginning of anything ever composed and the finale is pure magic! Falsch und feig ist was dort oben sich freut!

[JWP]

You can just dee Wagner kicking back and looking at the score and saying to himself, "I'm such a genius."

[f.p.]

17:53 Denounciation motif
23:15, 41:20, 50:35, 1:02:50, 1:58:20 DKL
35:00 Giants motif
44:07 Loki motif
53:25 Rhein motif returns inversed
54:05 Forgery Cave motif foreshadowed
1:07:22 is my favorite part
1:10:30 first appearance of the ring and motif
(1:11:25 Wagner references the Flying Dutchman motif)
1:12:40 Full embrace of Alberich as a villain (notice the minor variant of the Rheintöchter motif in the melody)
1:16:40 Parody of the Dream motif parallel to Mime’s dream to overthrow Alberich
1:22:45 Dark Dream motif forms as Alberich speaks of his malicious goals
1:26:05 Castle motif combines with Loge’s motif as he finally chooses to side with Wotan
1:32:30 the Dream motif climaxes as both gods attain victory over Alberich, getting closer to fulfilling the “Dream” of getting Freia back
1:39:55 Climax of the Ring motif
1:44:45 Dream motif breaks apart as the Ring is torn off Alberich and his “Dream” breaks apart, as well as his connection to the Ring
1:49:35 Dark Rheintöchter motif climaxes as Alberich finishes cursing the Ring
1:56:15 The Giants “attain” Alberich’s Forge motif as their greed increases
2:09:15 Notice the piano Alberich motif as one of the Giant gets greedy again

1:07:00
1:45:12 - this part is so powerful... Wotan becoming the most powerful being in the universe

[raymoland]

John Culshaws amazing Ring Resounding describes the recording of this and the entire Solti/Decca Ring cycle. What makes this opening even more amazing is that it was recorded by the Vienna Philharmonic at close to midnight in an extra session after the orchestra had done the final two recording sessions that day and then gone away to play an entirely different opera and then agreed to come back late at night to try to get one more take of the prelude. Getting all 8 horns to not crack a note after that much playing in a day was an act of superb musicianship.

[russellparratt]

This is THE greatest beginning to any musical work, ever.
Also, I believe the Solti Ring is the one to have.
It set a standard that has never been surpassed.

[Goetterdaemmerung]

My goodness, this is incredibly ambitious. Amazing

[DAVID]

When cellists complain about their 8 notes in Pachelbel's Canon they should look at this... The same Eb note for over 100 measures for the contrabasses. 🤣

[johnphillips]

Dude thanks a thousand times over for the massive undertaking of uploading Wagner’s operas.

[jeff]

I'm just now getting into the Ring cycle and have tried many versions of this on YT, and this one I find to be the most well done so far (for my tastes). Thanks for posting.

[FreakieFan]

Holy shit, the Entry of the Gods into Valhalla...
That is a black page if I've ever seen one, hahaha.
SIX harps, damn.

[sherlockholmeslives.]

Wagner's accomplishments were staggering really!
Forget about the anti-Semitism stuff, the genius and scale of his operas are phenomenal!
Only 2 people have radically changed the face of music forever, Beethoven and Wagner.
With Wagner's operas comes the complexity of Shakespeare and the musical quality of Beethoven.


"What for ordinary people defies understanding is the truth that one man could carry in him the totality of that design, could possibly construe from the first note to the last a coherent immensity of a complexity that defies analysis!"

Of Wagner's 'Der Ring das Nibelungen' ( The Ring Cycle ) by Professor George Steiner.


Wagner as well as a composer was an intellectual, musician, conductor, essayist, theatre director, and avid reader of philosophy, especially the German philosophers Hegel, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Schopenhauer being very influential in Wagner's opera 'Tristan and Isolde'.

[Dylonely_]

It’s an outstanding opera, probably one of the greatest ever composed.

[korhonenmikko]

At 2:17:10 the 6 harp parts are moved to the appendix

[Blokewood]

I really like the speed at which they play the music for the giants' entrance. That part is really hard to get just right. Most other productions make it too slow or too fast but this one is just right.

[PM_ME_MESSIAEN_PICS]

heard this live with my local orchestra, amazing experience!

[elle]

it took him 7 years to compose this. and the first 3 years he didnt write any music - only scetches, the plot, source research (every content has a related historical source)...

[classicalricky]

(The Rhinemaidens don't give a damn) l.o.l. that was good.

[anthonynevitt]

Thank you so much! This is amazing! When I saw "full score" I thought that it surely wasn't with a great cast, but lo and behold: Svanholm, London, Flagstad! And with time stamps!

[ellenripley]

The beginning of only featuring E-flat major for 4 minutes shows Wagner's strength as minimalist composer.

[farrelpermadi]

Begins with very beautiful and suspension slow string, and then flowing, before flowing, there is eight horn gives a calm sound