Zweden Walküre

Completing their Ring cycle on Naxos, Jaap van Zweden and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra have at last released their much anticipated recording of Götterdämmerung, which proves conclusively that this enterprise was a success. There had been some concern that Wagner's tetralogy would be an insurmountable challenge for this inexperienced orchestra, and that an untried conductor and singers would be unable to give convincing performances from start to finish. Beginning with the release of Das Rheingold in 2015, which was followed by Die Walküre in 2016 and Siegfried in 2017, the performances showed increasing confidence and commitment, not least from van Zweden, who had planned this project since he began his tenure with the orchestra in 2012, but also from the orchestra, which provided consistently solid playing and many moments of sheer brilliance.

The opening evening of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, Das Rheingold is the prologue of the cycle, which is followed in turn by the music dramas Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung. The first instalment in Jaap van Zweden's projected Ring with the Hong Kong Philharmonic – an undertaking he regards as central to his tenure with the orchestra – is a promising beginning that may surprise many experienced Wagnerians. Van Zweden is ambitious in presenting the Ring with this orchestra, which plays it for the first time, though in fairness to the musicians, they offer an intensity and vigor that more than makes up for any minor scrappiness.

Somewhat unexpectedly, baritone Matthias Goerne has emerged as one of the rising Wagnerian singers of our time, making something of a transition from the art song repertoire of Schubert and Schumann to music drama in a series of important recordings, including appearing as Wotan in Jaap van Zweden's Ring cycle on Naxos. For this 2017 Harmonia Mundi release, Goerne joins Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in The Wagner Project, a double-disc sampler of vocal and orchestral highlights from Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Tristan und Isolde, Der fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser, Parsifal, and of course, Der Ring des Nibelungen.