The Fruits of Practice: Ring Without Words: Lorin Maazel & Berlin Philharmonic

This is what comes of good practice. The intonation, beauty of tone, and expression in this performance of Der Ring ohne Worte is absolutely stellar.

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I hope you have an hour and fifteen minutes to spare to watch it. Lorin Maazel conducts the Berlin Philharmonic performance of Maazel’s arrangement of Wagner’s Ring Cycle (you know, one ring to rule them all…, no wait. This ring–The Ring of the Nieblung–came before that one). Anyway, it’s an incredible performance. For the arrangement, Maazel didn’t change a note, just compiled all the best instrumental bits out of the 4 separate-but-connected operas.

My neighbors probably think I’m crazy. I had this absolutely cranked up to 11 while I cleaned the house. Only cleaning took a lot longer because I kept stopping to stare at the screen. Wow!

I don’t know the names of most of these outstanding musicians, so if you do, please let us know in the comments, and thanks!