CD 1 rolls off with The Ride of the Valkyries, CD 2 with The Flying Dutchman Overture – there’s over 150 minutes of Wagner on this star compilation.

Of course, Wagner also wrote big ballads as well, so there’s the Siegfried Idyll, the Tristan Prelude and Liebestod and the ethereal Prelude to Lohengrin

The big names are there, above all Karajan, Böhm, Kubelik and Jochum. It’s a mainly orchestral set, with just the Lohengrin Bridal Chorus and two extracts from The Ring (conducted by Karajan) to remind you that Wagner was writing operas.

The perfect Wagner starter-set!

Artists

Birgit Nilsson (soprano), Donald Grobe, Edda Moser, Helen Donath, Josephine Veasey, Anna Reynolds, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerhard Stolze

Berliner Philharmoniker, Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Bavarian Radio Chorus, Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin, Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm, Eugen Jochum, Rafael Kubelik, Otto Gerdes