Franz Konwitschny’s 1959 Covent Garden Ring reaches its third instalment with Wagner’s Siegfried, preserved in the BBC broadcast of 28 September. Wolfgang Windgassen takes the title role, with Hans Hotter as the Wanderer and Astrid Varnay as Brünnhilde, supported by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. This is an opportunity to hear these singers together in a complete theatrical performance, where character develops through extended encounters rather than isolated set pieces. The central role particularly rewards Windgassen’s flexibility and feeling for language: its formidable vocal demands serve a young hero whose physical strength far exceeds his understanding of the world.
The cast also includes Peter Klein as Mime, Otakar Kraus as Alberich, Michael Langdon as Fafner, Marga Höffgen as Erda and Jeannette Sinclair as the Woodbird. From the confrontations of the first act to the forest music and the final meeting with Brünnhilde, Siegfried asks its performers to encompass comedy, menace, reflection and emotional discovery. Hotter’s Wanderer and Varnay’s Brünnhilde provide contrasting perspectives on the old order that the hero overturns. Contemporary opinion about Konwitschny’s conducting was divided, making the surviving broadcast valuable as musical evidence in its own right. It preserves the audible drama of a Covent Garden occasion whose traditional staging also drew criticism, allowing today’s listeners to assess the performance independently of its visual presentation.
This week we mark the 70th anniversary of Walter Gieseking’s death on 26 October 1956. His recorded legacy offers rewarding contrasts between solo and concerto playing, and between studio sessions and live performance. His 1953 and 1954 recordings of Debussy’s Preludes, Books 1 and 2, provide a particularly rich introduction to his command of piano colour, while his Beethoven recordings document another important aspect of his repertoire, including an experimental stereo account of the Emperor Concerto from 1944. 20% off all recordings in our Walter Gieseking collection, automatically applied at checkout, from 30 October 2026 to 5 November 2026 inclusive.