Wagner's Ring: An orchestral adventure

Get through Wagner's immense four-movement Der Ring des Nibelungen in an hour? It can be done and the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra does it. Without singers or complex storylines. What remains is that fantastic music. A must for all Wagner fans and ideal for a first introduction to the most daring piece of classical music.

The impossible

In 1991 Henk de Vlieger performed the impossible. He reduced the four full-length operas of Der Ring des Nibelungen to a stinging orchestral version. Those familiar with the work and its mythology will hear the stories reflected in the bold adaptation. Don't worry if you don't. The former percussionist of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Vlieger wrote a compelling orchestral work that sounds like a symphonic poem.

Andreas Ottensamer

Weber's First Clarinet Concerto fits in wonderfully with Wagner. About Andreas Ottensamer's CD recording of the concerto, Gramophone wrote that the clarinetist "pours liquid gold into the bel canto phrases. Ottensamer is solo clarinetist of the Berliner Philharmoniker. He received his first lessons from his father Ernst, who was first clarinetist of the Vienna Philharmonic.