In February 2013 the St Petersburg-based Mariinsky Orchestra is set to release the first instalment of a complete recording of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Valery Gergiev, artistic director at the Mariinsky Theatre recorded Die Walküre, the second opera in the cycle but the first to be released by the Mariinsky, during recordings sessions and performances in 2011 and 2012.
The cast includes tenor Jonas Kaufmann, sopranos Nina Stemme and Anja Kampe, and basses Mikhail Petrenko and René Pape.
This recording will follow the Mariinsky label’s release of Shostakovish’s Symphony No. 7 ‘Leningrad’ (in December 2012) and it ties in with the opening of the new Mariinsky Theatre building. The futuristic Mariinsky II, designed by Dominique Perrault, will open in May 2013.
The first opera of the cycle, Das Rheingold, will be released in September 2013 with the final two instalments, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, to be released in 2014.
The Mariinsky label was launched in 2009 and its notable releases have included Shostakovich’s The Nose and Wagner’s Parsifal.