Richard Pennycuick recommends a set of Wagner excerpts:

>If they're still available, I can recommend Otto Klemperer's two
>volumes of "bleeding chunks" on EMI mid-price:
>
>CDM 7 63617 2:  Rienzi Overture; The Flying Dutchman Overture; Tannhauser
>Overture; Lohengrin - Preludes to Acts 1 and 3; Tristan and Isolde -
>Prelude and Liebestod.
>
>CDM 7 63618 2:  The Mastersingers of Nuremberg - Overture, Dance of
>theApprentices and Entry of the Masters; Das Rheingold - Entry of the Gods
>into Valhalla; Die Walkure - The Ride of the Valkyries; Siegfried - Forest
>Murmurs; Goetterdaemmerung - Siegfried's Rhine Journey, Siegfried's Funeral
>March; Parsifal - Prelude.

I would second the choice.  Just make sure you are buying the recent
digital 24bit transfers of these recordings as they really do justice to
the excellence of the original sound engineering with the production lead
by Walter Legge.  The sound is sometimes staggeringly good.  If you had to
choose, the second of the above volumes is the one to go for.  It is
essential listening.

The sound quality on all the other recordings recommended are nowhere near
as good as the 24 bit transfers from the revamped EMI studios.  Not even
the Thieleman release is quite so good.

Satoshi Akima
Sydney, Australia
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