Mitch Friedfeld wrote:

>Can listmembers please provide recommendations for a complete Ring
>cycle.  Requirements: Sound must be good.  Analog is okay; mono is
>acceptable but must be at the level of say, the remastered Callas Tosca.
>The Furtwaengler La Scala Ring falls below this standard and is therefore
>not under consideration.  Please specify whether a libretto is included.

Consider Karl Bohm on Philips.  Top notch cast (Nielsen, Windgassen,
Neidlinger, Adam, etc,), the Bayreuth Orchestra playing "live", a "live"
performance which is exciting, crackling with tension, but lyrical too.
Cheap as chips to buy.  No libretto, though.  However, I have a number
of Rings without libretti so an investment in the excellent "Wagner's
Ring: A Companion" edited by Steward Spencer and Barry Millington which
contains Spencer's excellent, line by line translation is a good idea
and covers you for any future purchase.

Tony Duggan,
Mahler recordings survey at:
http://www.musicweb.uk.net/Mahler/