On Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 11:57:31 AM UTC-8, wagnerfan wrote:
> For me, the list is very small one. One needs either perfect casting
> and conducting - or a recording with some weaker elements but others
> so strong they define the work.
> In the first category I would put
>
> Tosca EMI 1953 - which has all the prinicpals in the best forms of
> their short primes under a superb conductor who recorded too little.
>
> Gotterdammerung Decca 1964 - wonderful casting from top to bottom at a
> time which was not known for great Wagner singing in stupendous sound
> under a conductor who may not be my favorite but is dramatic and
> exciting.
>
> Walkure Act One EMI 1935 - better than other Walkure Act One I have
> heard recoerded or live - Wagner singing at which one can only shake
> one's head in wonder today under a great Wagner conductor and the
> prewar Vienna Philharmonic.
>
> In the second category I would put
>
> Tristan und Isolde EMI 1952- the subsidiary casting could be better
> and the Tristan as well but the combination of Flagstad and
> Furtwangler brings us for pages here and there the essence of this
> work.
>
> Nozze - a weak Count but the whole ensemble represents a now gone
> Vienna tradition under one of the great Mozart conductors.
>
> Any other ideas???? Wagner Fan

Concerning TOSCA, the August 2022 issue of Gramophone ranks another recording of that opera even higher.