This Bohm Ring... Allegedly recorded by DG, but with the same awful orchestral unbalancing (the timpani drowns all instruments at the chords just before Sieglinde’s line “Ha! Wer ging? Wer kam herein?!”, the Arpeggiated horn theme at Brunnhilde’s awakening seems to be far far away, etc, etc...) characteristic of Volker Straus (sic) Philips Concertgebouw recordings... apart from this, and obviously, the sound in itself is clean, sometimes rich. Bayreuth “Faithful(that is, recording faithful!), a good (if, after 60 years, this could matter...) alternative to the 2 other “Pantheon” Rings (Solti & Karajan).

The Siegfried 1st act is really a mess (The Timpani here again unduly pro-eminent at the very beginning ), the sound muffled; Bohm. a very Candid(Marketing Candid!) individual, not even tries to hide his contempt for this music.
Windgassen is palpably inadequate (his high A “Nothung” at the End wobbles as the Planet earth itself; Wohlfahrt cackling is even more irritating than Stolze’s (and he uses it to try to hide Windgassen faults, surely with Wieland Connivance).

But... the 3rd act! perhaps the best ever! Bohm wakes up, and produces a Prelude that is massive clean-cut snd inexorable; Adam is magnificent (please “Don’t you Hotter me’l)!
The Luftpause between the huge crescendo over Freia’s and the awakening Theme is a textbook of what a ‘Luftpause’ is, and the end really invokes the power to bring down the Universe (I refrain myself to review the other 3 recordings, since many have done this - my emphasis on reviewing the Siegfried was , however, a much needed stop gap!)

The difference between this HR remastering, and the 2013 Eloquence one is amazing, perhaps only because Eloquence puts so much emphasis on improving record to sound better than reality itself. while this 24/96 Remastering is ...’Natural’.. however, in the End, a HR does not make this recording to sound different than their previous Digital incarnations, even the 1984/85 one.

If you are a K Bohm fan, do buy this set! The CD remasterings are far better, mainly the Frau ohne Schatten; should Universal had put all of Bohm Decca Philips Recordings on a Single or on 2 BLU RAY discs, this set would have been mandatory.