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HK Phil’s compressed Ring cycle recording with Tarmo Peltokoski is Wagner made accessible
The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s recording of Wagner: The Ring – An Orchestral Adventure is a symphonic narrative of just over an hour
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The length and heaviness of Wagner operas have long been the stuff of legend and the butt of jokes. Who can forget Gioachino Rossini’s supposed one-liner describing Richard Wagner as having “lovely moments but awful quarter hours”?
My favourite take on this topic was a recent cartoon in current affairs magazine Private Eye featuring a man at the launderette, staring forlornly at four washing machines in full swing, with the caption: “I knew I shouldn’t have selected Ring cycle!”
My interest was piqued when asked to review the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s debut Deutsche Grammophon recording of Henk de Vlieger’s Wagner: The Ring – An Orchestral Adventure, which shrinks the German composer’s series of four operas from 16 hours to a symphonic narrative of just over an hour.
Arranged in 1991 by the Dutch composer and percussionist, this is one of several attempts at a Wagnerian “starter kit”, and it was recorded during a live concert at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in June 2025. This also inaugurates a new chapter under HK Phil’s incoming music director, Tarmo Peltokoski, the 26-year-old Finnish conducting sensation who took up the baton at age 11 after seeing a video of Siegfried from the Ring cycle.
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