Following the recording of "Das Rheingold" - the eve of Richard Wagner's tetralogy "The Ring of the Nibelung" - released in November 2015, BR-KLASSIK is now releasing "Die Walküre" as a sequel, recorded on 8 and 10 February 2019 at concert performances in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. With "Rheingold" Sir Simon Rattle had already decisively refuted the long-circulating claim that he and Wagner do not go together. Now the next collaboration of the equally white and wise British curly-head (as he confidently presents himself on the cover) with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and a squad of first and best Wagner singers proves once again how well Rattle understands and is able to interpret Wagner's music. A few months after the live event, the musical drama, as powerful as it is immensely popular with the audience, is being released for the first time on four excellently equipped CDs. The fact that "Die Walküre" was able to become the most popular part of the tetralogy is thanks to the heartrending encounters of the Wälsungen couple Siegmund and Sieglinde, the all-too-human gods - and of course the musical hits such as Siegmund's "Winterstürme" monologue, the Ride of the Valkyries or "Wotan's Farewell and the Magic of Fire". The English bass-baritone James Rutherford gives Wotan, father of the gods. Elisabeth Kulman is back as his feisty wife Fricka. Eric Halvarson, who embodied the giant Fafner in Rattle's "Rheingold", this time plays the fiend Hunding. New to the top-class ensemble of soloists are Iréne Theorin as Wotan's favourite daughter Brünnhilde and Stuart Skelton and Eva-Maria Westbroek as the incestuous twins Siegmund and Sieglinde. Rattle's "Walküre" was enthusiastically received by both the Munich concert audience and the specialist press. In the new Munich Konzerthaus, Rattle's concertante "Ring" is to be followed by "Siegfried" and "Götterdämmerung".