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I am definitely looking forward to this release as I have never heard either work yet and Plowright has posted some interesting comments on the works via his website.

If I am not mistaken the two piano concertos are also in the can and awaiting release with the same pianist.

It does indeed. I remember seeing the opera at ENO in the early nineties and finding the closing scenes absolutely fantastic!

I think Parsifal is a tough nut to crack - not one I'd choose to introduce someone to Wagner. I fear it may put her off for life. I hope not, but certainly she should leave if she gets bored. Tannhauser is probably the best introduction to Wagner.

I am not sure what is says about me but my first encounter with Wagner was when I watched Parsifal on the TV one Easter. I seem to recollect that I was immovable for the full length and I still find Parsifal my personal favourite amongst his operas by a long distance. I still struggle immensely with Siegfried.

Well, I think this is the point really. The mainstream repertoire sells, even with so many different performances (and, who knows? - this one may shed new light on these perennial favourites). I'll bet Hyperion sell more copies of this disk than they do of most CDs in the "Romantic Concerto" series. If that gives them the money to record more unsung repertoire we should be jolly grateful, and stop carping!

It is also important to realise that sometimes the artist does sell the record. I have no idea of the sales figures but I would assume that Ibragimova has a fairly loyal and growing audience - personally I thought her set of Bach Partitas was wonderful. She has already recorded the Roslavets concertos and I suspect she will continue to record a mixture of the sung and the unsung.

I hope they are going to improve the search facility from the current system. A more advanced search with various fields existed on the old website and I found it very effective.

The above noted the new website does seem a little more friendly and I have always found the service excellent. For someone living out of the EU the post and shipping times are very good.

To some extents I would agree but I cannot help feeling that as with the piano series this sort of recording is an attempt to have a 'banker' in the series. If it sells in reasonable numbers, maybe that means we can have something more interesting later...

All that said I doubt this will be on my shopping list. The recent Ondine release is, I suspect, good enough for a work I struggle to love.