St. Louis Symphony Orchestra; Jerzy Semkow - Richard Wagner: Preludes and Overtures from Lohengrin; Parsifal; Die Walkure; Rienzi; Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg

This sequence of Wagner's preludes and overtures ranges across his compositional output, from Rienzi, his first distinctive opera, through the stirring Prelude to Act I of Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg and the Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walkure, to his last work, Parsifal from which we hear the Good Friday Music. They are performed by the St. Louis Symphony under the Polish conductor Jerzy Semkow who was the orchestra's music director from 1975 to 1979. The Elite Recordings for Vox by legendary producers Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz are considered by audiophiles to be amongst the finest sounding examples of orchestral recordings.