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.

This release on the apogee of classical record labels serves as a significant milestone and follow-up to the orchestra’s complete Ring cycle recording with its previous music director, Jaap van Zweden.

De Vlieger’s Adventure begins with “Vorspiel”, a prelude to “Das Rheingold”, effectively an undulating E-flat major chord of five minutes. Das Rheingold is the first of the four operas, and this mesmerising opening depicts the beginning of the world.