40 Years of Stereophile: The 40 Essential Albums CLASSICAL CLASSICAL WAGNER: Der Ring des Nibelungen Sir Georg Solti, Vienna Philharmonic, et al Decca/London (1958, 1962, 1964, 1965) The fact that Wagner's Ring is undeniably the finest music-drama ever written did not encourage record labels to record it with the invention of the LP—it was simply too vast and expensive an undertaking.