Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen;

Not just one of the most sprawling epics in classical music, but one of the largest-scale works of art ever conceived, Wagner's epic masterpiece was written to be performed in at least 14 hours over four nights (famously, a theater was built in Bayreuth just for Der Ring Des Nibelungen). Not only are a world-class orchestra and chorus necessary to mount it, but so is a conductor well versed in theater as well as music; those elements are all in place here, as Bernard Haitink leads the Symphonie Orchester des Bayerischen Rudfunks and a remarkable cast. The complete, rapturously beautiful cycle (Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdamerung) on 14 CDs!