Reputedly taken over at short notice from Carlos Kleiber (a story still unproven), Marek Janowski’s first Das Rheingold (1980) was clean, fast and light – a radical alternative to the Goodall and pirated Knappertsbusch recordings then ruling the roost. With Siegmund Nimsgern (Alberich) and Peter Schreier (Loge) alongside Theo Adam’s familiar Wotan, it was also ritzily and imaginatively cast.

Canary-obsessives may not read so many names of that ilk to detain them here but those with open ears to the characterisation of this opera should be as pleased as they were with Janowski’s casting of the predecessors in Pentatone’s ‘mature’ Wagner cycle. Konieczny is a gone-up Alberich, not always a dream recipe for a Wotan but here exercising the authority and duplicity (if not quite the vocal splendour) of a young George London. In keeping with Janowski’s habitual avoidance of caricature, Schmeckenbecher is a flexible Alberich, dark enough to rob the world of love but no pantomime dwarf. Elsner, Janowski’s earlier Parsifal, is, again, no Gerhard Stolze of a mannered Loge but a straighter-sounding, aurally cunning, dangerous adversary. Vermillion and Merbeth – a Janowski favourite – bring a lot of fresh, unmannered colour to their roles.

But the real secret ingredient here is the conductor himself who, having rather laid back on dramatic, ‘operatic’ involvement in the series’s previous releases, lets himself and his Berliners go in the violence of Nibelheim and the gold ransom. What was a little too calm and remote in the earlier Dresden recording now has real cojones, which carries over properly into the ensuing Wotan/Alberich clash.

The recorded sound is beautiful and natural in the orchestra and in balance with the singers. Beckmesser must point out that there are one or two moments in the opening Rhine scene when the girls (but not the orchestra) sound a little surprised at Janowski’s swift tempi but, if you’ll pardon the phrase, it all comes out in the wash. This is both a great start to Janowski’s new Ring cycle and a competitive Rheingold in its own right alongside the mandatory Clemens Krauss (Pristine please, not Orfeo), Karl Böhm, Solti, Furtwängler and Barenboim.