The first release on disc of this 1961 broadcast is a potent reminder of the strengths (and quirks) of Georg Solti’s Wagner at the start of his artistic directorship of the post-war Covent Garden company. The reviews quoted in Tony Locantro’s comprehensive booklet-note were right to emphasise the stylistic change from the lyricism of Rudolf Kempe’s 1950s London Ring. It’s clear already that Solti did not need Decca’s Sofiensaal acoustic – in the Ring recording that he had just begun – to make ‘Wagnerian thunder’ with an encouraged brass section.

But do not fear the excess of overloud playing that has become the clichéd description of the conductor’s Wagner. The sensitive chamber-like approach to the start of the Act 2 monologue taken here by both conductor and Hans Hotter’s Wotan makes one wonder at the awed attention given subsequently to any quiet interpretation of this music. Solti also knows where to let the score breathe – in the Todesverkündigung or the final duet, for two key examples, but not in what he clearly saw as the stretto of an Act 1 finale after Siegmund draws the sword. (Jon Vickers, whose squabbles with the maestro are related in the notes, audibly seeks the space allowed him by Knappertsbusch, Leinsdorf and Karajan.)

The cast is unpredictable but strong. Finn Anita Välkki is a discovery, lyrical, well-focused, good with the text, even if the press were clearly hankering for the louder steel of Birgit Nilsson. Claire Watson, a Solti favourite from Europe, is an intelligent, mezzo-ish Sieglinde; Rita Gorr a real grande dame of a Fricka; Langdon an effective Hunding from the company roster. Vickers delivers his emotive view of Siegmund with appropriate passion and Hotter (also the stage director here) paces his voice well and remains supreme among Wotans of this era. The Valkyries are stars in the making. The sound is surprisingly rich in colour and atmosphere for its mono broadcast date; warmly recommended as an important adjunct to existing contemporary performances from Solti, Kempe (Covent Garden and Bayreuth) and Leinsdorf.