For Marek Janowski, coming up now to complete his second recorded Ring cycle, vocal colour – rather than strength or even sheer needlepoint accuracy – has dominated his casting decisions. Petra Lang is always an interesting, risk-taking interpreter but not all of this Walküre finds her in peak voice. A lot of Act 2 is rather groggy, as if she can’t quite work out yet which register to be in – the war cry seems too high for her, the Todesverkündigung too low. Yet throughout Act 3, especially the final duet with Wotan, she sounds marvellous, taking time to inflect and colour her teasing/pleading row with her father. That father is again Tomasz Konieczny, who also takes much of this live concert to find his best form. What I’ll call his ‘Alberich voice’ can lend too much villainous blackness to his Act 2 arguments with Fricka (a wavery Iris Vermillion) and even the angrier sections of the Monologue. But by Act 3 he’s vocally sorted – the higher passages sound easier and there’s warmth and sadness in the Farewell. All that lacks now (inevitably, because it’s early days yet for him in the role) are the uncanny moments of genius colouring with which Hans Hotter or John Tomlinson can invest moments like the second ‘Das Ende’.

Janowski conducts generally with fire and fury but without bombastic weight. Is he a little afraid of Wagnerian grandeur, that ‘siegreich’ feel that can come over the music when Wotan and the Wälsungs appear to be on top? Clemens Krauss can be swift and get real weight and danger too; Goodall certainly those last two. Not normally an indulger, Janowski seems never to want to let Melanie Diener’s Sieglinde go – she copes well, as does Robert Dean Smith, who’s often left waiting to start.

An uneven Walküre then, if beautifully recorded and played. Siegfried is more consistent, although Christian Elsner’s Mime has elements of a lyric tenor slumming it. Some of his colouring of the character’s rage and frustration (and gloating) feels applied. Gould, however – and it’s tempting to add ‘at last’ – is captured in a performance that does his experience and capabilities justice: he never forces loud, weighty passages and seems to have done much (re)thinking of his texts for colour and even fun. Konieczny is in good voice and most effective in his confrontations with Erda (Larsson, now the world owner of the part and deservedly so) and Siegfried.

Urmana is almost a debutante in this part of the role – it is (and sounds) high for her. Just occasionally one misses the colour of a ‘real’ soprano (Evans or Leider) but line, intensity and intelligence see her through. While Janowski’s pacing of the forging scene is swift and exciting, he might have allowed the first scene of Act 3 more room. That fear of grandeur again?

No matter. Siegfried is a strong follow-up to this cycle’s Rheingold, and Walküre no less well conducted. On to the fall of the gods – extensive cross-cycle comparisons then.