It is a curious story. It’s 1956. A major record company, which already has three ‘live’ Bayreuth Götterdämmerungs in its archives, decides not to release any of them – but puts on the market instead a modest-quality radio recording of an incomplete performance with two ageing superstars, supported by ardent but inexperienced colleagues. For Kirsten Flagstad the release of this Norwegian Radio performance was a coup of immense proportions in her campaign for a national opera company and the musical recognition of her country. For Decca’s rising young producer John Culshaw it was, privately, an embarrassment – read his account in Ring Resounding, a gripping piece of recording literature now in need of footnotes – but he achieved a contract with the world’s greatest living Wagnerian and the first-ever release on record of her in a complete Wagner role.

And the consequence was…the recording disappeared almost immediately (as Culshaw planned it would), only the Flagstad parts reappearing in the early 1970s. (Decca’s three ‘lost’ Götterdämmerungs appeared on Testament, to universal acclaim, from the late 1990s on.) There have been ‘private’ CD issues of the 1956 Norwegian Radio tape before but this is the first properly prepared restoration, by Mark Obert-Thorn. At Naxos prices many historically inclined Wagnerites will want to hear it but the truth is that Culshaw (despite wanting the world to wait for his Solti version) was right and it’s not very good.

The cast only had three days from scratch plus a crowded mending session. Flagstad herself, Svanholm and the young Ingrid Bjoner’s Gutrune and Norn are quite on the pace although all can now be heard in easier surroundings. The combination of two Oslo orchestras are clearly learning on the job, and Fjeldstad is a sensitive guide, but the dodgy tuning at the beginning is a harbinger of some uneasiness to come. The other soloists, including Flagstad’s sister Karen Marie, go for it with a will but understandably often sound pressured and unsure as yet of how best to present the music in front of them.

With all the will in the world, this is the ultimate ‘A for effort’ performance. It remained, for nearly a decade, the only way of hearing much of Götterdämmerung on the gramophone and remains, for that reason, an important historical curio. You will not hear it better than in this new transfer.