Solti’s Prom concert of the final act of the Ring was actually the first time he had conducted that part of the work in public and includes five of the cast from the 1964 Vienna Decca recording. Characteristics of his mature Wagner style are already in place: a return to swifter tempi than those of older maestros such as Knappertsbusch and a weightier texture than Londoners had recently become used to under Rudolf Kempe.

Two of Solti’s particular interests are also previewed here. The cut and thrust of the dialogue in the confrontation between Siegfried and the Rhinedaughters makes this a dangerous and dramatic scene for the hero, less of the pastoral interlude it can become. The conductor’s handling of it surely inspired the stereo production used at this point in the subsequent Decca studio recording (but may also have started complaints that Solti’s Wagner seemed to be in a perpetual state of coming to a climax). Secondly, Solti is clearly looking to bring out the solo virtuosity of members of the orchestra in Wagner’s adventurous part-writing, exploiting the abilities of his new London wind and brass players.

It’s valuable to have preserved the contributions of the younger Thomas Stewart, and of Covent Garden house company members Marie Collier and Barbara Holt. Remember that, of the main soloists, Windgassen and Nilsson were now into their second decade of leading world casts in these roles. If Windgassen is not as fresh of voice as in his 1955 Bayreuth performances for Testament’s Keilberth cycle (3/06, 9/06, 1/07, 2/07), his delivery of the narration before his death shows increasing imagination and fluency. Nilsson is in fiery form. Good sound for its age and warmly recommended as a glimpse into one distinct school of Wagner performance half a century ago.

As for Pierre Monteux…although the master of Russian and French ballet was a rare and reluctant opera conductor, his love for German music reveals – in this late Dutch Wagner concert also released by Testament – a stream of prepared and calculated insights to refresh curious Wagnerites. The Siegfried Idyll has just a hint of portamento in the string-playing to keep the approach chamber-light and rhapsodic despite the ‘full’ orchestral version being used. The sheer detail Monteux manages to get from each section makes this most suitably a case of ‘to my Ring friends pictured within’. The Tristan Prelude and Liebestod – apparently an obsessive Monteux concert favourite – is like listening to the piece in Berlioz’s imagination, the colour and clash of the instruments and the building crescendo taking priority over the Beethovenian form stressed by more regular conductors of the piece. And, while the Tannhäuser Overture’s Bacchanale and actual Rhine Journey are less impetuous than one might have expected, the Immolation scene (Nilsson a very god-like guest) is so precisely phrased and coloured. The sound does credit to Monteux’s work with the orchestra whose assistant chief he once was. Together with much else of his retrospectively released concert Wagner, this new set deserves serious attention.