After a bumpy, uneven ride through Parsifal, Marek Janowski’s new live Wagner cycle continues somewhat more majestically with Lohengrin. I should warn straight away that his light-voiced lovers – already hailed by the German press as the ‘Bayreuth dream pair’ – may frustrate those used to, say, Jess Thomas and Elisabeth Grümmer (for Kempe, EMI), let alone Lauritz Melchior and Lotte Lehmann (Myto, from a 1935 Metropolitan Opera broadcast). Dasch, here denied the armour of that unique Bayreuth acoustic (see her, and Vogt, on the Opus Arte DVD of the 2011 Festival production), is the ne plus ultra in slim-sounding, girlish Elsas. But it sounds and works so beautifully, a complete contrast to Resmark’s (very mezzo-ish) Ortrud, a perfect Weber-like foil to Lohengrin in their interrupted Act 3 love duet and – because she projects the text so well – moving and vulnerable in the confrontations with Ortrud or the loss of her husband. Vogt’s voice is less compelling without the bonus of his visible stage presence but (in what is now his third recording of the role) his understanding of the part triumphs, there is much lovely quieter singing and he is able to bring special atmosphere to the Grail narration and the climactic negotiations (here heard complete) thereafter.

With Eberhard Friedrich getting a strong sound from his Berlin Radio Choir, doing justice to the intricate and radical writing of Wagner’s most extensively choral opera, Janowski is able to lead an exciting performance in his best style. That is to say swift, of its (1840s) time – wholly free of the Tristan-ising of Solti (Decca, 10/87) or Karajan (EMI, 1/83^R) – and with much care given to varying the balance and rhythm of the recitatives. Resmark is pushed at times by the tessitura (I feel an Alan Blyth-style lecture coming on about what are really soprano roles) but gives such a firecracker Ortrud that no one should care. If the other three male leads are less distinctive, they never fall short of a committed contribution to a performance that, in the Act 1 finale, the pacing of a complete Act 2 and the crescendo of Act 3, touches greatness.

There’s a terrifyingly long list of worthwhile Lohengrin recordings, to which this newcomer is a serious competitor. Elsewhere, don’t miss Kempe (EMI, 2/64^R), Barenboim (Warner, 1/99) or Bodanzky (Myto) and try to hear Fritz Busch (anywhere), Klemperer (old Hungaroton), Kaufmann singing the Grail narration in Bayreuth (Decca, 9/10) or Christa Ludwig and Walter Berry in the Ortrud/Telramund duet in South America.