When Orfeo’s Bayreuth series was first launched a decade ago, orchestral representatives at the Festival were especially keen to see published some examples of their work under the baton of Rudolf Kempe. They had been beaten to it unofficially by the ubiquitous Golden Melodram and other ‘private’ labels for the conductor’s 1960-63 Ring – and, indeed, for the present Lohengrin – but here at last we have a sanctioned Kempe release from the Green Hill.

And it’s a curate’s egg. Just as casting problems bedevilled his Ring, so they did Kempe’s Lohengrin which, intended to feature Sándor Kónya in the title-role, ended up with no fewer than four swan knights and a second conductor taking over. The cast assembled on July 30, 1967, cannot (Ridderbusch’s King excepted) exactly be called a natural one for this opera. However, the imaginative choice of Heather Harper pays off in spades in the Act 3 duet. She and the conductor, with James King’s sincere cooperation, make a most subtle kind of chamber music together with a significantly wider range of tempi and dynamics than Kempe used in his Vienna recording of three years previously. Throughout the evening Kempe predictably makes the fullest use of the Bayreuth acoustic and sunken pit. What can often sound a very loud ‘grand’ opera indeed here achieves the subtlety and forward-lookingness of the preparation for Das Rheingold that this opera undoubtedly is. Try the intricately structured, implosive ensemble following Telramund’s surprise denunciation of Lohengrin en route to the Minster.

So it’s Kempe that leads the ship home. It’s a good show overall but no canary-fancier’s evening. For King the role lies a little too high. McIntyre, on the way to his fine Wotan for Boulez/Chéreau, tends to throw back his head and just sing. Hoffman is totally there but a bit vocally anonymous. The chorus, enjoying their conductor’s range, are superb. The sound is no better than it might be, given its late-1960s radio origin. A must for Kempe collectors and fans of Harper’s musicality; less important as a Bayreuth or Lohengrin landmark.