I earnestly wish I could have been at Bayreuth on the evening of the 1954 Festival when the Eugen Jochum performance was broadcast, caught on the wing for posterity. It is the most vivid, exciting, best-executed reading of the work I have ever heard. Much of the credit goes to Jochum who conducts a quite blinding interpretation from first to last, and to the hand-picked chorus and orchestra that year, whose gleaming, dedicated, at most times electrifying singing and playing are exceptional. Sections of the score, especially in Act 2, that can hang fire are riveting, and the terrifying confrontations in the same act are stunning.

That owes not a little to Astrid Varnay’s fearsome Ortrud, vocally and dramatically superb, and to Hermann Uhde’s biting, forceful, intensely sung Telramund. Both appeared at the production’s first season in 1953, which was recorded by Teldec. Good as they are there, an inspiring conductor – and perhaps further experience of their roles – make them truly memorable.

Then Birgit Nilsson, in her first stage appearance at Bayreuth (she had appeared in the previous season in Beethoven’s Ninth), sings Elsa with such clarity and beauty that it is no wonder she created something of sensation, although she is not quite as tender as Eleanor Steber in 1953. Wolfgang Windgassen, the Lohengrin held over from 1953, is in his finest voice, which means he is a Lohengrin to cherish: upright, heroic, lyrical in tone – try the ‘Atmest du?’ solo in the Act 3 love duet to hear what I mean.

As if that wasn’t enough, Fischer-Dieskau, also making his Festival debut, is a Herald of extraordinary presence. The only slight reservation concerns Theo Adam suddenly promoted from Brabantian Noble to King Henry. Then still in his twenties, he had to stand in for an ailing Josef Greindl and understandably sounds a little nervous, not carrying Greindl’s strong authority. As a whole the performance, from first chord to last – in remarkably wide-ranging mono – is one to treasure.

Had it not been for this set, Jochum’s Bavarian Radio recording from December, 1952, once briefly available on Heliodor, would have done well enough to represent the conductor’s vital approach to Wagner and this score in particular. Again the choral singing and orchestral playing are inspired, his prompt, unflagging beat producing remarkable results.

Vocally, the outstanding performance is Lorenz Fehenberger’s Lohengrin. A singer who preferred to remain at his home house in Munich, he was little-known abroad. His refined, sensitive, spiritual singing is just what the role needs: this is a knight in shining armour as to the manner born. Anneliese Kupper is always a reliable and often beautiful-sounding Elsa but not always as steady as one would wish. The same can be said of Helena Braun’s imposing but blowzy Ortrud. Her real-life husband, Ferdinand Frantz, is an imperious Telramund but not quite so characterful as Uhde. Otto von Rohr is a sympathetic King.

That last role is taken definitively by Gottlob Frick on a third version, deriving from North German Radio and first issued on LP in 1953 (and later on CD, 12/95). Frick sings with that firm, dark bass of his and with much authority tempered by deep feeling. He, like practically all the singers in these versions, is steeped in the music’s idiom and projects the text with real meaning. That is just as true of Josef Metternich, a seriously nasty Telramund who matches Uhde in vital enunciation.

Margarete Klose remains a force of nature as a compellingly scheming Ortrud, but at this stage of her career, at the high extremities of the role, her tone can sound harsh. Rudolf Schock’s golden, attractive tenor, so similar to that of Franz Völker, leading Lohengrin of the 1930s, offers true rapture but is a shade extrovert set by Windgassen and Fehenberger. As Elsa, Maud Cunitz has all the right intentions but not always the wherewithal to execute them truly. Wilhelm Schüchter, the conductor, is almost as commanding and vital as Jochum and obtains fine contributions from his chorus and orchestra.

It may be a pity to pass over the two radio-derived sets in favour of their Bayreuth coeval, but Jochum and his forces in 1954 offer an overwhelming experience not to be missed by any Wagner-lover.