These overtures and preludes were recorded live in the Eberbach Abbey basilica, whose resonant acoustic magnifies the unusually soft-grained character of Andrés Orozco-Estrada’s interpretations. His approach is most effective when Wagner is evoking a spiritual atmosphere, as in the Prelude to Act 1 of Lohengrin, where the sonorities seem to float and flow effortlessly – aided by sweet, coolly ethereal playing from the Frankfurt Radio Symphony – like vaporous clouds in a cinematographic view of the heavens. There’s a similar sense of otherworldly radiance in the Prelude to Act 1 of Parsifal, yet here the conductor elicits a more febrile tone from the strings, so one feels a throb of earthly pain. He manages to maintain a reasonably firm grip, too – no easy feat in such rhythmically and metrically elusive music – although his hold begins to slip in the final minutes.

It’s the other way around in the Tristan Prelude. There’s insufficient tension or mystery in the opening phrases with their profoundly pregnant pauses; and while he finds a natural forward movement once the basic tempo is established, it’s not until around the eight-minute mark that there’s adequate heat. I very much like the fragility he finds in the first part of the Liebestod, and the orchestra’s shimmering textures are lovely, but in general I find the performance too emotionally disengaged. Listen, for instance, to the long, gradually intensifying sequence starting at 4'32": it should feel ecstatic but instead one is made all too aware of metre and beat.

The Overture to Der fliegende Holländer is oddly small-scaled, with muted colours and flattened contrasts – like looking at an Old Master large-format painting in a small-scale, low-resolution photograph. Happily, the Tannhäuser Overture provides greater satisfaction. Orozco-Estrada’s swift tempo for the opening pilgrims’ chorus allows the music to sing with fervour, there’s uncommon delicacy in the Venusberg music – not all that erotic, perhaps, but beguiling nonetheless – and the intricate string figuration when the pilgrims’ chorus returns (at 11'29") is exquisitely played. A confoundingly mixed bag, all told.