My fantasy Wagner festival would take place in Bayreuth but, wonderful as the orchestra playing there so often is, it would have to be the Dresden Staatskapelle in the pit. Their dark-toned strings and brass, and distinctive, plangent woodwind sound are ideal for these Ring scenes for Siegmund and Siegfried.

Ben Heppner is not scheduled to make his debut as Wagner’s dwarf-beating, anvil-busting hero until 2008 (Aix, under Sir Simon Rattle) so the present disc will have to suffice as a rain check. It does so because the Canadian tenor (whom we never seem to see in the UK) is in prime vocal form and, as in his Fidelio (RCA, 11/96 – nla) and Tristan (DG DVD, 10/04), is in constant search of original, unhackneyed line readings.

With spot-on sound, the orchestra as described, a wholly serviceable Mime, and Peter Schneider lending experienced, stylish accompaniments, this recital would be a winner were it not for strange musical decisions. Most of the excerpts bleed horribly (all three Walküre tracks, not to mention stopping ‘Selige Ode’ at the point where Brünnhilde is about to sing) – and shouldn’t we have had the whole of the Götterdämmerung ‘Mime hiess’ narration instead of ‘Rhine Journey’ and ‘Funeral March’?