Collaborating with the same cast he used when he made his landmark studio recording a year earlier, Karajan is captured in exemplary form in this live performance from Salzburg in 1968. While the Ride of the Valkyries is unexpectedly turbulent, and Act I occasionally feels a bit slow, the evocative performances that Karajan draws from his principals and the Berliner Philharmoniker more than make up for any minor flaws along the way.

In a live setting, Jon Vickers’ Seigmund is as close to perfection as the role gets. At the opera’s start, he portrays a near-feral and thoroughly beaten-down character, but as the love between him and Sieglinde (played by Gundula Janowitz, whose voice is lovely but a touch placid) blooms, Vickers’s portrayal grows in intensity, delivering a performance of extraordinary emotional range.

Régine Crespin’s Brünnhilde electrifies the atmosphere in this performance, and while the crowning glory of the production might have been the Todesverkündigung, it is Thomas Stewart’s gut-wrenching performance of Wotan’s monologue that ultimately steals the show.