The third instalment of Keilberth’s Ring, recorded by Decca in 1955 but never released, is as thrilling a revelation as its two predecessors (Siegfried and Die Walküre — Götterdämmerung is promised before Christmas). The glories of the 1955 cast are the peerless Wotan of Hans Hotter, the great post-war interpreter of the part, and Gustav Neidlinger’s frighteningly malevolent Alberich, often recorded, but never sounding as baleful and vindictive in his Curse as here. Rudolf Lustig’s well-sung but undercharacterised Loge is a relative disappointment in an illustrious company, but the majestic playing of the orchestra and the vivid, immediate sound — marred only by the hiss of an electronic instrument producing the anvil sounds in Nibelheim — are astounding. Three stars