The one significant gap in Mark Elder's operatic CV to date is a Ring cycle. Plans to mount one at English National Opera when Elder was music director during the "Power House" years produced only a production of Die Walküre. But as music director of the Hallé, Elder now seems determined to conduct the complete tetralogy, at least in concert. He began a year ago with a performance of Götterdämmerung that was spread across two evenings at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, and from which this recording is taken. The concerts were rapturously received, though including eight minutes of applause as a final track here is a rather embarrassing indulgence, and what evidently worked so well in concert does not always transfer convincingly to disc.

Elder and his orchestra certainly do not disappoint; the playing has wonderful refinement and presence, and Elder paces the great musical span and the set pieces with the surest of hands. There are some fine individual performances, too—Peter Coleman-Wright's Günther, Andrew Shore's Alberich, Susan Bickley's Waltraute—but unfortunately the central core of the drama does not depend on them, and the three main protagonists are much more problematic. Attila Jun's Hagen creates some strikingly beautiful sounds, but the basic colour of his voice simply isn't dark enough, nor are his words sufficiently weighted to make the dramatic impact that's required; Lars Cleveman's Siegfried is workmanlike, but never really heroic, while Katarina Dalayman's Brünnhilde may be impressive enough in the lower registers but becomes increasingly unpredictable the higher she goes.