A ‘Lohengrin’ to rival Kempe’s: Roger Allen awards the new Bychkov recording a place in the pantheon

‘Lohengrin is the crowning masterpiece of what Mr. Newman has called Wagner’s “second period”, in which he imbued grand opera with expressive intensity inspired by Beethoven and employed the apparatus of Meyerbeer and Spontini, which they used for purposes of theatrical effect and vocal display, as a medium for the projection in symbolic form of intimate personal experiences.’ (Robert L. Jacobs, The Listener, 17 July 1958) This critique of what is generally regarded as Wagner’s last ‘romantic’ opera succinctly identifies the synthesis of grand opera with lyrical expression that makes the work so elusive in performance and goes some way towards explaining why there is a distinct paucity of satisfying recordings.