Previously available on VHS, Klaus Tennstedt's all-Wagner orchestral performances, recorded/filmed live in Japan in 1988 make a welcome return to the catalogue on DVD. The Wagner items filmed here constituted a regular Tennstedt programme. It gives a fine conspectus of the composer's developing orchestral skills, including three overtures: the enjoyable bombast of Rienzi (1842); Tannhauser (1845, its long introduction given here in two parts in its original Dresden form) and Die Meistersinger. Apart from the Götterdammerung Immolation scene with Jessye Norman and the first act of the Valkyrie in concert, the excerpts on this DVD are the only Ring pieces which Tennstedt ever conducted. Where other editions paraphrase the Siegfried/ Brunhilde duet and end the Journey itself with the upbeat fanfares, Tennstedt makes a dramatic jump from daybreak to Siegfried's departure for the Rhine, ending with the dark chords of the curse on the Ring.