The second instalment of Naxos’s live Hong Kong concert Ring is more compelling than last year’s respectable but careful Das Rheingold (11/15). Most noticeably, Jaap van Zweden has broken free of both tradition and over-literal score-reading to interpret what is in front of him. Now he’s not afraid with either his singers or his players to vary tempi and dynamics quite radically according to the drama of the libretto.

Thus Heidi Melton’s generous-voiced Sieglinde is given all the space in the world to make the narration about the twins’ father Wotan the high point of Act 1 that it should be – a result only slightly hindered by Naxos’s microphones seeming less sympathetic to her enunciation than, say, Bavarian Radio’s were at Bayreuth last summer. Van Zweden follows up by allowing Stuart Skelton’s accurate and virile Siegmund equal space in ‘Heiligste Minne, höchste Not’ to prepare the drawing of the sword from the tree. He then wraps up the act – to hell with written instructions – with an all-out gallop to the final curtain.

Similarly, in Acts 2 and 3, the chosen tempi regularly contrast slow, grand (and self-doubting) Wotan with swift, instinctive and impetuous Brünnhilde. Matthias Goerne is in almost indecently good voice, helped no doubt by the recording conditions (selection of material from two concerts plus ‘patching’ sessions) to last out the role’s length with aplomb. Petra Lang may annoy as much as she pleases. The standard euphemism about ‘great character’ – and an uncanny similarity to Martha Mödl’s singing of the role in the 1950s – covers some sins not so much of pitch but of placing of the voice. Lang can sound both very old and very young but there’s never a doubt where we are in the role’s psychology.

Around these big four the supporting cast are not lacking. Michelle DeYoung argues Fricka’s case with power and sweep; Falk Struckmann, in a new part of the Wagner Fach for him, uses text rather than colour to frighten as Hunding. The Valkyrie group is well chosen – someone with an excellent ear has sampled recent European cast lists skilfully. These girls not only make for a tight ensemble but provide a real foil in their little individual moments for Wotan and Brünnhilde.

The recorded balance favours the voices at all times, pushing the consistently fine orchestra further back than it sounded in Das Rheingold. So this is not a theatre balance and I could occasionally have done with more sheer heft from the band, for example as Wotan (and the brass) starts to get very angry both before and after his Act 2 monologue. Overall though – and notwithstanding the amount of strong, familiar and older competition from the rest of the catalogue – this is an impressive and likeable achievement.