This landmark recording of Tristan und Isolde is now regarded as Furtwängler’s finest operatic achievement in the recording studio, the benefits of magnetic tape greatly assisting the conductor’s famed ability to think and work in long paragraphs. There are also revelatory performances from the young Fischer-Dieskau (still only in his late twenties), Suthaus and from Flagstad, the foremost Wagnerian soprano of the day. ‘Absolute perfection in human beings cannot be demanded. But Furtwängler, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and Flagstad come as near to that as we have any right to expect’ (Gramophone, 1965).