Several of the recordings on this disc date from 1960, when Otto Klemperer celebrated his 75th birthday and Wieland Wagner, the composer's grandson, salutated the conductor as "a unique artistic phenomenon". Klempere's mastery of Wagner's music was rooted in the early years of his career: by the age of 30 he had conducted performances of Lohengrin, Der fliegende Hollander, Tannhauser, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, Parsifal and Tristan und Isolde.