On four incredibly busy, surely taxing, days in June 49 years ago, Astrid Varnay recorded an appreciable tranche of her repertory, largely in the company of her husband Hermann Weigert as conductor. For the first time all these recordings are assembled in a single issue, along with others made later in the 1950s.

In 1954 Varnay was 36, and reaching the peak of her career as a Hochdramatische soprano, one of two reigning Brünnhildes and Isoldes of her day (the other being Martha Mödl). Glad as I am to have these estimable souvenirs of Varnay’s portrayal of Brünnhilde, they are surpassed in intensity by the cycles from Bayreuth where her interpretation is caught at white heat in the cycles led by Krauss and Knappertsbusch, rather than the more pedestrian Weigert. While I admire the deep feeling in Varnay's readings in the studio, their counterparts caught live on the Green Hill are that much more inspiriting.

In the case of Tristan it is another matter. She and Weigert make the Narration and Curse of Act 1 the shattering experiences they should be, Varnay in her most glorious voice. Five years later she recorded the love duet (uncut) and ‘Liebestod’ under the vital baton of Leitner in better sound. Here Varnay’s art and that of one of her regular partners, Windgassen, are caught near their best: Varnay offers many intimate subtleties in the duet’s central section and easily encompasses the climaxes. For all that her live account of the whole part under Jochum at Bayreuth (available once on Melodram) in 1953 is even more vivid, particularly as she is partnered there by the Tristan of Ramón Vinay. Not to be overlooked is Töpper’s warm Brangäne. We also have on this issue a previously unissued, earlier (1957) ‘Liebestod’, also with Leitner as conductor. I prefer the more measured 1959 account, which captures both the idea of the pair’s transfiguration and discloses, to newcomers, all those astonishing overtones in Varnay’s warm, individual tone and manner.

Varnay’s Wesendonck-Lieder on CD3 are disappointingly unwieldy, as, I regret to say, are the examples of her Verdi repertory. Only ‘Pace, pace’, of which we have both the Italian and German versions, issued as alternatives at the time (both committed to disc at the 1954 sessions) really sounds comfortable in her voice, and Beethoven’s ‘Ah! Perfido’ hardly reveals the singer at her best.

It is a pity the Tristan CD cannot be had separately, but Varnay enthusiasts will be delighted to have everything here; and the price is right.