“Singers to remember” is the title of the series in which this recital must surely have a specially honoured place. Meta Seinemeyer herself was special. Lovely in person as in voice, she had a quality of timbre and style which, as Fritz Busch (who worked with her often) testified, spoke directly as from soul to soul. People who heard her remembered her all their days. Her own days, sadly, were all too few. She died at the age of 34 in 1929, the year of her acclaimed debut at Covent Garden.

For five years she sang to an adoring public in Dresden at the time of the famous “Verdi revival”. Her voice, we gather, was not large though she sang roles such as Aida in Verdi and Sieglinde in Wagner. Concentrated tone, an intensely personal vibrancy, finely expressive shading: these were its leading characteristics. If we look for a (relatively) modern counterpart, I would hazard Julia Varady, or a generation earlier Gré Brouwenstijn. And even then something would remain that is Seinemeyer, individual and irreplaceable.

The collection opens with one of the rarest and most sought-after of her recordings, the aria of Elisabeth from the last scene of Don Carlo. First, she remembers it is a prayer, not a prima donna’s command; then she takes the melody tenderly, with a restrained passion gaining all the time in tragic urgency. That and Butterfly’s “Un bel dì” are among the treasures of this period on records. In the duets with the gifted but wayward Tino Pattiera she is a lovely Desdemona and Mimì; and both singers, it must be said, give a thrilling account of the Andrea Chénier duets. The solo from The Tsar’s Bride is another beauty, and among the songs outstanding are Liszt’s Liebestraum and Rubinstein’s Die Nacht, originally coupled in her best-selling disc. Outstanding, too, are Dr Robert Jones’s transfers: perhaps he will be encouraged to plan a second volume.