The kernel of the recitals of Elisabeth Schumann (1888-1952), a much-loved Sophie and Mozart singer in her day, was very often a generous group of Schubert’s Lieder of which she was a delightful and often discerning interpreter, straying far from the few popular songs chosen by most of her contemporaries. Here we have, for the first time at a super-budget price, roughly three-quarters of her recorded legacy in the field, so that a new generation can make their judgement of a very individual soprano, beloved in her day.

In songs of a youthful, spring-like, artless nature, she was, and remains in some respects, supreme. There is an outgoing spontaneity, a pearly tone and absence of sophistication that appeal to the heart of the listener and that today’s singers find hard to emulate. Desmond Shawe-Taylor, who heard her often in her prime, wrote in a note to an HMV LP set of her Schubert recordings (10/62 – nla) about how much words meant to her, citing the varied verses of Auf dem Wasser zu singen, as a good example. He noted the ‘purity and ease’ evinced in Des Fischers Liebesglück and commented on her ‘crystalline tones’ being the ideal instrument for Nacht und Träume. All that, plus the legacy of a singer ‘who always seemed in life so merry and radiant,’ is to be encountered here.

In some of the more serious songs we have grown used to singers with larger, less fragile voices and perhaps to something more penetrating in the way of interpretation. Modern listeners may also blanch a little at her tendency to do what the Germans call ‘schwimmen’, that is sing a little indeterminately around phrases, sometimes scooping up to notes. These seem small faults in an artist who, even without her actual presence, can convey so much joy in singing.

I am sorry there was no room for her 1938 Nachtviolen not issued until after the war and an early and treasured purchase of mine. I am more perturbed by the slight edginess that the normally impeccable Ward Marston has allowed into his transfers, possibly a fault caused by digitisation. The aforementioned LP set, presumably using original matrices, yields a rounder, softer sound. It is a pity EMI has never seen fit to transfer that collection to CD. Even so, at its price, this issue is well worth investigating by younger collectors interested learning about a beloved artist.