The grieving king, the patriarchal priest, the smirking demon: these are all expected presences in Christoff’s gallery of vivid characters, and one might well extend the list mentally by a dozen or so more before thinking of Leporello. Christoff sang very little Mozart (La Betulia liberata – Turin, 1954 – being one of the more surprising entries in his discography) but the Catalogue aria in Don Giovanni featured in his concert programmes. Indeed, I heard him sing it in London, though surely not as he does in this recording from 1952, for that would have been unforgettable. It is a marvellous performance, and alone provides a very good reason for buying this disc. Almost as unlooked for may be the Count’s aria in La sonnambula, sung with affection and a nearly perfect legato. Warmth of tone perhaps is wanting, in both that and the “Infelice” (Ernani), but there is certainly no lack of emotional warmth in the fine I vespri siciliani and Simon Boccanegra solos. Philip’s great aria in Don Carlo ends with a too overt and prolonged tearfulness (avoided in later versions) but this recording is still among the supremely impressive mementos of its era.
It comes from one of Christoff’s first sessions in the studios, and is strikingly natural and lifelike, as are all the 78s heard here. In the 1955 recordings one is more aware of the microphone: for example, in his most authoritative vein, Christoff is splendidly represented by the Gluck aria (Iphigenie en Aulide) made in 1951, whereas the same magnificence is present in the excerpts from Nabucco (1955) but just slightly diminished by seeming to be made larger than life. When all is over, however, the first item demands a replay: that Catalogue song of Leporello’s. John Hughes’s admirable notes concede that the performance “may lack the necessary touch of humour” – but it surely does not! Gaiety, rhythm, even a chuckle, a swelling grandeur in the portrayal of the “maiestosa”, a daintiness in “la piccina”: it is all there, and with it a certain suavity of style, and, rarer still, the elegant phrases of “Nella bionda” sung with scrupulous legato. This disc goes into the ‘Essential Christoff Collection’ forthwith.'