The fact that 19 of the 26 tracks on this release are here made public for the first time will likely make this an essential purchase for anyone interested in the all-too-brief career of Kathleen Ferrier. All of the recordings were originally BBC broadcasts, as Paul Campion explains in his enthusiastic booklet note; just over half have been retrieved from the BBC’s own archives and the rest, via the National Sound Archive at the British Library, from the private collection of Kenneth Leech, recorded off the airwaves.

Transfer engineer Ted Kendall has done what he can with the material but inevitably the sound quality is variable, with a fair amount of surface noise and thinning in the sound of Ferrier’s remarkable contralto. Words struggle occasionally to get through, while the pianists (all but a handful of the tracks are accompanied by Frederick Stone, even though he’s listed last on the cover) are often very much relegated to the background.

There are some wonderful performances, with the Rubbra, Jacobson and Parry settings that conclude the disc coming across especially vividly. Ferrier brings impressive vocal and interpretative authority and earnestness to the first two of Rubbra’s Three Psalms – performances perhaps more powerful, even, than those on her later recording issued by Decca – though the jubilation of the third still strikes me awkward. Parry’s ‘Love is a bable’, with Gerald Moore offering sparkling accompaniment, is a delight.

The rest of the disc comprises more rarities (such as Stanford’s Schubertian ‘La belle dame sans merci’) as well as more familiar repertoire, some of which Ferrier nevertheless didn’t record elsewhere (Schubert’s ‘Suleika II’, with Walter, for example). The honesty and integrity of Ferrier’s artistry and the quiet intensity of her interpretations shine through in every track, while the quality of the voice – proper contralto richness, youthful and never hardening into matronly hauteur – can still be heard despite the technical deficiencies in the recordings.

Space precludes more detailed description of the riches here (including a tantalising, moving snippet of ‘Urlicht’, possibly recorded by Stone simply to fill a bit of left-over space on one of his metal discs, or a compelling Winterreise ‘Wasserflut’). Suffice to say, though, this is an extremely important release.