With one great recording among the contents and nothing that is not worth hearing, the disc earns its place on the shelves by its intrinsic merit, but it also provides an opportunity for justice. When Marjorie Lawrence reappeared in this country at the end of the war, she was heard on some broadcasts which I must say I didn't greatly enjoy: the tone sounded thin, a little shrill, and not entirely steady. A few recordings of that period seemed to confirm the unfavourable view, and it was not till much too late in the day that a kind correspondent drew my attention to the pre-war issues, some of the best of them being included in the present collection; they did much to make me understand why the singer was so highly esteemed in those years, and why it was much more than a personal calamity when in 1941 she was struck by poliomyelitis during a tour of Mexico. This needs saying now because there may be others with a similar experience (even a suspicion, perhaps, that the interest and notice aroused had most to do with causes other than musical), and who still may not have heard these recordings of 1933 and 1934 made in France and never, as far as I know, listed in the catalogues over here.
The shining clarity of her young voice impresses from the start in the eminently singable excerpts from Reyer's Sigurd, though the soprano timbre seems unequivocal and makes one wonder how she sang mezzo roles at that time, such as Brangane and Ortrud. The compiler of the recital must have read our thoughts, because as if in answer there follow the two Lohengrin duets which bring out a warmer mezzo tone that nevertheless tends to disappear in the stresses of Ortrud's ''Entweihte Gotter''. In the first, it is the Telramund, Martial Singher, who characterizes the more strongly; in the second, both women are convincing, though Brothier (a Lakme, Micaela and Melisande) is vocally a light-weight Elsa. Brunnhilde's Battle Cry brought to mind some of the qualities I had not liked in the broadcasts, and the Immolation needs either more dramatic thrill in the voice (as with Leider) or a fuller body of tone (as with Flagstad): but then, considering she was no more than 24 years old and had made her debut only two years previously, the achievement is remarkable. Much more so, to my mind, is the Salome, wonderfully vivid in its tormented luxury: a magnificent performance, and surely very close to Strauss's ideal despite the French translation. The recording represents something of a triumph for producer and engineers too, and the transfer is excellent.'