Collection: Four Famous Sopranos of the Past

COMPOSERS: Beethoven,Gluck,Mozart
LABELS: Preiser
WORKS: Operatic arias
PERFORMER: Frida Leider, Barbara Kemp, Delia Reinhardt & Göta Ljungberg; with various orchestras & conductors
CATALOGUE NO: 89959 AAD mono

Preiser’s transfers are no less admirable on an alternative programme, FOUR FAMOUS SOPRANOS OF THE PAST, where Frida Leider employs her silvery ‘Heldensoprano’ in Gluck, Beethoven and Mozart (there’s not a finer Donna Anna on disc), and fellow sopranos Barbara Kemp, Delia Reinhardt and Göta Ljungberg share key German, Italian and French repertoire between them. Reinhardt’s records were, for me, something of a revelation; her matchlessly sensitive 1929 recording of ‘Wie nahte mir der Schlummer’ (Weber’s Der Freischütz) had me reaching for the replay button, though Ljungberg’s Salome also takes some beating.