Most of the material in this 5-disc collection has previously appeared on CD. About half the contents showcase Kirsten Flagstad’s iconic Wagner interpretations in her post-war prime, when the voice had darkened and deepened. The remainder offers a wide representation of sacred music and art song recordings that date back as far as 1923. When it came to lieder, Flagstad never was much of a word painter, but why criticize Niagara Falls for not being Evian water? The main question for collectors concerns transfer quality, and it’s worth citing chapter and verse.
On Disc 1, the arias from Handel’s Serse and Messiah, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice stem from a 1993 Testament reissue. These are followed by Arne Dørumsgaard’s arrangements from the Canzone scordate song anthology, remastered for a 2003 Testament release. The latter also included seven Dørumsgaard songs, reproduced on Disc 3 along with songs by Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss, Bridge, and Wagner (several of which are newly transferred here).
Disc 2 clones the 1990 Great Recordings of the 20th Century reissue of Flagstad in Norwegian songs, down to its over-CEDAR-ized transfers. However, the aforementioned 1993 Testament CD provides the excellent transfer for the 1949 Todesverkündigung scene from Wagner’s Die Walküre Act 2 with Set Svanholm. So far as my ears can perceive, the 1951 Siegfried and Götterdämmerung duets with Svanholm sound like the transfers effected for EMI’s Les Introuvables du Ring 4-CD anthology.
Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder with Gerald Moore at the piano, the 1949 Allmächt’ge Junfraud from Tannhäuser Act 3, and the 1949 Götterdämmerung Immolation Scene are from a 2004 Great Artists of the 20th Century Flagstad/Wagner reissue. Lastly, excerpts from the classic 1952 Tristan und Isolde under Furtwängler are drawn from EMI’s superb 2001 GROC remastering of the complete opera. You won’t find a better overview of Flagstad’s EMI studio recordings at a lower price.
