Victoria de los Angeles puts all of her very considerable artistry into her splendid interpretations of these folksongs. Never the most temperamental of singers, she was born to this music, offering vocalism of exceptional beauty and simplicity that never becomes arch or cloying, as so often happens in other hands (and throats). She hasn’t Netanya Davrath’s boyish charm, nor Moffo’s luscious tone, to cite just two famous competitors, but her experience with Spanish song pays off handsomely, for example, in the Trois Bourrés of Book One, and her Baïlèro is as gorgeously evocative as we have any right to expect. The Lamoureux Orchestra still played with that especially reedy, French sound in the early 1970s when these songs were recorded, and it suits the music perfectly. If you don’t own this disc, a classic from the day it was first issued, you really should, along with Davrath’s (at least) to fill out the collection with the songs not included here. [12/21/1999]
