Here is an artist. Indeed, the pianist is another, but, with whatever rough justice, interest focuses first upon the singer. She appears to have fashioned her voice as an instrument entirely apt for her purposes, and these include a vivid and compelling communication in song, the tone concentrated like the meaning, the vocal range wide as that of the expression. Her characteristic sound is well-defined, steady if somewhat tubular, bright rather than warm yet not lacking in body and not strident in its power. Her method involves a certain amount (perhaps too much) of 'straight', non-vibrating tone which for a second alarms the ear till with a crescendo it gains resonance. She is not, however, one of those who habitually spoil the line of their singing by constant little swellings: when she does this it is for a special expressive effect. For the most part the quality seems to be pure, and only occasionally on loud and relatively high notes does there come a little tinkle of wear on the surface. The high notes themselves are rather remarkable both for their security and for the cleanness of 'take'. It seems she has been compared at various times with both Flagstad and Nilsson, though on these recordings she sounds like neither. A closer likeness may be another and now largely forgotten Scandinavian singer with an enterprising repertoire and individual style and timbre, Povla Frijsh.
In the first record listed here she opens with an eerie, other-worldly sound for the lullaby in Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death. Always one is aware of intelligence, a live engagement with the songs and with the unseen audience. The voice adapts then to the spring night, ''stars all aglisten'' with a silvery tone for the ''Serenade''. In ''Trepak'' the ghostly tone of the story-teller catches the shivery moment of recognition, and then the chilling gaiety of the dance. And if the climax in the last of the songs is not exactly pleasant, well, it isn't meant to be.
It is the Mussorgsky songs that prove most rewarding in this recital. On the other disc the whole programme will make a valuable addition to most collections. The Norwegian folk-songs of Johan Kvandal, published in 1970, are compositions in the way that Britten's and Canteloube's are, but they allow the song to speak more freely for itself; the accompaniments are never pedestrian but keep within modest limits. The singer is good at finding a tone that will have just enough of the natural girl-voice without being gawky or self-conscious about it. These come as a welcome lightening between Berg's Op. 2 and Shostakovich's Op. 127, which call insistently upon those fine qualities of musicianship and sensibility that were so evident in the Mussorgsky. In Berg's drift into sleep and the unconscious he gradually loses the sense of key till in the final song he enters for the first time fully into the world of atonality. Shostakovich's Blok settings also move towards their final number, in which the voice is at last heard with all three instruments. Up till then there has been every kind of combination, from a lonely, desolate duet with the cello to the 'storm' trio with the violin, sul ponticello, beating like rain on a tin roof while voice and piano engage in fierce declamation. The songs were dedicated to Vishnevskaya and from time to time one hears her in them even while Anne-Lise Berntsen is singing with comparable intensity.
In the Wesendonk Lieder she is less well suited, the tone lacking roundness and the Germanic quality they so clearly call for. But all of these are fine performances by everyone concerned, the pianist, Einar Henning Smebye, playing admirably throughout both recitals and the string players making an excellent contribution to the Shostakovich. The second recital, incidentally, was recorded first (1987). For both discs the booklet is coy about Berntsen's age. Apparently ''she made her debut when she was too old and enjoyed her big breakthrough when it should have been too late''. It seems we had better make the most of these discs, though personally I shall hope for more to come.'