What unites all the artists in this selection of reissues is the ability of the singers‚ covering a period of some 70 years‚ to marry text to music‚ and so tell a story through their performances. Furthest away from us in time but by no means in immediacy are the three artists featured in Dutton’s new and welcome super­budget series entitled ‘Singers to Remember’. The oldest of the recordings enshrine the art of probably the most admired interpreter of mélodies in the history of recording – the baritone Charles Panzéra. Through the wizardry of Mike Dutton’s refurbishments‚ his 1933 recordings of Fauré’s En sourdine and Au cimitière – a quite arresting interpretation – sound as if they had been committed to disc yesterday with the voice forward and clear‚ with no hint of surface noise to disturb the ear. These qualities apply to everything on these three Dutton issues. Panzéra is heard in his equally subtle‚ emotion­laden but never exaggerated accounts of the same composer’s ecstatic La bonne chanson‚ the 1936 rendering superior to his later version‚ then Fauré’s last cycle L’horizon chimérique (1937)‚ of which he was the supreme interpreter‚ and five songs by the remarkable‚ Wagner­inspired Duparc. All these performances achieve classic status in their eloquent accomplishment of all that is best in this idiom – refined tone and a restrained but deeply felt reading of words and their setting. In all‚ his wife‚ Magdeleine‚ is at the piano. For his 1935 Dichterliebe‚ Panzéra‚ in suitably palpitating voice‚ is joined by the highly imaginative Cortot in an idiosyncratic but cherishable performance. If you buy only one of the CDs touched on here‚ it must be this one‚ 74 minutes of unforgettable singing. Cortot also partnered Maggie Teyte‚ the British soprano noted for her interpretation of French music‚ in her lovely 1937 account of Debussy’s evocative Proses lyriques. One of her songs‚ Duparc’s L’invitation au voyage‚ is also sung by Panzéra but the two performances are not strictly comparable as Teyte opts for the orchestral version. Like her native counterpart‚ she is attentive to what the text tells her and us‚ as a most communicative version of the same composer’s Phidylé proves. These recordings of songs with orchestra‚ conducted by Leslie Heward‚ originally issued privately‚ also enshrine Teyte’s memorable accounts of ‘Le spectre de la rose’‚ subtly shaped‚ and ‘Absence’ from Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été. Those are 1940 recordings. Eight years later‚ when she was 60‚ she made a treasurable recording of Ravel’s Shéhérazade‚ showing little or no signs of her advancing years in a delightfully poised and suggestive performance. Her 1946 recordings‚ never issued here before‚ of songs from early French operas are delightful but slight. Happily‚ the much earlier (1932) Decca ‘Je t’adore‚ brigand’ from Offenbach’s La Périchole is included‚ in the cleanest transfer I have ever heard. Vintage Teyte. A British singer badly neglected up to now on CD is the mezzo Nancy Evans. Dutton puts that partly to rights in a reissue of her song recordings which she made before and during the war for Decca‚ then HMV‚ but I would dearly have loved to hear again some of her Purcell and Handel. As it is Dutton presents a miscellany of songs that show her skills in word­painting. Particularly welcome are two Delius songs from her early (1935) Decca recordings and her 1940 HMV accounts of two songs by Adrian Beecham‚ Sir Thomas’s son‚ accompanied by the conductor. Among some dross‚ songs by Warlock and Vaughan Williams stand out and are sung with feeling. Falla’s Seven Popular Spanish Songs‚ recorded in 1937‚ are delivered with a will if not in ideally idiomatic Spanish. Thomas Allen‚ a much more recent recitalist‚ distinguishes himself in a two­disc bargain­price reissue of mélodies and English song. His Fauré‚ Ravel and Poulenc are all sung in excellent French and with the brio one expects from this admirable baritone. Roger Vignoles’s playing is another plus. On the English CD‚ Allen is heard to even greater advantage in‚ among others‚ Vaughan Williams’s House of Life cycle‚ Butterworth’s always welcome Shropshire Lad settings and Quilter’s Seven Elizabethan Lyrics; but perhaps that composer’s Now sleeps the crimson petal and Vaughan Williams’s Linden Lea‚ because they are such wonderful songs‚ receive the most memorable readings. Another British baritone‚ Bryn Terfel‚ is the electrifying soloist in Andrew Davis’s recommendable version of Belshazzar’s Feast. He brings the important solo utterances vividly before us. This bargain­price issue is completed by Davis’s equally excellent account of Job‚ a fine ballet that ought to be staged more often. The American baritone Leonard Warren had the same kind of innate sincerity in his singing as Allen and Terfel. A Preiser CD collects a heap of his recordings of sea shanties‚ American popular songs and settings of Rudyard Kipling‚ few if any of them – recorded 1947­51 when Warren was at the peak of his powers – ever issued in Britain. His mellifluous tone and keen way with words transmutes his accounts of such old favourites as ‘Shenandoah’‚ ‘Rio Grande’‚ ‘On the Road to Mandelay’‚ ‘Ol’ Man River’ and ‘Danny Deever’ into something like great art. Any young collector who has never heard Warren is in for a treat. Finally‚ as a complete contrast‚ musically speaking‚ comes Brigitte Fassbaender’s arrestingly personal and immediate interpre­tation of Schubert’s Winterreise. She convinces‚ if that were necessary‚ that she can make the cycle‚ usually sung by a man‚ as valid for a mezzo­soprano in a version that plumbs the depth of emotional sorrow and despair. Her accents and treatment of rubato are typically idiosyncratic in a way some deplore; for me the style breathes conviction. Aribert Reimann partners her with another composer’s insights into the meaning of the notes. Even if you have another recording of the work in your collection‚ this one is well worth adding for its dramatic truthfulness‚ especially now that it is available at a reduced price.