A record full of pleasant things, the first being the opportunity to new acquaintance with the Enescu Sept chansons de Clement Merot. Yolanda Marcoulescu (Orion ORS75184, 5/76—nla) brought a lighter touch to the humour of ''Changeons propos'' (No. 6) and a more plaintive, heartfelt quality to the last of the set, ''Du conflict en douleur''. But the new recording gains in clarity, and Sarah Walker's singing has its own distinction, strong-toned yet capable of a charming lightening to match the ''Present de couleur blanche'' (No. 5). The Roussel group suggests another formidable comparison, one with Claire Croiza, whose recordings of the 1930s were so valuably collected on another out-of-print recital (HMV mono ALP2115, 10/71). In the ''Sarabande'' (Op. 20 No. 2) I find Walker and Vignoles preferable, with the slower tempo and better balance; but Croiza, more vulnerable, feminine and intimate in Jazz dans la nuit, makes an altogether deeper impression in ''Light'', where Sarah Walker's tone hardly suggests that tears have flowed, and Roger Vignoles, as recorded, seems too outgoing, not reticent enough, for the essential privacy of the song.
The Debussy side I thought extremely fine. The second set of Fetes galantes is rarely heard, and in the other 1904 group the mood of ''La Grotte'' is particularly well caught. Here, as indeed in the Chansons de Bilitis, the comparison with Dame Janet Baker and Gerald Moore (recorded in 1970, and reissued on HMV SLS 5275, 2/83) does the new recording no discredit; in certain details (for instance, the little figure in the piano part which mimics the frogs' nocturne) there is a delightful freshness of perception. Occasionally I thought the balance favoured the piano a little too gnerously; but the production as a whole gives much pleasure.'