Thanks to the BBC and its radio recordings, we have these valuable supplements to the discographies of two favourite singers. Christa Ludwig was a prolific recording artist over her whole career, but Jurinac was less fortunate, even though the discs we do have include a high proportion of classic recordings. The only other version of Strauss’s Four Last Songs we have had from her is another radio recording, made by Swedish Radio with Fritz Busch conducting in 1951 (EMI, 1/90 – nla), 10 years before this one with Sargent.

The contrasts are extraordinary, when all four songs are markedly faster in this later version. What is striking is that Jurinac’s performance is ardent and animated rather than meditative, almost operatic, with little of the valedictory mood that as a rule marks these songs of the composer’s last years. Though I prefer the more measured performance of 1951, in which the voice is more sweetly caught, there is a case for this more urgent view, and even with mono sound rougher than usual from the BBC the artistry and imagination of the singer beam through.

The earlier 1957 mono sound for Christa Ludwig in the Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, though still limited, is kinder to the voice, and the passionate intensity of the performance is magnetic. Cluytens sets too slow a speed at the start of the jaunty second song but Ludwig, nothing daunted, quickly pulls him up to tempo, a small blemish in a fine performance, with changing emotions vividly conveyed.

The Mahler Rückert-Lieder as well as the remaining songs by Strauss and Brahms were all recorded at Wigmore Hall with Geoffrey Parsons at the piano in 1978. Though piano accompaniment cannot match the orchestral versions of the Rückert-Lieder, Ludwig’s poise coupled with perfect control of legato again make them magnetic. There is wonderful weight and gravity in ‘Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen’ and the voice expands passionately without strain in ‘Um Mitternacht’.

In Strauss’s Ruhe, meine Seele the range of dynamic is just as formidable, and the group ends with a triumphant account of Zueignung, which prompts a storm of applause. The two favourite Brahms songs, evidently included as encores, are similarly greeted, the one warm and comforting, the other jauntily nudging the ear. The stereo sound is rounded and well-balanced, making one marvel that more than 20 years after the earlier Mahler recording the voice remained so fresh and full. The disc has no texts or translations, but they are offered on a website.