Possibly a Walter Legge might have been able to do something about it. He was said to have given to each recording session a sense of occasion, and to be able to produce from a responsive singer powers of expressiveness that surprised all concerned. Some such inspiration was sorely needed here. The singing has qualities that fully explain why this soprano should have won the national competition in Finland and the international one at Cardiff. That a career taking her to several of the world's leading opera houses should have followed is also quite credible. The voice is ample in range and volume, its tone quite frequently having a generous, well-rounded beauty the repertoire wide and well-suited to the type of voice, linguistic ability being another asset. But the technique cannot be relied upon to ensure clear articulation, so that while much of the passage-work is entirely successful there will come every now and then a smudged, ungainly effect such as flawed her amiable Fiordiligi at Covent Garden in the summer of 1986.
What matters most, there is no communication. A little anxiety in the Don Giovanni recitative, a generalized sadness in Pamina's aria, a momentary glimmer (''Voici justement'') before the Faust Jewel song begins (how dully): this is virtually all. It would seem impossible to sing the Freischutz solo without conveying anything of the changing moods by some sort of vocal expressiveness, but here the impossible is achieved: not even ''O susse Hoffnung'' can squeeze a smile or induce some quickening of the pulse. The exclamation ''O Dieu! que de bijoux!'' must, one would think evoke some sense of discovery, even if the voice cannot be made to reflect the sparkle of the jewels Then again, these arias have their climaxes; the Jewel song, for instance, has a well-defined and exciting coda, but nothing imparts recognition of that here. Nor do Pritchard and the Philharmonia pretend to any excitement in the final bars though in general they give conscientious support. The most satisfying performances are probably those of the Rusalka and Guillaume Tell arias, though even there the words ''Je tremble'' are belied by the untroubled utterance of them. We are hearing a lot these days about the virtues of 'non-interventionist' singing: its advocates should enjoy this.'