First-rate transfers from excellent copies of valuable rarities in an interesting repertoire. One cannot say fairer than that. Yet there is matter for regret here, because the attractiveness – the usefulness, even – of such an issue is much diminished by the absence of an enlightenment which almost every non-German-speaking listener will seek. Most of these songs are ballads; that is, they tell stories. If you don’t know the story you are lost. In all probability we will know the tale of the Erl-king; without too much inconvenience we may be able to find the text of Tom the Rhymer and some of the other more frequently recorded songs. But, for the most part, we are sunk! Loewe has never been a piano-stool composer outside Germany: very few people have copies of these songs. We understand, of course, that it has never been the company’s policy to print texts, and that the writer of the insert-notes is usually briefed to concentrate upon the performing artist. It is also understandable that in this, a ‘bicentennial celebration’ of the composer’s birth, the essay should be about Loewe himself; but people who buy such records do tend to have somewhere in the house a dictionary of music and musicians in which they can find enough biographical material to keep them going. What they cannot do without (again for the most part) is a synopsis of the ballad-stories. Ian Lilburn’s essay on Loewe is admirable, as is everything else here; but it is not the first necessity.
Much satisfaction, it’s true, can be gained by the appreciation of beautiful singing-sound. The American soprano and pupil of Marcella Sembrich, Hulda Lashanska, provides a lovely example in the serene flow of the Canzonetta. Theodor Scheidl has probably the most beautiful voice of all as heard here in Archibald Douglas. Heinrich Schlusnus, singing at about the same age, is wonderfully adept at dealing with the formidable heights of Der Schatzgraber, though somewhat foggy in the depths. Otto Helgers, in one of the earliest recordings, exercises a legato style rare in this heavy German voice-type. Professor Johannes Willy sings in what is probably the latest, a performance of Der Mohrenfurst, salvaged from German radio in wartime. We are duly grateful, and not, I think, unreasonably curious to know more. For instance, can the orchestration be Loewe’s own (did he orchestrate any of his songs)? But, most essentially, what is it about? The Gramophone Database lists no other recording, not even by Fischer-Dieskau. That’s how much in need we are of this most obvious form of assistance.'