'Still adored by many as the greatest female singer of the 20th century.' So says the introductory note, and the corollary is that an awesome responsibility lies with the records to persuade a later generation of the reasons for such a claim. It may be more than the records can do.

One of Ponselle's most devoted friends and admirers was the writer Ida Cook who recalled how she bought a record of Ponselle which she liked well enough but wanted never to play again after hearing her 'in the flesh'. On one side of that record was the Ernani solo with which the present disc opens. I'm not sure it was a good choice. The aria itself certainly is a marvellous piece of singing, but preceding it is the recitative which I'm afraid to unprepared ears may sound at best intermittently impressive and at worst rather comical. 'The greatest female singer of the 20th century' is up against the conditions of her recording - the boxy acoustic and what sounds to us like a tinpot orchestra. But it isn't just that. The vowels seem curiously formed, and, too often for comfort, the dramatic declamation flashes on to the mind images of the heroines of the silent screen.

The intention of this Naxos series, one imagines, is to reach a new audience, in which case first impressions are important. If any of that new audience are reading this review, may I suggest they start with track four, 'D'amor sull'ali rosee' from Il trovatore. In a way, the recording is more primitive still but the voice is unimpeded, and hearing this one can well understand the whys and wherefores of 'the greatest'. The 'O patria mia' from the same year (1918) might come next, then the Aida duets, then perhaps the Forza. Then it may be time for the Ernani, where the wonder of that golden voice having such lightness and agility in its scope will be doubly impressive.

The transfers seek out the full glory, the roundness, the purity and (in the 'Miserere' particularly) the dark dramatic power. Sometimes the search for maximum clarity brings less desirable features with it - one is aware more than in previous transfers of those 'technical flaws', referred to by producer Ward Marston, which accounted for the company's withholding 'Là tra foreste vergine', and in the 'Miserere' the legendary incisive tone of Martinelli does indeed seem almost literally to bite into the substance of the recording material. Still, Marston's notes also refer to 'these treasures': and he is surely right there.