The five-LP box-set from which these songs have been taken came in the wake of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's epic survey of the Schubert Lieder. Although it was not advertised as completing his work by bringing together the songs for female voice, it did embrace many of them, including Ellen's three songs from The Lady of the Lake and Mignon's three from Wilhelm Meister. As those are among the most popular, they are naturally retained here, but the rare early songs have regrettably been omitted. Christa Ludwig includes a comparable selection on her two-CD set (DG, 9/91) and Elly Ameling rather more in her larger four-CD coupling (Philips, 4/94). If we look back in time, a reissue of Dame Janet Baker's two-LP ''Schubert Evening'' on HMV (9/71) is also long overdue.
Taken on its own account, this reissue is an attractive sampler of Gundula Janowitz's Lieder singing. Some of the songs were among the first which she committed to disc and it is perhaps inevitable that Janowitz and her accompanist Irwin Gage, should give the impression of having worked hard at them. The tempo changes in Gretchen am Spinnrade, for example, sound contrived, but singer and pianist are as one in executing them; Ave Maria, the third of the Ellen songs, is taken very slowly with every detail carefully thought out in advance. Even so, the beauty of Janowitz's voice and the poise of her singing never fail her. There is a purity about the performances which sets its own standard after the interventionist period of singers like Schwarzkopf and Fischer-Dieskau. Where Janowitz does show a more assertive side, it is always justified: the high drama in Die junge Nonne leaving no doubt that great issues are at stake, or the vivid story-telling of Die Manner sind mechant. In the latter every word is crystal clear, which is just as well, as neither texts nor translations are included. Janowitz herself is the selling-point and a justifiable one.'