As the archives of the BBC and ORTF yield up forgotten TV broadcasts, we are being offered ever more examples of the art of performers of the recent past. This is a nostalgic experience for many of us, and it should – in most cases – be a source of inquiry and inspiration among younger collectors.

Not that I would particularly recommend the first track of this DVD. It houses the final scene of Act 1 of Der Rosenkavalier, a studio broadcast from the BBC in 1961. It was obviously meant as a showpiece for Schwarzkopf, then at the height of her powers. Here she makes a most mannered and artificial traversal of the Marschallin’s predicament: every gesture, every phrase, every word is underlined in a way that destroys the flow of the music. Lovely as the singer’s tone may be, beautiful as she looks, the results are laboured, especially as the tempi are so dreadfully slow, Mackerras obviously cowed by the star above him. Töpper is a sound but dull Octavian.

The other two singers are much better represented. Seefried is heard in Paris at two live concerts with orchestra, singing Richard Strauss in 1965, Mahler in 1967. Here is the art that truly conceals art. Each piece is delivered simply yet tellingly. Though the beloved soprano may no longer be in easiest voice (she quite often starts on the flat side of notes), she warms the heart and charms the ear in songs grave and gay. It is incidentally quite remarkable to see her sporting a bouffant hairstyle and an extravagant dress, then in 1965 offering a different image, with a boyish hairdo and a simple black dress. In the Mahler the veteran conductor Manuel Rosenthal is a notable asset.

Also from Paris, comes Fischer-Dieskau’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen in a performance, with the admirable Paul Kletzki, that proves, if proof were needed, his command of every aspect of a singer’s art. In its absolute prime, the voice rings out freely in forte passages, reduces to a mellow mezza voce in piano ones, while the interpretative intensity is beyond reproach. And so, too, is it in four excerpts from a BBC studio recital a year earlier, the faithful Moore in attendance. Four of Schubert’s most popular songs are delivered with all the breadth of tone and intelligence for which the baritone was noted, culminating in a hair-raising Erlkönig, Moore as virtuoso as ever in the taxing piano part.

All the transmissions are in good mono sound, but the camera-work is pretty rudimentary, the picture black-and-white, of course. In spite of my strictures of the Rosenkavalier excerpt, this is a rewarding issue.