This is one of many Stravinsky recordings first issued in his centenary year, and its remastered reappearance is most welcome. The majority of the songs included come from the two phases of Stravinsky's life which Boulez has always found most sympathetic—the early 'nationalism' and the late serialism. The performances are in general exemplary in their precision and avoidance of sentimentality.
Phyllis Bryn-Julson brings a particularly attractive astringency to the sets of folklike or nursery songs where it would be all too easy for the singer to adopt an archly over-emphatic manner, and she blends well with the instruments, notably in the ravishing textures of the Three Japanese lyrics. Ann Murray is no less idiomatic in the Cat's Cradle Songs and, later, in the very different world of the Shakespeare settings. Even the smallest of these pieces has some telling instrumental detail, revealing how important such collections were to Stravinsky, especially in the years after The Rite of Spring, as a means of refining his still evolving musical language.
John Shirley-Quirk's comical gruffness is perfect for the Pribaoutki, and both he and Robert Tear manage the tricky contours of the later pieces (Elegy for J. F. K., In memoriam Dylan Thomas) in fine style. Only in Paracha's song from Mavra does Boulez set too brisk a tempo: at the other extreme, the late Wolf arrangements are if anything too long drawn out. This is a valuable collection of, on the whole, excellent recordings, even though Robert Tear's voice sounds rather too set apart from the instruments in the Dylan Thomas piece.'