Once again an entertaining mixture of rare and familiar songs fills out this latest recording devised by the conductor John McGlinn from the treasure box of Broadway shows. This one features the unmistakable timbre of Kim Criswell, the lovable Annie Oakley in 1992's all too brief revival of Annie get your Gun. She sings ''Let's go West again'' from that show, a song intended for, but dropped on account of time from, the EMI recording of Berlin's score (11/91). It never found a place in the original production and actually turns out to be one of the least interesting songs here, alongside Porter's laboured ''Katie went to Haiti''.
The selection alternates between the extrovert and the introspective, allowing Criswell a wide range of voice and interpretation, from soubrette in Kern's lovely ''In the heart of the dark'' and low mezzo in Schwartz's ''You and the Night and the Music'', to French chanteuse in ''I love Paris'', where the Ambrosian Singers are placed at a distance to suggest the breaking dawn on the Paris skyline, and a somewhat suspect Fraulein in Gershwin's ''Lorelei'', where her cod German gets partially hooked in the throat. Her 'belters' shatter glass, opening with an exuberant ''Give him the Oo-la-la'' in Porter's sassiest vein and concluding with ''I got rhythm'', where McGlinn's research reveals no recorded evidence to suggest that Ethel Merman belted out her top C across 16 bars. Shame! For a mellower Criswell, try her effective interpretation of ''He's the right guy'' in Porter's favourite beguine rhythm.
Rare verses and refrains, idiomatic playing from the London Sinfonietta, revelatory research in the notes by Miles Kreuger, excellent recording and many fine original orchestrations, including a tolling bell to underline the note of regret in ''Ev'ry time we say goodbye'', add their own distinctive marks to this issue.'