The first 15 items of this wonderful CD are taken from a Paris broadcast, the remaining nine from a relay of a live recital from Toulouse (in slightly poorer sound). All catch the singer in pristine, youthful voice singing items in the main familiar from other recordings but no less welcome for all that because her voice seems in such perfect condition, fresh, naturally produced and so a delight to hear.

The first three items are interesting. Violetta is sung with quite ravishing tone, no sign of warm-up here. The Campra song, in French, about a butterfly is, I think, new to her discography, and most welcome. The aria from Joshua is here sung in German (rather than the original English she soon adopted) – no matter as it seems more accurately vocalised than some other contemporaneous versions by the soprano. Three familiar Lieder follow – Der Nussbaum a special pleasure in its intimacy and pure emission. The rest of the Paris programme is in Spanish. I daresay later performances by the singer are more subtly interpreted but listening to La maja dolorosa of Granados or the three extracts from the Falla cycle one could hardly ask for a greater a sense of spontaneity: this is a real free spirit communicating with us.

At Toulouse, Respighi’s Stornellatrice catches De los Angeles’s voice in all its pristine beauty: the audience agrees, so she reprises part of it! La maja dolorosa and the Turina Farruca have just that extra point sung in a live context, and the latter’s Cantares, full of tonal shading, a jewel of a performance, is still better. An anonymous Catalan song, and the inevitable, ever-welcome Clavelitos leave us – of course – wanting more, but happy with what we have been vouchsafed.