Each of these discs has a good claim on our attention‚ but there’s little doubt which will gain the largest share of it. Even with a serious and expert audience‚ the major works of a song­recital programme – the Lieder and mélodies – will no doubt win judicious and heartfelt applause; but for whoops of joy‚ happy faces and hands clapped at twice the normal speed you have to wait for encore­time or perhaps the last group in the programme consisting very probably of unexpected trifles peripheral to the singer’s main repertoire. And this is what Souzay offers here in his Songs of Many Lands. Most of the items appeared originally in 1959‚ when Alec Robertson ended his Gramophone review (August issue) with the words of an insatiable encore­seeker: ‘More please!’. The songs which particularly caught his fancy included the Jägerleben‚ with its witty evocation of Schubert’s ‘Der Musensohn’‚ Villa­Lobos’s song of the extremely noisy ox­cart driver‚ and I’m goin’ away‚ which he said ‘copies Paul Robeson’s tone to the life’. For my own‚ I would add the haunting Moravian song‚ Preletel Slavicel‚ the Venetian La barcheta (ascribed here to one Buratti‚ but I rather think Reynaldo Hahn)‚ and‚ no doubt the audience’s favourite‚ the song of the blue bird‚ Azualaò‚ from Brazil. All of these‚ and more‚ Souzay sings with rich‚ vibrant tone‚ resourceful art and plenty of character. I wish all of that could be said of the recordings from later years which follow the 22 tracks from 1958. The first two‚ ‘Baïlerò’ (from Songs of the Auvergne) and a Greek lullaby Dourou­dourou might come as an apt response to the critic’s cry for more‚ but the rest‚ from 20 years later‚ are unlikely to provoke any similar request. Souzay’s voice did not age well. At 60 he was singing with eloquence and authority‚ but it was hard for anyone who knew him and his records from the 1940s and ’50s to think of the older voice as truly his. To some extent this affects both of the other CDs. Each year younger is a year gained‚ so that the Duparc songs of 1971 make happier listening‚ as far as the voice is concerned‚ than does the Chausson of 1977‚ and in the Schumann disc the Kerner Lieder (1970) are vocally more satisfying than the selections recorded five years later. It will be said that voice and its production are not everything‚ but I can’t in all honesty trace an artistic growth to compensate. There are fine things: in Schumann the intimacy of ‘Alte Laute’ and the controlled intensity of ‘Stille Tränen’‚ in Chausson the beautiful opening of ‘Le temps des lilas’ and in Duparc the touch of the master somewhere in everything. There is also his collaboration with Dalton Baldwin to acknowledge‚ mostly with gratitude though quite often in the Schumann songs I found myself wishing for a more discriminating balance of ‘voices’ in the piano part – a less stolid reiteration of chords‚ for instance. Paul Baily‚ as ever‚ has produced excellent results in his remastering‚ and Roger Nichols contributes a well­written note for each issue. This is an enterprising edition: the Schumann and Chausson in particular will be new to most listeners. The first volume‚ with its 22 tracks from 1958‚ has 22 small gems‚ and one large jewel of great price: the privilege of extended encore­time with a great singer in his prime.