One thing this record makes plain is that those who, like myself, had Josef Traxel brought to their notice by an LP recital containing the Oberon arias heard here, were badly served. Hearing them again after long absence brought back all too clearly the reaction which classified this tenor as ungainly, unlovely and preferably to be heard no more. The present collection certainly revises that view, and includes a number of items that one will very happily return to for both pleasure and instruction. At the head of that list stands the single aria to be sung here in Italian. ''Spirito gentil'' from Donizetti's La favorita is a famous test-case for matters of style in phrasing and nuance, as well as in the placing of the voice and its controlled usage over virtually the whole range. Traxel is admirable in all these respects, and though he inserts an aspirate into his pronunciation of the Italian word ''ahime'' he does not do so in the descending notes which lead back into the melody. To some extent he is another singer in this. In the Flower Song from Carmen which precedes it, and in the excellent performance of ''Nessun dorma'' which follows, he shows his gifts of voice and musical feeling, but in the Donizetti aria it is as though the Italian language itself gives him a new freedom and brings out the best.
Elsewhere the record shows him to have been a useful singer in a wide repertoire, extending to the Bach Passions and the songs of Schubert (the sleeve-note points out that it was in fact much broader than that, going back to Monteverdi and forward to modern times). One of his faults is a certain breathiness probably inherent in his method, and over the short. period covered in these records a deterioration in tone-quality is noticeable. Still, the first Oberon excerpt, horribly difficult as it is, remains the only serious blot, and it is good to have him established as a worthy singer who did valuable service in his time with a respectable legacy bequeathed in his recordings.'