An enterprising programme introduces us to Hampson the scholar as well as the singer. In a long introductory note, of which he was the co-author, Hampson seeks to provide the social and artistic background against which Berlioz, Wagner and Liszt should be viewed and to reveal the links between these three adventurous spirits-a valuable exercise, although it is undertaken with a rather lofty tone.
To some extent that spills over into the performances. Hampson makes heavy work of his Berlioz songs, taken from Irlande. ''La Belle voyageuse'' goes her way without much of a lilt, ''Le Coucher du soleil'' is suitably dreamy, but could do with a sharper sense of rhythm. Other singers have successfully captured the attractive innocence of these early songs, which the earnest Hampson misses, possibly because he is trying to make them seem more substantial than they really are. (Although Berlioz did not intend Irlande as a cycle, it might be helpful to have a reissue of John Eliot Gardiner's complete L'Oiseau-Lyre recording, 12/68.) Given that there is such an interest in everything Wagnerian, it is surprising that Wagner's early songs should turn up so rarely on disc. Like the whole of the programme, Hampson's half-dozen are well chosen to show their range and variety. The singer is on stronger ground here and ''Les Deux grenadiers'', the most ambitious of them, is given a bold and dramatic performance.
For his Liszt group Hampson wisely mixes some well-known songs among the rarities. The singing is of de luxe quality, a warm and romantic baritone voice shaping luxurious phrases, enhanced by Geoffrey Parsons's rich sonorities at the piano. Next to Brigitte Fassbaender, whose Liszt recordings (DG, 4/87-nla and Decca, 9/82) are sure to find a raw nerve of pain if there is one around, Hampson can seem uniformly plush, but it is always a pleasure to hear such beautifully moulded Lieder singing. Oh! quand je dors, his last song, is guaranteed to send the listener away wanting more.'