By the time Gruberová first appeared at the Salzburg Festival in 1980, at 34, she had already established herself as a favourite in many roles at the Vienna State Opera and elsewhere. The public appears to have been ecstatic, the critics more reserved in their responses. Her technical prowess, so notable at the time in her Queen of the Night and Zerbinetta, was carried into this recital; so, of course, was her innate musicality, but elements in her singing do not suggest a notable Lieder interpreter.

None but a truly aspiring artist would have started this auspicious occasion with such a formidable selection of Schubert. While the intention is admirable, the execution leaves much to be desired. For much of the time the tone is unequally produced and, when any pressure is placed on it, takes on that glaring character which has always worried me in her performances. Such grandly philosophical settings as those of Mayrhofer’s poetry, Erlafsee and Am Strome, call for a richer, deeper voice; so does Suleika’s first song (Goethe). Der Hirt auf dem Felsen is efficiently sung, but the glow, warmth and charm this ineffably beautiful piece calls for goes missing in this rather hard-edged reading.

After the interval her Mendelssohn group goes reasonably well, but it is only with Strauss’s Brentano settings that the soprano is really well suited. These are Zerbinetta territory and Gruberová enters into it confidently even when some of her sliding about is ungainly. Werba is a faithful but never very illuminating partner. The clarinettist in Der Hirt auf dem Felsen is no more than adequate. The absence of texts and translations, a common Orfeo omission, is regrettable.