Raina Kabaivanska has had a distinguished career on the opera stage for nearly 40 years, appearing in most Italian opera houses in the bel canto and verismo repertory. She was never taken up by any of the big record companies, though there are some live souvenirs of her (a Karajan Trovatore has just been released by RCA, 8/99). Her voice now has too much vibrato to sustain Massenet’s Elegie that opens this recital, and although she brings fearless dramatic attack to Ravel’s Chansons madecasses, they also suffer from the lack of firm line. Shostakovich’s seven songs to poems by Alexander Blok are an odd choice after the French songs. If you have never heard Kabaivanska, this is not the disc to start with. '