This, you might think, is not really Preiser’s territory, being from the States and post-war. Still, all are from 78rpm originals and the singing is fine, so why not? Robert Merrill has a special place in that distinguished line of American baritones represented in early days by Lawrence Tibbett and now pre-eminently by Thomas Hampson. With the smoothest legato line and the most Italianate quality, Merrill was always a joy to hear simply as a singer. In these records, made, most of them, shortly after his debut at the Metropolitan in 1945, the voice is at its freshest. On that occasion he sang Germont pere in La traviata, his ‘Di Provenza’ admired very justly if, as seems likely, it was sung then as it is here.
Admittedly, his expressiveness had limits. In this aria he is gently solicitous, just as in the middle section of Hamlet’s Drinking Song he is mildly sad, and in the rest of it moderately Bacchic. His performances are not eventful, so that the A-B-A form of Valentin’s air in Faust is purely formal, and the complex of emotions within Gerard in Andrea Chenier could hardly be guessed at. Even so, as they used to say at the Met where he played such an equable Scarpia that one critic thought he might join in the applause after Tosca’s ‘Vissi d’arte’, such a voice can compensate for almost anything. Moreover, his singing had its own scrupulous standards. Compare him, say, with Titta Ruffo in arias from L’africaine, Andrea Chenier and Zaza, and there is no doubt that while Ruffo has the character as well as the cavernous resources, it is Merrill, who offers the finer singing-line and the more satisfying note-values.
<The songs bring out more personality, partly because they are sung in his native language but also because he genuinely enjoyed singing popular music. Sylvia and Trees are good examples, and good also in that his style is never cheaply sentimental. The ‘spirituals arranged by MacGimsey’ may not appeal on other grounds, but he sings them with the liveliest relish of all. So we can be grateful to Preiser for looking westwards and congratulate it on some excellent transfers.'