A Glimpse Behind the Curtain: Richard Laing has mixed feelings about the release of some imperfect but intermittently impressive recordings

Review of Jessye Norman, The Unreleased Masters, 1989–98: Prelude, ‘Westwärts schweift der Blick’, ‘Frisch weht der Wind’, ‘Weh, ach wehe! Dies zu dulden!’, ‘Isolde! Geliebte!’, ‘Doch es rächte sich der verscheuchte Tag’, ‘O sink hernieder’, ‘Einsam wachend in der Nacht’, ‘Unsre Liebe? Tristans Liebe?’, ‘So starben wir’, Liebestod (Tristan und Isolde), Moser, Schwarz, Bostridge, conducted Masur, Leipzig; Strauss Four Last Songs, Wagner Wesendonck Lieder, conducted Levine, Berlin; Haydn Scena di Berenice, Berlioz Cléopâtre – Scène lyrique, Britten Phaedra, conducted Ozawa, Boston (Decca, 3 CDs).

The recordings in Decca’s stylishly presented box set were hitherto withheld from release mostly because Jessye Norman was not entirely happy with them, as the candid essays in the accompanying booklet make clear. Now, with the support of the singer’s family but just three and a half years after her death, Decca believes that technology is able to ‘finesse the edit and mix’ of the recordings, bringing them to a standard worthy of release. It seems that the company has almost succeeded in its aims, but there are moments when one can picture the great but self-critical soprano wincing in the playback room.