Fauré s Requiem, displays in its seven stations not a path of affliction and agony, but a joyful resurrection. Curiously its harmonies fit comfortably into the Fauve atmosphere of 'La Damoiselle Elue' and Ravel's 'Scheherezade'. Finally all negativity is dispelled by the vivaciousness of amorous angels in the Greek Mélodies. It is hard to imagine a more purely beautiful voice than that of Victoria de los Angeles at the height of her career in the 1950s and early 1960s. Combined with charm and a delightful persona her enchanting voice is by turns seraphic, disquieting and limpid in timbre, recorded in Paris and Boston 1955-63. A fitting tribute from Praga Digitals to the much-loved lyric soprano who died in 2005.

CD 1