Under the watchful eye of Geraint Jones, the period expert of his day, two famous sopranos, Kirsten Flagstad and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, were brought together in March 1952 in London's Abbey Road studios to record Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in the version held in the Library of St. Michael's College, Tenbury. It followed some highly publicised performances that Flagstad made at London's recently created Elizabethan playhouse, the Mermaid Theatre. Our understanding of period style has come a long way since then, and many will look back at this early effort with an indulgent smile, the well padded sound of violins, singers sliding up to notes as a performing practice being just a few of the anachronisms, though at least it offered a harpsichord among the accompanying instruments, a rare enough attribute at that time. The part of Dido did not sit all that comfortably on Flagstad's voice at this late stage in her career, the top notes in the famous When I am laid in earth sounding stressed and pinched. Elizabeth Schwarzkopf was not included in that stage version, but was brought specially into this recording, with the bizarre result that singing the double role of Belinda and the Second Lady involves taking both parts in one air. Arda Mandikian's Sorcerer was much over characterised and more akin to a pantomime witch, while baritone,Thomas Hemsley, is no more than adequate as Aeneas. The chorus was well-rehearsed, the playing neat, and Jones's tempos nicely urgent. It is a timely reminder of the stepping stones we have taken in reaching what we believe is today's informed view of Purcell. As a bonus we have Flagstad in Erbarme dich, mein Gott, from Bach's St.Matthew Passion, Ombra mai fu from Handel's Serse and a 1948 version of When I am laid in earth which sounds just as strained as in this complete Dido. The original sound of the opera was always rather boxy, this transfer doing everything possible to rejuvenate it.