Evelyn Lear knew the art of giving a good recital. She learned through hard work the art of balancing composers, poets, themes, and tempi. This disc gives us her entire recital from Edinburgh 1966, accompanied by the equally great Irwin Gage. She begins with a slice of Schumann before taking on Berg's Seven Early Songs, then inserting five Möricke lieder of Wolf, before concluding with a set of Strauss songs. She announces her encores. In 1966 Lear was in her vocal prime and the voice has a sweetness, a tonal beauty, that she would lose later on. She is never arch in her interpretations, nor does she over-interpret. Gage matches her all the way. The last part of this disc gives us Debussy's Ariettes Oubliées in a magical performance from a couple of years earlier. Once again she has a fine accompanist in Alan Richardson. Lear sings Debussy's haunting music with charm and beauty. The sound in both recitals is very good though a ghost of another performance can occasionally be heard during the Berg set. All Lear fans should have this disc.