Jussi Bj÷rling was among the best of the great tenors of the past century. The more people are exposed to Bj÷rling's immediately identifiable, incomparable voice, the better. Here are opera and operetta recordings in Swedish between 1930 (when he was only 20!) and 1938. The earliest tracks feature a full-throated tenor reveling in his voice and in the act of singing. Later ones retain those qualities and add more subtlety and a stronger tinge of poignancy along with a larger measure of the aristocratic elegance that became one of his most distinguishing characteristics. Thus his 1930 "Ah, lFve-toi soleil" from Gounod's RomTo et Juliette isn't quite as eloquent or as poignant as his 1945 recording. Other selections from the early '30s exhibit the raw exuberance of youth--heard in the cackle he interpolates into the 1930 "Questo e quella" from Verdi's Rigoletto, an affectation mercifully missing from his later renditions.

Some of the lighter fluff, such as the song from Abraham's operetta Flower from Hawaii (!), is pretty awful except for the singing, but selections from Victor Herbert, Kalman, Romberg, Lehßr, and Viennese staples are marked by Bj÷rling's sensitivity and his drop-dead gorgeous voice. On two duets, by Strauss and Mill÷cker, he's gloriously partnered by soprano Hj÷rdis Schymberg. Those who have trouble with "wrong language" recordings should find their objections minimalized since Swedish is eminently adaptable to French, German, and even Italian texts. That point is amply proved in Bj÷rling's 1933 "Au mont Ida" from Offenbach's La belle HTlFne, one of the all-time great tenor performances.