The famous Salome Closing Scene here is still the best of all in many ways: tone bright, defined and sustained like a laser beam, timbre womanly-strong and girlish-fresh, energy inexhaustible, with resources (sparingly exploited) of wilful shrewishness and devouring sensuality. There have been subtler versions, and perhaps we are now spoilt by recordings where the splendours of orchestration overwhelm as they cannot really do here: a fine orchestral performance under Reiner, none the less, and no apologies needed. As Philip Hope-Wallace felt, however, reviewing this selection in 1969, admirers of Welitsch -in the flesh" might well feel apologetic about the "Vissi d'arte", shallow in feeling, short-breathed in phrasing. Better is her Donna Anna, better still, perhaps, her Zigeunerbaron solo. But the Salome is what matters: "singing with her nerves," as PH-W said, "at a tension which is not in the slightest danger of snapping".
