The Firestone broadcast, one of several that one can track down in either video or audio-only format, fills another slot along the career-progression timeline. It shows Björling in representative primetime form, singing representative favorites, including “Nessun dorma,” the Tosti/D’Annunzio L’alba separa dalla luce l’ombra, and Herbert’s Neapolitan Love Song, along with Idabelle Firestone’s sign-on, sign-off snippets—a pleasing sniff of the radio/early TV days. The sound quality is superior throughout the disc, and the accompanying booklet contains an essay by Harald Henrysson on Björling’s long connection with Danish venues and audiences, and notes on the Copenhagen recital by Stephen Hastings and the Firestone broadcast by John C. Haley.

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NEXT TIME: I’ll be planning to offer some thoughts on Alex Ross’s well-received book, Wagnerism/Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music, and on some of the problems of criticism pertaining to it. That will be four weeks hence, Fri., Dec. 17. Stay well, all.

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