Mild und leise 'Isolde's Liebestod' (from Tristan und Isolde) San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Edwin McArthur

Euch Luften, die mein Klagen (from Lohengrin) Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy

Ich sah das Kind an seiner Mutter Brust (from Parsifal) with Lauritz Melchior (tenor), Gordon Dilworth (baritone) Victor Symphony Orchestra, Edwin McArthur

Du bist der Lenz (from Die Walkure) Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy

Hojotoho, hojotoho, heiaha, heiaha! (from Die Walkure) Hans Lange

Zu neuen Taten, teurer Helde (from Gotterdammerung)

Starke Scheite schichtet mir dort 'Brunnhilde's Immolation Scene' (from Gotterdammerung) with Lauritz Melchior (tenor) San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Edwin McArthur

These recordings were made when the great Norwegian soprano was in her vocal prime, between 1935 and 1940. Although her voice remained astonishingly well preserved till late in her career, later recordings of the same music are no less resplendent but perhaps lack the last degree of dramatic tension she could bring when regularly singing these roles on stage.
Included is the Act 2 duet from Parsifal, which became a calling-card not only for her but for her partner in this recording, and times without number on stage, Lauritz Melchior.
Desmond Shawe-Taylor remarked in the New Grove Dictionary of Opera that ‘No one within living memory surpassed her in sheer beauty and consistency of line and tone’. She quickly became a legend in Norway, where her portrait adorned both the 100 Kroner note and the tail of Norwegian Air Shuttle planes, but her fame spread throughout the musical world (she is one of the few opera singers to have her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame). Rudolf Bing called her ‘the greatest soprano of the century’, and many would agree.

“For sheer vocal opulence in Wagner, these tracks would be hard to equal. Her ‘Ho-jo-to-ho!’ in 1935 announced on the gramophone her arrival as a Wagnerian prima donna and the splendour of the singing is unsurpassed.” Grammophone