The renowned Canadian singer Maureen Forrester was the owner of one of the most distinctive contralto voices of her generation. Chosen by Bruno Walter, a protégé of Gustav Mahler, for the contralto role in the composer's 'Resurrection' Symphony at Carnegie Hall in 1957, she followed up that New York Philharmonic performance with many others, under a wide range of leading conductors.

Regarded by Walter and others as the successor to Kathleen Ferrier, she excelled in Mahler, but was also known for her roles in opera and oratorio, as well as in Broadway musicals. Often with the Swiss bass-baritone Heinz Rehfuss, she did justice to the ambivalence of the texts, with impeccable German diction, which are supplied here in German.

This disc provides a rewarding account of 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn', in excellent sound for 1963, recorded in the Grosse Saal, Vienna. The five Rückert Lieder date from Berlin in 1956.