It was a revelation. I can’t exactly remember the first time I heard that wonderfully clear, clean tone, but it was unlike any voice I had heard before. For those of us swept up in the fervour of bringing ‘authenticity’ to early music, she was our standard-bearer; one who would liberate this music from what we perceived to be the sludge of indulgent romanticism. Our views may be a little more nuanced these days, but I suspect those who came to know her in their youth still hold a great deal of affection for Dame Emma Kirkby.

Here is a golden opportunity to relive those heady days. Across 12 discs, we have Kirkby’s solo recordings for L’Oiseau-Lyre. Founded by Melbourne philanthropist, Louise Hanson Dyer, the label was one of the first to champion historically informed performances and was right on the money when it contracted Kirkby.

Beginning in the late 70s there are some rather folksy programmes of Elizabethan songs, pastoral and amorous dialogues, accompanied by her long-time partner, Anthony Rooley. Duets with Judith Nelson follow and then a splendid Purcell recital revealing growing vocal and dramatic intensity. Such intensity is wonderfully deployed in her 1996 disc of Bach wedding cantatas...