Folk-song and liturgical chant inspire many pages of Boris Godunov, heard on these discs in Rimsky-Korsakov’s colourful orchestration. By 1952, when this recording was made, Boris Christoff, who had been singing excerpts in public as early as 1944, was steeped in Mussorgsky’s music and knew every note of the score. It is for Christoff’s triumph in three contrasting rôles, the young Gedda as the False Dmitry, Zareska as Marina, Borg as the wily Rangoni and Dobrowen’s conducting that this set is treasured by opera enthusiasts.