About this Artist

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Editorial Reviews

Quick: who's the best British Brahms singer of the second half of the twentieth century? That's right, Janet Baker, that redoubtable mezzo born in Yorkshire and trained in London, the singer who began by carrying the mantle of the late Kathleen Ferrier and who wound up becoming a beloved English institution in her own right. In this disc joining performances of 24 songs from three BBC recitals -- 12 songs from one in 1960, 11 from 1968, and one from 1961 -- Baker has selected a broad range of Brahms work in the genre and invested each in her own sensitive artistry. Beyond her distinctively warm-toned voice and heartfelt delivery, it is Baker's ability to balance the lyric and the dramatic that makes her Brahms' performances so successful. One gets the sense that Baker not only knows how the texts and music mutually support each other, but knows how they enhance and expand each other, making the whole of each song infinitely more than the sum of its parts. In song after song, Baker seems neither too objective, nor too subjective, but rather perfectly poised between the two, turning in not her interpretations but the essences of the lieder themselves. Accompanied either by pianist Ernest Lush or Paul Hamburger, this disc is a superlative addition to Baker's discography. BBC's live in the studio sound is surprisingly fresh and close considering how old and distant it is. James Leonard, All Music Guide

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