Janet Baker - A Celebration: CD Box Set

Dame Janet Baker is an artist who enjoyed seldom-matched success in the concert and recital halls as well as in the opera house – not to mention on disc. She could confidently traverse the entire territory between the well-thumbed volumes of arie antiche through the inexhaustible repertoires of German lieder, the French mélodie and English song, all of them addressed with extraordinary interpretative completeness. 

Of contemporary composers with whom she worked, undoubtedly the most important relationship was with Benjamin Britten who created numerous roles for her. In 1970 she was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). More honours followed – Dame Commander (DBE) in 1976 and member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1993. 

Dame Janet’s command of language was legion. “She was, in all the languages she sang, one of the most thrilling and electrifying of word-singers, one whose command of vowels and consonants most illuminated what word-singing can be and why it matters,” wrote Max Loppert.

To celebrate this milestone, this 21-CD limited edition collects together all the great British mezzo-soprano’s Philips, L’Oiseau-Lyre, Argo, Hyperion and Deutsche Grammophon recitals, as well as significant excerpts from Bach, Handel and Mozart operas and oratorios. Appearing for the first time, complete, are three Philips recordings made with Raymond Leppard – a Handel recital framed around the composer’s cantata La Lucrezia (1972), Haydn heroines Berenice and Arianna, coupled with music by Mozart (1973), and a Beethoven/Schubert recital (1976). The collection also includes three recital discs she recorded for Hyperion of music by Schubert, Mahler and Fauré.

Tracklist:
REPERTOIRE
CD 1    PURCELL Dido and Aeneas [1961]
Anthony Lewis 

CD 2    ARIE AMOROSE (Italian Songs & Arias, arr. & ed. Simon Preston)
Neville Marriner
CAVALLI La Calisto (excerpts)
Raymond Leppard
RAMEAU Hippolyte et Aricie (excerpts)
Anthony Lewis

CD 3    HANDEL La Lucrezia; Arias from Ariodante · Atalanta · Hercules · Joshua · Rodelinda · Serse
Raymond Leppard
FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA

CD 4    J.S. BACH
St Matthew Passion BWV 244 (excerpts)
Karl Richter
Mass in B minor BWV 232 (excerpts)
ASMF / Neville Marriner
HANDEL Judas Maccabaeus (excerpts)
Charles Mackerras
NEW COMPILATION

CD 5    J.S. BACH
Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem BWV 159
Vergnügte Ruh’, beliebte Seelenlust BWV 170
ASMF / Neville Marriner
Herr, deine Augen sehen nach dem Glauben BWV 102
ECO / Benjamin Britten

CD 6    VIVALDI Gloria in D RV 589
DURANTE Magnificat a4 in B flat
David Willcocks

CD 7    HANDEL Ariodante (excerpts)
Raymond Leppard
MOZART
La clemenza di Tito (excerpts); Così fan tutte (excerpts)
Colin Davis
NEW COMPILATION

CD 8    HAYDN Scena di Berenice; Arianna a Naxos
MOZART Così fan tutte (excerpts); Abendempfindung; Das Veilchen
Raymond Leppard (conductor, fortepiano)
FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA

CD 9    GLUCK Arias from Alceste · Armide · Iphigénie en Aulide · Iphigénie en Tauride · La Rencontre imprévue · Orfeo ed Euridice · Paride ed Elena
Raymond Leppard

CD 10  BEETHOVEN Ah perfido!; No, non turbarti; Egmont (excerpts)
SCHUBERT Arias from Alfonso und Estrella, Lazarus, Rosamunde; Ständchen (“Zögernd leise”)
Raymond Leppard (conductor, piano)
FIRST CD RELEASE ON DECCA

CD 11  SCHUBERT Duets
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerald Moore

CD 12  SCHUBERT Vocal Quartets
Elly Ameling, Peter Schreier, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerald Moore

CD 13  SCHUBERT Settings of Schiller & Goethe
Graham Johnson
FIRST RELEASE ON DECCA (ORIGINAL RELEASE ON HYPERION)

CD 14  MAHLER Songs of Youth
Geoffrey Parsons
FIRST RELEASE ON DECCA (ORIGINAL RELEASE ON HYPERION)

CD 15  MAHLER Das Lied von der Erde
Bernard Haitink

CD 16  BERLIOZ Cléopâtre; Herminie; L’Enfance du Christ (excerpts); Béatrice et Bénédict (excerpt)
Colin Davis
NEW COMPILATION

CD 17  FAURÉ Mélodies, including La Chanson d’Ève
Geoffrey Parsons
FIRST RELEASE ON DECCA (ORIGINAL RELEASE ON HYPERION)

CD 18  RAVEL 3 Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé; Chansons madécasses
CHAUSSON Chanson perpétuelle
DELAGE 4 Poèmes hindous
Melos Ensemble of London / Bernard Keeffe

CD 19  HOLST Sāvitri
Imogen Holst
BRITTEN Phaedra
Steuart Bedford
BRITTEN The Rape of Lucretia (excerpts); Owen Wingrave (excerpt)
Benjamin Britten
EGK La Tentation de Saint Antoine
Werner Egk
NEW COMPILATION

CD 20  TIPPETT A Child of our Time
Colin Davis

CD 21  PURCELL Dido and Aeneas [1977]
Steuart Bedford