Kindertotenlieder
1 - No. 1, "Nun will die Sonn' so hell aufgehn"
2 - No. 2, "Nun seh' ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen"
3 - No. 3, "Wenn dein Mutterlein tritt zur Tur herein"
4 - No. 4, "Oft denk' ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen!"
5 - No. 5, "In diesem Wetter, in diesem Braus"

Ruckertlieder
6 - No. 1, "Ich atmet' einen linden Duft"
7 - No. 2, "Liebst du um Schonheit": "Liebst du um Schonheit, o nicht mich liebe!"
8 - No. 3, "Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder!"
9 - No. 4, "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen"
10 - No. 5, "Um Mitternacht': "Um Mitternacht hab' ich gewacht"

Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen

11 - No. 1, "Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht"
12 - No. 2, "Ging heut' Morgen ubers Feld"
13 - No. 3, "Ich hab' ein gluhend' Messer, ein Messer in meiner Brust"
14 - No. 4, "Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz"

Dame Janet Baker (Mezzo Soprano) 
Hallé Orchestra 
New Philharmonia Orchestra 
Sir John Barbirolli - conductor

Only if you prefer, as Mahler did, a male soloist can you possibly want more; but if he had ever heard Janet Baker, he too would surely have changed his mind.

This disc is such a familiar face in the classical record catalogue that it has become the point of reference for Mahler song cycles. It would appear to be virtually beyond criticism, yet it is worth remembering that on its first release (minus the Rückertlieder) it did not meet with universal praise. Indeed, our pre-eminent Mahlerian, Deryck Cooke, found quite a few things that were not to his taste, particularly the over-affectionate phrasing from the conductor. Listening again to the now 35-year-old recordings makes one realise where some of that criticism was coming from, as well as making one sit up in admiration for the quality of musicianship on display, especially from Baker.

As might be expected with these artists, the songs that come off best are the deeper, more introspective ones. There is no better example than ‘Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen’, and many collectors will already know the classic New Philharmonia version from the complete recording of 1969. EMI do us a real service by including here an earlier recording from 1967 which was made using spare studio time from the main sessions. If anything, it is even finer than the later one, showing a truly breathtaking control of words and shaping. The half tones employed by Baker give the song an ethereal feel, an almost other-worldly atmosphere that is difficult to dislodge from one’s mind. The spare instrumental lines are beautifully played by the Hallé. Generally this must count as one of the greatest versions of this song now before the public, the only real comparison coming from these same artists two years later. The intensity is still there, but the sense of wonderment and discovery in the earlier version is something rather special.

These general observations could be applied to other songs on the disc. I was particularly taken with ‘Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgeh’n’, the first of the Kindertotenlieder. How wonderful Baker’s handling of the text is here, with the tone filling out majestically on the words ‘in ewig Licht’ at around 3’56. Listen also to Barbirolli’s illumination of the cello line at 5’20, where the moulding of the phrase is so pliable. The heartrending shift to D major in the second song ‘Nun she ich wohl’, (around 2’51) with Baker floating over the orchestra on the word ‘Leuchten’, is thoroughly typical of these two artists’ loving attention to detail.

Where they are less successful (and this is probably where Cooke’s misgivings were directed) is in the more youthful ‘Wayfarer’ cycle. Here there is no doubt that a slightly more fleet-of-foot accompaniment would have helped. They just about get away with it in ‘Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht’, though even here one feels Baker wants to move things on against her conductor’s wishes. But the second song, the famous ‘Ging heut morgen übers Feld’ is simply too plodding to be properly effective. If one compares Brigitte Fassbaender and Riccardo Chailly (Decca) here, there is no doubt the faster tempo and ‘sprung’ accompaniment is far more convincing. The wild storm of ‘Ich hab ein glühend Messer’ is also a touch tame for my liking in Barbirolli’s hands, where Chailly really whips up excitement. One also feels that Chailly observes correctly Mahler’s marking of without sentimentality in ‘Die zwei blauen Augen’, whereas Barbirolli teeters perilously close to it. Having said that, the constant illumination of words and phrases from Baker and Barbirolli usually more than compensate. It is just worth remembering that there is more than one approach to these masterpieces, and most serious collectors would almost certainly not be content with only one version of the complete cycles. As mentioned above, ‘Ich bin der Welt’ seems to be in a different class from almost anything else on the disc, and is worth the modest outlay for that alone.

Recording quality is excellent, full, warm and spacious, with plenty of detail. Affectionate notes (to match the music making) are by the friend of both artists, Michael Kennedy. Keen Mahlerites will probably have these performances anyway, but younger collectors investing in this new incarnation will have little cause for complaint.--- Tony Haywood, MusicWeb International

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1. Dido and Aeneas - But death, alas!.. When I am laid in earth.. With drooping wings
2. Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust, BWV 170
3. La Calisto - Act 1, Ardo, Sospiro E Piango
4. Hippolyte et Aricie - Cruelle mere des amours
5. Hippolyte et Aricie - Quelle plainte en ces lieux m'appelle
6. Trois Poemes de Stephane Mallarme - Soupir
7. Trois Poemes de Stephane Mallarme - Placet futile
8. Trois Poemes de Stephane Mallarme - Surgi de la croupe et du bond
9. Chansons madecasses - Nahandove
10. Chansons madecasses - Aoua! Aoua! Mefiez-vous des blancs
11. Chansons madecasses - Il est doux de se coucher durant la chaleur
12. Chanson perpetuelle, op.37
13. Quatre Poemes hindous - Une belle
14. Quatre Poemes hindous - Un sapin isole
15. Quatre Poemes hindous - Naissance de Bouddha
16. Quatre Poemes hindous - Si vous pensez a elle

Janet Baker – mezzo-soprano
English Chamber Orchestra
Anthony Lewis – conductor

Born: August 21, 1933 - Hatfield, South Yorkshire, North England, UK

The English mezzo-soprano, Dame Janet Baker (Abbott), studied music in London in 1953 with Helene Isepp and Meriel St Clair. She has enjoyed an extensive operatic career, especially in early Italian opera and the works of Benjamin Britten. As a concert performer, she is noted for her interpretations of Gustav Mahler and Edward Elgar.

Janet Baker made her debut in 1956 as Miss Róza in The Secret (Oxford University Opera Club) and at the same year she appeared for the first time in Glyndebourne , and took second place at the Kathleen Ferrier Prize competition. In 1959 she won the Queen’s Prize at the Royal College of Music. That same year she sang Eduige in the Handel Opera Society’s Rodelinda; other George Frideric Handel roles included Ariodante (1964) and Orlando (1966), which she sang at the Barber Institute, Birmingham. With the English Opera Group at Aldeburgh she sang Purcell’s Dido (1962), Polly (B. Britten’s version of The Beggar’s Opera) and Lucretia. At Glyndebourne she appeared again as Dido (1966) and as Diana/Jupiter (Calisto) and Penelope (Il ritorno d’Ulisse). For Scottish Opera she sang Dorabella, Dido (Troyens), Octavian, the Composer and Gluck’s Orpheus. At Covent Garden, having made her debut in 1966 as Hermia, she sang Berlioz’s Dido, Kate in owen wingrave (the role she created in its original television version in 1971), Mozart’s Vitellia and Idamantes, Walton’s Cressida and Gluck’s Alcestis (1981). For the English National Opera she sang Poppaea, Donizetti’s Mary Stuart, Charlotte (Werther) and G.F. Handel’s Julius Caesar. In 1982 she retired from opera, after singing Mary Stuart at the ENO and Gluck’s Orpheus at Glyndebourne. She described her final opera season and her career in Full Circle (London, 1982).

Complete emotional identification with her roles, many of which she recorded, and a rich, expressive and flexible voice enabled Janet Baker to excel in florid as well as dramatic music. Janet Baker was created a DBE in 1976. She became a Companion of Honour in 1994. --- bach-cantatas.com

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Chausson - Poeme de l'amour et de la mer (Poem of Love and of the Sea), Op. 19
1. No. 1. La fleur des eaux	12:08
2. No. 2. Interlude	2:28
3. No. 3. La mort de l'amour: Le temps des lilas	13:23	

Berlioz - Les nuits d'ete, Op. 7
4. Les nuits d'ete, Op. 7: No. 1. Villanelle	2:29	
5. Les nuits d'ete, Op. 7: No. 2. Le Spectre de la rose	8:21
6. Les nuits d'ete, Op. 7: No. 3. Sur les lagunes	6:10	
7. Les nuits d'ete, Op. 7: No. 4. Absence	6:21	
8. Les nuits d'ete, Op. 7: No. 5. Au cimetiere	5:20	
9. Les nuits d'ete, Op. 7: No. 6. L'Ile inconnue	4:25

Scoenberg - Gurre-Lieder, Part I 
10. Tauben von Gurre! Sorge qualt mich, "Song of the Wood Dove"	13:47

Janet Baker – mezzo-soprano
London Philharmonic Orchestra (4-9)
London Symphony Orchestra (1-3, 10)
Carlo Maria Giulini – conductor (4-9)
Evgeny Svetlanov – conductor (1-3)
Norman del Mar – conductor (10)

When Berlioz wrote Les nuits d'ete he set it for voice and piano, the voice being mezzo-soprano or tenor, but when he orchestrated it 15 years later a variety of voices was his choice. There have been few recordings with more than one singer.Janet Baker recorded the cycle for EMI and Virgin, the latter late in her career. The former, with Barbirolli conducting, is a performance of many virtues, rivalling the first version that I obtained: Eleanor Steber's. The present one is from 1975, between the two mentioned above. How well she sings 'Le spectre de la rose', with long-breathed phrases, the final stanza ending exquisitely as she pares down her tone. Then a markedly different colour for the first line of the following song, 'Sur les lagunes', as she sings of the loved one being dead. The darkness of tone well conveys the bitterness: a splendid interpretation, with Giulini complementing the singer's intensity and subtlety, taking a slow journey through the work. 'Absence' is equally sensitive, the separation achingly real. This deserves to be placed alongside Baker's recording with Barbirolli, both better than the one with Hickox.The Chausson Poeme (previously issued on BBC Radio Classics) presents the voice in rather diffused sound, not ideally focused, as though set back. Baker is her usual committed self, bringing, as Alan Blyth writes in his note, variations of vocal colouring. The voice rattles a little when pressure is applied at full volume, but Baker certainly covers the range from passionate outpouring to delicacy. I would have enjoyed it more in a cleaner recording.Some years earlier, Baker sang the 'Song of the Wood Dove', and in what good voice she is, low notes rich and firm. I do not want to overuse the word, but Baker really was an intense singer. This is a dramatic scene, to which she brings gripping concentration. Magnificent. Though all three concerts were given in the Royal Festival Hall, the sound is variable. The Berlioz and Chausson were only a month apart, but the voice comes across more clearly, more focused, in the former. The Schoenberg has the best sound. That and Les nuits d'ete are strongly recommended. ---John T. Hughes, International Record Review

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