Dame Janet Baker; "WESENDONCK LIEDER"; Richard Wagner
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 พ.ค. 2024
- This channel is the re-establishment of previous channels that have been sadly terminated.
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Dame Janet Baker--mezzo-soprano
Sir Adrian Boult--conductor
LPO
1975
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"Dame Janet Abbott Baker CH, DBE, FRSA (born 21 August 1933) is an English mezzo-soprano best known as an opera, concert, and lieder singer.[1]
Baker was particularly closely associated with baroque and early Italian opera and the works of Benjamin Britten. During her career, which spanned the 1950s to the 1980s, she was considered an outstanding singing actress and widely admired for her dramatic intensity, perhaps best represented in her famous portrayal as Dido, the tragic heroine of Berlioz's magnum opus, Les Troyens. As a concert performer, Dame Janet was noted for her interpretations of the music of Gustav Mahler and Edward Elgar. David Gutman, writing in Gramophone, described her performance of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder as "intimate, almost self-communing."[2]
Janet Abbott Baker was born in Hatfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, where her father was an engineer as well as a chorister.[3][4] Members of her family worked at Bentley Pit, in Doncaster.[5] She attended York College for Girls and then Wintringham Girls' Grammar School in Grimsby.[6] The death of her elder brother, Peter, when she was 10 years old, from a heart condition, was a formative moment that made her take responsibility for the rest of her life, she revealed in a BBC Radio 3 Lebrecht Interview in September 2011.[7]
In 1956, she made her stage debut with Oxford University's Opera Club as Miss Róza in Smetana's The Secret. That year, she also made her debut at Glyndebourne. In 1959, she sang Eduige in the Handel Opera Society's Rodelinda; other Handel roles included Ariodante (1964), of which she later made an outstanding recording with Raymond Leppard, and Orlando (1966), which she sang at the Barber Institute, Birmingham.[citation needed]
With the English Opera Group at Aldeburgh, Baker sang Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in 1962, Polly (in Benjamin Britten's version of The Beggar's Opera) and Lucretia (in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia). At Glyndebourne she appeared again as Dido (1966) and as Diana/Jupiter in Francesco Cavalli's La Calisto, and Penelope in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria. For Scottish Opera she sang Dorabella in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Dido in Berlioz's The Trojans as well as Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas,[10] Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos and the role of Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. The latter was considered her signature role; she sang it in many productions and a videotaped performance from Glyndebourne is available (see below).
In 1966, Janet Baker made her debut as Hermia in Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and went on to sing Berlioz's Dido, Kate in Britten's Owen Wingrave, Mozart's Vitellia and Idamante, Cressida in William Walton's Troilus and Cressida and the title role in Gluck's Alceste (1981) there. For the English National Opera, she sang the title role in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea (1971),[11] Charlotte in Massenet's Werther, and the title roles in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda and Handel's Giulio Cesare.
During this same period she made an equally strong impact on audiences in the concert hall, both in oratorio roles and solo recitals. Among her most notable achievements are her recordings of the Angel in Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, made with Sir John Barbirolli in December 1964 and Sir Simon Rattle over twenty years later; her 1965 performances of Elgar's Sea Pictures and Mahler's Rückert Lieder, also recorded with Barbirolli; and, also from 1965, the first commercial recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams's Christmas oratorio Hodie under Sir David Willcocks. In 1963, she sang the contralto part in the first performance at the BBC Promenade Concerts of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony under the direction of Leopold Stokowski, then making his Proms debut appearances. She performed in 1971 for the Peabody Mason Concert series in Boston.[12]
Honours and awards
Janet Baker was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1970 and appointed to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1976.[15][16] She was appointed a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1993.[17] I
Private life
She married James Keith Shelley in 1957 in Harrow; he became her manager and accompanied her to engagements. They decided not to have children for the sake of her career.[24] "; Wikipedia (edited)
Welcome! Always magnificent Janet Baker. . Wagner's music is beautiful and moving, and Wesendonck's poems are poetic and profound. Thank you for sharing this adorable performance. Love it.
❤️
There was no one like her; what a treasure to have her recording of these songs!
👏
J'ai toujours aimé ces Lieder de Wagner....sa partie la plus intimiste ....même si on reconnaît les parties musicales insérées ailleurs . Madame Baker est une interprète excellente ..la beauté, la couleur de la voix, bien sûr mais aussi "le dire"......quelle musicalité, quelle intelligence du texte ! Fusion parfaite avec l"orchestre....sûrement une interprétation de reference ❤❤❤
It was a deeply impressive performance. A very beautiful legato is immersed in my heart.
👏 AND thank you for following along with the channel. TH-cam will only allow this channel to post 10 videos daily. My apologies.
I have a record of her songs (Schubert, Brahms). It was a gift from my father. Magnificent voice❤
El lirismo de la voz de Janet Baker está fuera de toda discusión.
Es referente del bello canto.
Y aquí está demostrado con creces. No es necesario ser wagneriano para cantar estas canciones.
Y me animo a decir que así suenan mucho mejor. Con un decir bien legato.
En todo caso, ¿que es el canto? Decir. Y se dice uniendo bellamente notas, articulando en la medida necesaria.
Sublime lo que está haciendo (lo estoy escuchando....)
Y bellamente conducido por sir Adrian Boult.
Un descubrimiento para mí. Es más me animo a decir, que estas canciones hechas así por la voz y por la orquesta, tienen una mirada futurista, en algún punto tienen aromas impresionistas como un Debussy.... Este Wagner más intimista....me atrae, y quizás más que las grandilocuencias...
❤ Gracias ❤
Fantástica elección para poner aquí.
As always, my pleasure. A comment that adds immeasurably to the music and peformance. AND thank you for following along with the channel.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Many proven Wagnerian sopranos have recording this cycle but this remains the most profound reading of all. Baker’s highest notes are not just blasts of power (which is the default reading), but pure and luminous, like a time lapse of a blossom opening.
No other interpreter has ever penetrated to the tragic heart of this song cycle (composed at the time of Tristan). There is an equally remarkable live performance (conducted by Goodall) on BBC Legends.
👏 AND thank you for following along with the channel.
Was this ever issued on CD? I can't seem to find it! 😔
It should absolutely be the "reference recording".
On Warner Classics Janet Baker ICON 5 disc set
@@liederoperagreats Thank you! I'll look for it.
Also issued on a separate EMI cd with R Strauss lieder and Brahms Alto Rhapsody.
@@sciagurrato1831 Thanks. I never saw that, but I think I can get the ICON set.