Great Performers: Dame Janet Baker
There's something uniquely tinged with sadness in Dame Janet Baker's mezzo-soprano voice, which makes her an ideal interpreter of the music of loss from Purcell to Britten. It's easy to forget that the LP that introduced the record-collecting world to the emotionally rich cello playing of Jacqueline du Pré, unveiled a no-less thrilling artist on its second side: Janet Baker singing Edward Elgar's 'Sea Pictures', a performance that remains as much a benchmark as du Pré's does of the Cello Concerto. And just as Sir John Barbirolli was a mentor to du Pré, so he became a trusted and inspirational music partner for the young singer. Together they would record Mahler's songs and catch that colossal wave of appreciation of Mahler's music as it climbed towards its noble crest in the 1970s and beyond. Later Baker would be among the voices that Leonard Bernstein sought out when he performed and recorded that same repertoire.
Read more…Music of loss provided the key to some of Janet Baker's most powerful performances. Dido, deserted by her beloved Aeneas – himself torn between love and duty – finds Baker at her most regal, whether is it as Purcell's queen bidding farewell to life and love in her famous Lament, or as the same character in Berlioz’s 'Les Troyens' (where, sadly, she recorded only a couple of arias). In Gluck's 'Orfeo ed Euridice', Orpheus questions how he will possibly endure without his beloved, and Baker's interpretation of 'Che farò senza Euridice' captures the complex emotional range of this seemingly simple aria. Mahler's great song-symphony 'Das Lied von der Erde' ends with the long 'Abschied', another farewell to life and which Baker made her own in her various recordings of the work.
Baker's range was very broad, running from the Baroque – her career coinciding with that first and hugely important exploration of the repertoire by Raymond Leppard and others – to works written for her by, in particular, Benjamin Britten. Her wonderfully focused tone is perfect in Handel (she was a truly magnificent interpreter of Giulio Cesare, in English) and Bach. She was unusual casting as Dorabella in Sir Colin Davis's recording of Mozart's 'Così fan tutte', but she created a gloriously rounded character. And in the world of song, her attention to text brings a whole range of Lieder and mélodie to life (the rapport she had with André Previn and the viola-player Cecil Aronowitz makes her version of Brahms's two Op. 91 songs sheer joy). In French music, she excelled, too: her recording, with Barbirolli, of Berlioz's' Les Nuits d'été' is one of very few to rival the classic by Régine Crespin, and she makes a touching soloist in Maurice Duruflé's Requiem.
Baker's career was always handled with great care and musical discretion and, while wide-ranging, leaves one wishing that she'd recorded numerous roles by Richard Strauss and Wagner, but we can't complain of the richness of her catalogue. Her voice, instantly recognisable, shows that a fine technique, a lively intelligence and a palpable integrity count for so much. Just listen to her in Benjamin Britten’s gentle and exquisite Corpus Christi Carol and wonder at her artistry.