Janet Baker in her own words BBC4

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  • Keraulophone
    Full Member
    • Nov 2010
    • 1972

    #31
    Originally posted by Richard Tarleton View Post
    we discovered she did a bit of Verdi, as an understudy...
    She gives an absolutely riveting performance in the 1977 RCA recording of the Verdi Requiem with Solti and the Chicago SO. It would necessitate a mezzo of Baker’s calibre to survive in the presence of Leontyne Price.

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    • gurnemanz
      Full Member
      • Nov 2010
      • 7417

      #32
      We were walking down St Martins Lane one Saturday in 1977 and spotted by pure chance that Massenet's Werther was on - more to the point - with Janet Baker performing. We duly booked tickets for the same evening. Very glad to have done so, since without that fortuitous event I would never have seen her in live opera. The only other time I saw here perform was in Das Lied from der Erde - Proms 1977. Both were memorable.

      I love her voice and enjoyed getting to know her a little more as a person via the TV programme. I have lots of CDs. Some favourites:

      My first disc was the famous Saga LP with Frauenliebe, Schubert and Brahms mentioned above.
      Wesendonck with Boult (interesting to hear her say in the programme that she would do Wagner opera in another life)
      Mahler songs with Barbirolli
      Schubert Lieder with Parsons and Moore
      Schumann Op 39 Liederkreis with Barenboim
      Last edited by gurnemanz; 16-04-19, 14:22. Reason: error - Proms 76 just checked

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      • Pulcinella
        Host
        • Feb 2014
        • 11129

        #33
        Originally posted by Keraulophone View Post
        She gives an absolutely riveting performance in the 1977 RCA recording of the Verdi Requiem with Solti and the Chicago SO. It would necessitate a mezzo of Baker’s calibre to survive in the presence of Leontyne Price.
        I'd forgotten about that.
        I had it on LP when it first came out (and was raved about) and picked up the CD dirt cheap in a branch of Feltrinelli in Florence train station!

        I also particularly treasure another Saga release: An Anthology of English Song.
        It's still available as a 2CD set coupled with the Schumann/Schubert/Brahms compilation that Bryn and gurnemanz have mentioned:

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        • Conchis
          Banned
          • Jun 2014
          • 2396

          #34
          I was pleased to hear JB speak so positively about Wagner, a composer I didn't think would be up her Strasse.

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          • Stanfordian
            Full Member
            • Dec 2010
            • 9330

            #35
            A captivating documentary about such a wonderful artist. I don't think I saw the interviewer at all - which makes a change - often it can seem more about the presenter than the subject.

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            • LMcD
              Full Member
              • Sep 2017
              • 8702

              #36
              Originally posted by Conchis View Post
              I was pleased to hear JB speak so positively about Wagner, a composer I didn't think would be up her Strasse.
              Let's hope you don't rue the day you said that.

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              • french frank
                Administrator/Moderator
                • Feb 2007
                • 30526

                #37
                I heard her live once, in the 1970s, in Cosí fan tutte with Scottish Opera. My memory was of what a good actress she was. The line that lives in my memory is Dorabella, head cocked slightly on one side, singing with a flirtatious lilt: "I will choose the handsome dark one, If it's all the same to you." More than a ripple of deserved laughter from the audience at the superb delivery.
                It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

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                • LMcD
                  Full Member
                  • Sep 2017
                  • 8702

                  #38
                  I saw her in 'The Dream of Gerontius' at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon in the late 1970s/early 1980s (?).
                  I also saw her sing Brahms's 4 Serious Songs with the Scottish National Orchestra - not royal at the time - under Alexander Gibson in Salzburg in 1967. On the following morning, the local newspaper (Salzburger Nachrichten) began its review of the latter by informing the reader that 'The Scottish National Orchestra' in not the Vienna Philharmonic'. I was pleased to have my suspicions confirmed If memory serves, the second half comprised Tchaikowsky's 4th symphony.
                  Last edited by LMcD; 17-04-19, 08:26.

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                  • Nimrod
                    Full Member
                    • Mar 2012
                    • 152

                    #39
                    Minor correction

                    Originally posted by Caliban View Post
                    Currently watching in rapt instalments. Marvellous voice, woman, programme. Additionally touching as she was my late father's favourite musician, wish he was still around to see it. (Took him to see her in Mahler's 'Kindertotenlieder' in Nottingham in the late 1970s, the repertoire was more up my street than his but it was a memorable evening).

                    Her reaction to her final performance with Barbirolli was very moving..... And fascinating to see her in Owen Wingrave.

                    I suspect this is going to get more than one watch.
                    Just a minor correction, Caliban, her "final performance" when she broke down in tears was at JB's memorial concert. Most regrettably HE was not there!

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                    • Nick Armstrong
                      Host
                      • Nov 2010
                      • 26575

                      #40
                      Originally posted by Nimrod View Post
                      Just a minor correction, Caliban, her "final performance" when she broke down in tears was at JB's memorial concert. Most regrettably HE was not there!
                      Ah my mistake, yes I was interrupted at a crucial moment - obviously lost the thread
                      "...the isle is full of noises,
                      Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
                      Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
                      Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."

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                      • ucanseetheend
                        Full Member
                        • Dec 2010
                        • 298

                        #41
                        Originally posted by Barbirollians View Post
                        I have a BBC MM CD of a recital with Raymond Leppard that I almost wore out it was so marvellous . I think it reappeared on BBC Legends .

                        One of my favourite singers - I did not find that segment at all staged - it was very moving . I cannot imagine Dame Janet tolerating anything staged like that and she sharply refused to sing for Bridcut.
                        absolutely! It was spontaneous emotion with her husband Keith at the end of the Mahler Ruckertleider!
                        Last edited by ucanseetheend; 18-04-19, 07:44.
                        "Perfection is not attainable,but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence"

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                        • LMcD
                          Full Member
                          • Sep 2017
                          • 8702

                          #42
                          I hope Dame Janet was happy with the programme (although she may not have chosen to watch it, of course). I thought it was an exemplary piece of film-making and, to my mind, there was nothing staged about her reaction to the Ruckert Lieder.

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                          • Richard Tarleton

                            #43
                            Hear hear to all of the above.

                            The thing I'd like to have heard more about - touched on, but not really explored - was her shift from contralto to mezzo.She touched on how oratorio meant sitting there for much of the evening doing nothing (I think that's more or less how she put it), and she welcomed the dramatic possibilities of opera. How was the upward shift accomplished - natural voice shift, vocal training....? Her remarkable range was touched on - was it by Copley? - must watch again!

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                            • Barbirollians
                              Full Member
                              • Nov 2010
                              • 11773

                              #44
                              Originally posted by Richard Tarleton View Post
                              Hear hear to all of the above.

                              The thing I'd like to have heard more about - touched on, but not really explored - was her shift from contralto to mezzo.She touched on how oratorio meant sitting there for much of the evening doing nothing (I think that's more or less how she put it), and she welcomed the dramatic possibilities of opera. How was the upward shift accomplished - natural voice shift, vocal training....? Her remarkable range was touched on - was it by Copley? - must watch again!
                              Yes that was interesting but she seemed very much to retain her range after going up so to speak.

                              Interestingly, one wonders what Ferrier might have been able to do had she not been struck down by cancer . Witness her recording of Chausson’s Poeme de l’Amour et la Mer - where as Bruno Walter put it to Barbirolli with whom she had learned the piece “ she has gone up “ .

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                              • Maclintick
                                Full Member
                                • Jan 2012
                                • 1084

                                #45
                                Thanks for the tip-off. I would easily have missed this, having practically given up on BBC-4 on account of endless TOTP repeats & generic pop-docu-borefests. My most vivid memory of Dame Janet in the flesh was as the eponymous hero of the ENO Handel "Julius Caesar" with Charlie Mac -- as FF & others have commented, a commanding stage-presence as well as a thrillingly emotive and utterly distinctive voice.

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