Heather Harper (1930-2019)

[Pianophile]

RIP.

A wonderful singer. Her recording of Les Illuminations with the Northern Sinfonia and Marriner is still my favourite version.

I much prefer her to Vishnevskaya in the War Requiem. I recently watched the film on YouTube from the RAH with Meredith Davies and Britten conducting with Pears and Thomas Hemsley. (I expect to be jumped upon for expressing this, though)

[Richard Tarleton]

Nice story in her obituary in The Times - at the time of the War Requiem performance "she was sharing a flat in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, with the mezzo Janet Baker and later recalled having to leave a fridge full of food and a line-up of little puddings for Baker who, she said, could not cook." It goes on: "While many thought Harper’s performance to have been the finest thing she ever did, when Decca came to record the work it deemed her insufficiently “commercial” and the recording went instead to Vishnevskaya, by now granted a visa, who indulged in the type of diva tantrums that were no part of Harper’s routine."

I don't think the Bridcut programme made any reference to Janet Baker's cooking

[LMcD]

RIP.

A wonderful singer. Her recording of Les Illuminations with the Northern Sinfonia and Marriner is still my favourite version.

I much prefer her to Vishnevskaya in the War Requiem. I recently watched the film on YouTube from the RAH with Meredith Davies and Britten conducting with Pears and Thomas Hemsley. (I expect to be jumped upon for expressing this, though) ������

Not by me, you won't!

[Barbirollians]

Nice story in her obituary in The Times - at the time of the War Requiem performance "she was sharing a flat in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, with the mezzo Janet Baker and later recalled having to leave a fridge full of food and a line-up of little puddings for Baker who, she said, could not cook." It goes on: "While many thought Harper’s performance to have been the finest thing she ever did, when Decca came to record the work it deemed her insufficiently “commercial” and the recording went instead to Vishnevskaya, by now granted a visa, who indulged in the type of diva tantrums that were no part of Harper’s routine."

I don't think the Bridcut programme made any reference to Janet Baker's cooking

It made reference to her husband Keith cooking for her before a performance .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

RIP.

A wonderful singer. Her recording of Les Illuminations with the Northern Sinfonia and Marriner is still my favourite version.

I much prefer her to Vishnevskaya in the War Requiem. I recently watched the film on YouTube from the RAH with Meredith Davies and Britten conducting with Pears and Thomas Hemsley. (I expect to be jumped upon for expressing this, though) ������

Well, if so - you just jump right back!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Not by me, you won't!

[subcontrabass]

I first heard her in around 1955 or 1956, when she was a soloist with the choral society of the Grammar School attended by my older brother (which I also later attended). She sang there on two or three occasions. A few years later her sister Alison was the local peripatetic cello teacher before going off to join CBSO. The first performance of War Requiem was a rare occasion when the two sisters appeared on the same platform.

[Flay]

Very sad

[ardcarp]

Only just came across this thread. She was a wonderful performer, and I saw her live in several Britten roles, including Turn of the Screw and Peter Grimes.

So many fine artists of her (our?) generation seem to be leaving us. But she will be fondly remembered.

[Pianophile]

Well, if so - you just jump right back!