MAHLER / BRAHMS

 

Janet Baker

 

Mahler

Das Lied von der Erde

Janet Baker mezzo-soprano

John Mitchinson tenor

BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra / Raymond Leppard

Recorded: Free Trade Hall, Manchester, 22 February 1977

 

Brahms

Alto Rhapsody (Mono)

Janet Baker mezzo-soprano

BBC Men’s Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra / Sir Adrian Boult

Recorded: Royal Festival Hall, London, 6 November 1968

 

Janet Baker's performance of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde was first issued on BBC Radio Classics in 1995. It received the following review in the Penquin Guide, 'The Leppard version offers Dame Janet Baker at her very peak in 1977, giving one of the most moving and richly varied readings of the contralto songs ever...the final Abschied has depth and intensity that set it above even Dame Janet's earlier recording with Haitink...an essential purchase for admirers of Dame Janet and Mahler'.

 

John Mitchinson, 'focuses ever more securely through the work, with many cleanly ringing top notes.' Penguin Guide

 

Paul Baily, our re-mastering engineer, has vastly improved the original stereo tapes.

 

The Mahler is coupled with a rare broadcast of Dame Janet singing Brahms's Alto Rhapsody accompanied by Sir Adrian Boult and the BBCSO in 1968. Recorded live in the Royal Festival Hall, it comes two years before her studio account made in December 1970 and as always with live performances, has that extra frisson which Janet Baker could give.

 

Stereo/Mono

 

BBC Legends BBCL42432