This collection brings together a wide range of recordings by an artist who won equal and rarely matched success in the concert and recital halls as well as in the opera house – not to mention on disc. Dame Janet Baker could confidently traverse the entire territory between the well-thumbed volumes of arie antiche through the inexhaustible repertoires of German lieder, the French mélodie and English song, all of them addressed with extraordinary interpretative completeness.

Of contemporary composers with whom she worked, undoubtedly the most important relationship was with Benjamin Britten who created numerous roles for her. In 1970 she was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). More honours followed – Dame Commander (DBE) in 1976 and member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1993. Her command of language was legion. "She was, in all the languages she sang, one of the most thrilling and electrifying of word-singers, one whose command of vowels and consonants most illuminated what word-singing can be and why it matters," wrote Max Loppert.

This set uniquely includes the complete recital recordings on Philips, Decca, Argo, DG and Hyperion (three albums, including the first in the illustrious Hyperion Schubert Edition which she launched), as well as substantial excerpts from complete oratorio and opera recordings.

TRACKLISTING:

CD 1: PURCELL Dido and Aeneas [1961]
Anthony Lewis

CD 2: ARIE AMOROSE Neville Marriner
CAVALLI La Calisto (excerpts)
Raymond Leppard
RAMEAU Hippolyte et Aricie (excerpts)
Anthony Lewis

CD 3: HANDEL La Lucrezia; Arias from Ariodante · Atalanta · Hercules · Joshua · Rodelinda · Serse
Raymond Leppard

CD 4: J.S. BACH St. Matthew Passion BWV 244 (excerpts)
Karl Richter
Mass in B minor BWV 232 (excerpts)
ASMF / Neville Marriner
HANDEL Judas Maccabaeus (excerpts)
Charles Mackerras

CD 5: J.S. BACH Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem BWV 159
Vergnügte Ruh’, beliebte Seelenlust BWV 170
ASMF / Neville Marriner
Herr, deine Augen sehen nach dem Glauben BWV 102
ECO / Benjamin Britten

CD 6: VIVALDI Gloria in D RV 589
DURANTE Magnificat a4 in B flat
David Willcocks

CD 7: HANDEL Ariodante (excerpts)
Raymond Leppard
MOZART La clemenza di Tito (excerpts); Così fan tutte (excerpts)
Colin Davis

CD 8: HAYDN Scena di Berenice; Arianna a Naxos
MOZART Così fan tutte (excerpts); Abendempfindung; Das Veilchen
Raymond Leppard (conductor, fortepiano)

CD 9: GLUCK Arias from Alceste · Armide · Iphigénie en Aulide · Iphigénie en Tauride · La Rencontre imprévue · Orfeo ed Euridice · Paride ed Elena
Raymond Leppard

CD 10: BEETHOVEN Ah perfido!; No, non turbarti; Egmont (excerpts)
SCHUBERT Arias from Alfonso und Estrella, Lazarus, Rosamunde; Ständchen (“Zögernd leise”)
Raymond Leppard (conductor, piano)

CD 11: SCHUBERT Duets
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerald Moore

CD 12: SCHUBERT Vocal Quartets
Elly Ameling, Peter Schreier, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerald Moore

CD 13: SCHUBERT Settings of Schiller & Goethe
Graham Johnson

CD 14: MAHLER Songs of Youth
Geoffrey Parsons

CD 15: MAHLER Das Lied von der Erde
Bernard Haitink

CD 16: BERLIOZ Cléopâtre; Herminie; L’Enfance du Christ (excerpts); Béatrice et Bénédict (excerpt)
Colin Davis

CD 17: FAURÉ Mélodies, including La Chanson d’Ève
Geoffrey Parsons

CD 18: RAVEL 3 Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé; Chansons madécasses
CHAUSSON Chanson perpétuelle
DELAGE 4 Poèmes hindous
Melos Ensemble of London / Bernard Keeffe

CD 19: HOLST Sāvitri
Imogen Holst
BRITTEN Phaedra
Steuart Bedford
BRITTEN The Rape of Lucretia (excerpts); Owen Wingrave (excerpt)
Benjamin Britten
EGK La Tentation de Saint Antoine
Werner Egk

CD 20: TIPPETT A Child of our Time
Colin Davis

CD 21: PURCELL Dido and Aeneas [1977]
Steuart Bedford