Schubert: Strophe aus Die Gotter Greichenlands D677

2010

“The interpretation of Schubert's Lieder comes no better than this, a recital taken from three different broadcast sources, catching Dame Janet at the absolute peak of her powers. Most of the songs are by poets who moved the composer to his most noble inspiration. As several Schubert specialists have commented, for each he reserved a particular style, in response to their very different manner, and Baker catches the precise meaning of each.
Of the Schiller settings, the operatic expression of Amalia and the dreamy rapture of the praise of Laura (here the singer achieves one miraculous pianissimo effect) are perfectly caught. Best of all is that wonderful song, Die Götter Griechenlands, where longing is so movingly expressed. All seven Mayrhofer settings find Baker truly at one with the poet's high-minded self-communing on the meaning of life, and with his underlying fatalism.
Most notable are the calm assurance and serenity she brings to Der Sieg, the resigned isolation found in Abendstern, and the holy fire of Auflösung, the last two masterpieces that the singer did so much to make popular.
As Gerald Moore once pointed out, Baker liked the stimulus of the different ideas she received from different pianists. Here Isepp, Parsons and the young Graham Johnson provide just that, completing pleasure in a recital that goes to the heart of the chosen material: as ever one realises that Baker was, above all, a singer of conviction. The absence of any texts or translations is the only blot on a superb issue.”