Janet Baker

...

Bach's masses, from the singing of someone like Kathleen Ferrier or, or, um, Janet Baker.

You know, that, that, that-

Yeah

Of the ups and downs of a long life.

And today I'm with Dame Janet Baker, born in 1933.

I will put it simply.

Dame Janet is a musician, a singer, a mezzo-soprano.

To list her performances, recordings, and awards would fill this podcast.

She would hate that.

To any less musical person [laughs], I just say this, Dame Janet Baker represents excellence, devotion to a discipline, and commitment to her art for the sake of the audience.

Since seniority is a great leveler, I say, Janet, welcome.

The line of Judah fortified." And Ferrier does it beautifully.

Janet Baker does it beautifully.

But also, um, I think today is the, um, is the anniversary of Bernard Greavy's death, and I, I would've seen Bernard Greavy singing S- St. John's Passion c- because she was mezzo to contralto, and she could sing those great versions.

And so, um, it, m- m- part of my interest in this voice thing, um, started with Ferrier, um, Katherine Ferrier, with Janet Baker, with, um, an, an American singer called Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and with Bernard Greavy.

In other words, I had those records, I wore out CDs of, of, uh, of those.

And therefore, getting it back, getting it back, you know? In other words, that, it beginning with that idea of a voice on a ceremonial occasion rising and filling the air.

And it was a huge thing.

It was Dame Janet Baker, Robert Teer, Stephen Varko as a soloist.

And...

I had to ask permission from the Academy to do that.