Album review: Janet Baker

JANET BAKER

Plaisir d'Amour

****

Decca 478 0320, £12.99

This double CD celebration of Janet Baker demonstrates not just the beauty of her voice and the skill of her singing, but also the range of music she was prepared to tackle. The earliest recording – from 1961 – is of the aria for which she is most widely known, from Purcell's Dido And Aeneas, taken at a slightly faster pace than usually heard. If the Baroque features strongly, with music by Haydn, Handel and a host of Italian composers, three arias from Britten's Phaedra show her willingness to perform newly written music. The 'voice beautiful' is there throughout, too much so at times. Nevertheless, highly worthwhile.

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