Strauss - Der Rosenkavalier
Baker; Dernesch; Scottish Opera Chorus; Royal Scottish National Orchestra / Gibson
Strauss - Ariadne auf Naxos (Prologue)
Baker; Dernesch; Scottish Chamber Orchestra / Del Mar
Schumann - Frauenliebe und -leben
Dame Janet Baker; Graham Johnson
Ponto PO 1039 (4CD)

Release date February 2006

Here’s an invaluable set, documenting a great performance from the golden age of Scottish Opera. The lack of any commercial recordings of complete operas conducted by Sir Alexander Gibson was always a grievous omission; like Karl Böhm or Rudolf Kempe, Gibson really came alive in the theatre, and his art deserves to be preserved on record. This Rosenkavalier is notable for Janet Baker’s Octavian. The run of performances from which this recording derives was the only time that Baker ever sang the part. She says that “…it’s a lovely role, but tremendously hard work. And the Trio and the Rose Scene are not enough to interest me, though they might be to other singers.” It’s a shame, for Baker was a wonderful comic actress, as she proves here. She’s greatly assisted by Gibson, who’s one of the few conductors to really make something of Octavian/Mariandel’s scene with Baron Ochs in Act III – in most performances you get the impression that the conductor can’t wait to get to the entrance of the Marschallin. Although Ponto is marketing the set firmly at Baker fans (Gibson doesn’t get a mention on the front cover!), this performance is far from being the Janet Baker Show. Her Marschallin was the German soprano Helga Dernesch, who was a Scottish Opera regular around this time – her Leonora and Isolde are likely to remain in the memories of all who heard them. Her strong-but-creamy voice is ideal for the Marschallin. This production was sung in English, but it doesn’t seem to discomfort Dernesch at all. The Sophie was the late-lamented Elizabeth Harwood, whose Fiordiligi (playing opposite Baker’s Dorabella) in Cosí fan Tutte was one of Scottish Opera’s greatest achievements. Her Sophie is sweet without being overly winsome, a perfect foil for Baker’s passionate Octavian. As a coupling, we have the Prologue to Ariadne auf Naxos, again featuring Baker and Dernesch, this time conducted by Norman del Mar with an early incarnation of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in the pit. This is also valuable; del Mar was a Strauss specialist (his three-volume critical biography is pretty much the last word on the subject) and his vital account of this scene is well worth hearing – I’m only sorry that we don’t have Act II as well. You might well ask what Schumann’s Frauenliebe und –leben has got to do with the price of tea in China in this context. At any rate, it’s a very fine account from 1979 (we’re not told where it was recorded), accompanied by Graham Johnson. The Baker-orientated notes are by Andrew Palmer; they’re useful for the potted biographies of the principals. Ponto doesn’t enlighten us on the provenance of the recording. It’s far better than one might expect, with good stage-pit balance.

Sandy Matheson