Dame Janet Baker is an artist who enjoyed seldom-matched success in the concert and recital halls as well as in the opera house – not to mention on disc. She 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.

Dame Janet’s 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.

To celebrate this milestone, this 21-CD limited edition collects together all the great British mezzo-soprano’s Philips, L’Oiseau-Lyre, Argo, Hyperion and Deutsche Grammophon recitals, as well as significant excerpts from Bach, Handel and Mozart operas and oratorios. Appearing for the first time, complete, are three Philips recordings made with Raymond Leppard – a Handel recital framed around the composer’s cantata La Lucrezia (1972), Haydn heroines Berenice and Arianna, coupled with music by Mozart (1973), and a Beethoven/Schubert recital (1976). The collection also includes three recital discs she recorded for Hyperion of music by Schubert, Mahler and Fauré.