# MEZZO/CONTRALTO TOURNAMENT (By Request): Baker vs Ferrier



## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Janet Baker, England, 1933-






Kathleen Ferrier, England 1912-1953






'Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen' from Mahler's _Ruckert-Lieder_.

Who's singing did you prefer and why?


----------



## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

I will listen nothing, my dearest. *Janet *with eyes (and ears) closed. THE DIVA! Big love for me. *Icon singer.*


----------



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Again out of my knowledge of opera arias.
So I must simply listen and choose the voice that grabs me the most. For me it was an easy choice because I much preferred the sound of Janet Baker. Hers seemed much more gentle and ethereal to me.


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

First off I have to put Jessye Norman's super rich deep contralto rendition of this out of my mind. Begone!
Janet Baker is one of my favorite singers and she sings this with great sensitivity and beauty but I am a real sucker for Ferrier's darker instrument and the emotional pull her singing always has on me. Yes it is chocolaty beautiful but her upper register is so sublime and sweet as well. She and Baker are both outstanding emotional interpreters of Mahler.
Do yourself a favor and hear the outstanding chest singing Norman does on this piece . She sounds like she is singing in a cave. I think she is a more sensitive interpreter of this type of music than opera. Forgive me for hijacking this competition.


----------



## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

Oh, this music is so magnificent - and it is served by two equally magnificent singers in this comparison. Much as I adore Baker’s incredible sensitivity, technique, and communicative skill, helped along by Barbirolli’s sumptuous accompaniment; I am absolutely won over by the dark, mystical beauty of Ferrier’s contralto - what an extraordinary low register; and I connect with the more urgent, unbroken sense of pathos that she is able to offer through the quicker tempo.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I have nothing to add to what Allegro Con Brio has said.


----------



## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

This is a wonderful comparison and one that is very dear to me. Thanks Bonetan.

There is a similarity between this round and the one with Stignani and Verrett in that we get the pairing of a deeper, richer voice with a true mezzo. Ferrier is considered a contralto and Baker a mezzo and to my ear Verrett was a dramatic mezzo, whereas Stignani was a contralto. Unfortunately the two voices have become almost amalgamated with the Contralto nearly ceasing to exist and the limited range of larger roles for deeper female voices means that most women in these categories can sing both mezzo and contralto parts. We have also become used to hearing both brighter and darker voices in the same roles such that we tolerate a wider range of singers in Rossini (for example) than we do for bass and baritone roles.

I have tried to put aside which of the two voices I prefer in these contests and to listen beyond that to _how_ the singer performs the piece. Hence I agree with all those who are attracted to Stignani's and Ferrier's darker tones, but that isn't enough to be preferred over the other performer. Here we get two singers with impeccable technique and so it comes down to interpretation. Baker's version is pure perfection and it can't be faulted. This is intelligent artistry at the highest level. Ferrier has quite a different approach and recites the song as if she were the protagonist experiencing its scenario, which contrasts nicely with Baker's more detached stance in keeping with the art of the Lied. Baker's approach is more intellectual, Ferrier's more emotional. It's like the difference between going to a lecture on grief and sitting beside the death bed of a loved one. Baker made me think, Ferrier made me feel.

N.


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

The Conte said:


> This is a wonderful comparison and one that is very dear to me. Thanks Bonetan.
> 
> There is a similarity between this round and the one with Stignani and Verrett in that we get the pairing of a deeper, richer voice with a true mezzo. Ferrier is considered a contralto and Baker a mezzo and to my ear Verrett was a dramatic mezzo, whereas Stignani was a contralto. Unfortunately the two voices have become almost amalgamated with the Contralto nearly ceasing to exist and the limited range of larger roles for deeper female voices means that most women in these categories can sing both mezzo and contralto parts. We have also become used to hearing both brighter and darker voices in the same roles such that we tolerate a wider range of singers in Rossini (for example) than we do for bass and baritone roles.
> 
> ...


Interestingly, I find that Baker makes me think _and_ feel. I think this performance by her and Barbirolli (it is as much his performance as hers and you can really hear the deep rapport that existed between them) one of the most perfect of anything I've ever heard. It would be among my desert island discs and, in the recent BBC documentary about Baker, her husband also chose it as his favourite recording of hers. It was one of the most moving sections in the programme, with Baker, her husband, his carer and the interviewer listening to the record. Even Dame Janet herself shed a furtive tear.

I adore Ferrier too. As Le Conte says, she was a true contralto to Baker's mezzo. There was also something tremendously direct about her music making, a sort of honesty, if I can put it like that. Her version, with Walter conducting (almost as celebrated a partnership as the Baker/Barbirolli one) is also one of my favourites. It's made doubly moving by the fact that these recordings with Walter were made towards the end of her life, when she knew she didn't have much longer to live.

That said, it's Baker's specificity, her attention to detail, her total understanding of the text and her wonderful _innigkeit_ that win the day for me. It's the recording I play to anyone who ever doubted Baker's pre-eminence as a singer.


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

As an aside, I would just like to mention that I heard Baker sing the _Rückert Lieder_ with Walter Weller conducting at the Royal Festival Hall, which is quite a large hall. Even in the concert hall, her wonderful _pianissimi_ somehow floated out to reach the furthest corners of the hall. Hers was not a large voice but there was never any trouble hearing her and every occasion on which I heard her sing was something special and remains a treasured memory for me.


----------



## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Ferrier darker tones maybe can be explained by the fact she performs the piece one whole tone lower than Baker.
For me Baker's dreamy version works best, _Der Abschied_-like state, half-awake, half-entranced. Amazing recording!
This is a matter of personal preference anyway!


----------



## sfrobcurry (Jul 30, 2021)

I love your response to the question. I hold both ladies very dear to my heart. It’s an impossible choice for me. Such different voices too. Mezzo and contralto. I would suggest maybe two more similar voices. Kathleen Ferrier and Aafne Heynis? (Again it would be a painful “Sophie’s Choice” for me, but my love for Kaff would most probably win out). There’s a wonderful BBC documentary viewable on YouTube about KF, with much commentary from Dame Janet…a great admirer of KF. Another admirer was Elizabeth Swarkkopf…a lady not known for her documented admiration of other singers! She provides the foreword in the wonderful biography by Maurice Leonard, recounting the 3 occasions of singing with Kathleen, in the B minor Mass, Messiah and Missa Solemnis. She recalls Karajan “bursting into tears” at hearing K’s Agnus Dei and of the Messiah…”it seems to me know that there was a prophet speaking through her singing…there are great singers but very few geniuses whom you recognize after hearing one note - KF was one such genius”.


----------

