“What a pleasure it is to listen to Janet Baker. I suspect if someone had set the telephone book to C-Major arpeggios, she would have found a way to make it engrossing. This CD, compiled from Philips recordings made in 1973 and 1976, finds Baker in good voice-relishing subtle turns of phrases and smooth vocalism in ways that always catch the ear but never sound mannered. Her technique is surprisingly agile when it needs to be (“Parto! Parto” for example), but it is her ability to inflect the voice, to imply meaning through subtle changes in dynamics-and/or tempo, while never destroying the flow of the music, that distinguished Baker’s art. …Helpful notes and full texts and translations complete this superb release.”
---Henry Fogel, Fanfare

“This disc spotlights the Classical Era singing Baker did so beautifully. She's equally at home with Beethoven's warlike "Egmont" and Mozart's Weltschmerz-laden "Abendempfindung," one of the earliest, and loveliest, of German lieder. The Schubert operatic excerpts are an unusual delight.”
---(M.K.G.), Buffalo News