Yvonne Minton was indeed an excellent singer and I agree she had the misfortune that her career coincided with Janet Baker. In fact, the Britten recording of Gerontius was the first recording I ever owned so I came to Yvonne Minton's performance without any Baker-influenced preconceptions. In my MusicWeb survey of Gerontius recordings I described Yvonne Minton as "a very fine Angel".
RE John Quinn's review of Barenboim/Garanca Elgar Sea Pictures. He defaults to the Baker version, as does almost every English person. However, there is no recording of Baker that I prefer over a Minton version. Minton's voice was disciplined; beautiful in quality; a wider range (notes, and repetoire). I listened to her Barenboim Sea Pictures again; it's wonderful. So is her Mahler Ruckert Lieder; her Gerontius (she sings notes that Baker can't reach); it's not as self-conscious as Baker. Don't get me wrong; Baker is a great singer, but Minton did have the bad luck to come along when Baker was taking up all the air in the room; and she was Australian. The British are generally too eager to promote its own singers over others; that's understandable usually, but not for critics.
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