Courtesy of BBC Legends, the discography of Janet Baker grows ever larger. The most significant addition here is a gloriously spontaneous yet carefully crafted account of Finzi’s Shakespearean cycle, Let us garlands bring, which has surely never been bettered. Each song, each word is given its due weight and character, and the whole, with fine support from Geoffrey Parsons, has already borne many repetitions in my household. This cycle was written as a tribute to Vaughan Williams, to celebrate his 70th birthday. The old master himself is represented here by four of his best songs, including the late and eloquent ‘Tired’ to a text by his wife Ursula. Baker sings this in appropriately plaintive tones, and finds the inner serenity of ‘Silent noon’ and the joyousness of Linden Lea, here sung at a very quick tempo that works perfectly in a live context.

This is part of a Cheltenhmam Festival recital of 1983, fairly late in the singer’s career, and she takes a little time to warm up: the Baroque items don’t have the vocal freedom of the rest. By the time she reaches the next group, Lennox Berkeley’s unassuming Auden settings, all is well. Dame Janet sang these to mark the composer’s 80th birthday. Now, the cycle appears for the first time to mark – probably coincidentally – his centenary. Britten is represented by four of his best-known folk song settings, aptly chosen to show different facets of his art in this field.

The final items, more of the British repertory for which the singer did so much, come from much earlier, a 1968 Aldeburgh programme. The two Purcell masterpieces are delivered with typical confidence and freedom of expression. The Warlock group is again chosen in a manner to reveal different aspects of the composer’s art. The only thing that mars this profoundly satisfying and generously filled disc is the failure of BBC Legends to provide texts. Why should we be made to travel the web to find them?