To celebrate, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato - fellow Hall of Fame entrant and Gramophone Artist of the Year 2010 - has interviewed Dame Janet and you can watch the video exclusively on the Gramophone Player.

The two singers discuss Dame Janet’s commitment to music and text, and the reasons that interpretations by the great singers can be both intensely personal and wholly loyal to the composer’s vision.

As DiDonato puts it, Dame Janet has been ‘walking along beside me’ throughout her entire career. 

Watch the interview here.

Dame Janet Baker's Great Recordings box set is now available here. 

The voice of Janet Baker is as recognisable today as it was in the years of her active career from the mid-1950s to 1989. As Dame Janet prepares to celebrate her 80^th birthday in August, EMI, fortunate to have captured much of the legendary mezzo-soprano’s extensive artistic legacy on disc, releases a 20CD box filled with iconic performances across multiple genres and representing repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Britten. Nearly 25% of the recordings in this set are appearing on CD for the first time, including Monteverdi and Scarlatti with Raymond Leppard, two concerts of duets with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and a large number of English and French songs. In all, the Janet Baker 80^th Birthday Edition contains 25 hours of listening pleasure.

To find out more click here.