Helen Watts was a pharmacist’s daughter from Wales. She was born in 1927 and was discovered when still at school. She was primarily known as an opera singer, but also sang in the Helmut Rilling series of Bach Cantatas (featured prominently on this site). Dame Helen Watts died in 2009.
Of this collection the last few songs made the best impression on me. Three songs from Mahler’s songcycle Des Knaben Wunderhorn. The ironic song Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt tells about Saint Anthony of Padua, who found his church empty when he wanted to start his service. He still had his sermon prepared, so he preached to the fishes. In German that can be said in a verb, very poetic I think.