Customer Reviews

Artistry of Elly Ameling

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For far too long, Elly Ameling (who, according to the enclosed booklet, recently celebrated her 70th birthday) has been under-represented on CD. In fact she still is (Columbia Masterworks, please note!)
There are those who maintain that her voice lacked weight and her singing drama. True, her reach occasionally exceeded her grasp (i.e., Brahms's Von ewiger Liebe). On the other hand, she never actually tackled Tosca or Isolde, and her rendition of Schumann's Frauenliebe und leben is deeply moving without her ever resorting to the sort of trickery or italicizing favored by Dr. Schwarzkopf - and, if the folks at Philips ever get around to re-releasing it, her reading of Ravel's Sheherazade is masterful.
There is simply no way to over-praise this collection. In retrospect, Mme. Ameling seems like one of the greatest and most treasurable artists of the twentieth century: a light and flexible voice of great natural beauty, allied to a natural musicality and sensitivity (Irwin Gage once described her as having a "fantastic literary imagination"), very much in the sorely-missed tradition of Elisabeth Schumann rather than the current one of Barbara Bonney. There is a generous selection of Baroque material, a handful of Mozart arias and Haydn songs (not enough, though), Lieder by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and Wolf (sung with refreshing simplicity), just enough French repertoire to leave you in awe but nowhere near satisfied, and quite a bit of cabaret material.
Mme. Ameling's command of languages is remarkable. True, she retains a slightly Dutch inflection, but it is not uncharming and never detracts from her impeccable diction and deeply felt understanding.
A word about her cabaret excursions: whatever you may think of "crossover" albums, she was one of a few to really take the plunge and engage the services of a genuine jazz pianist and bassist rather than hiding behind the over-produced arrangements of, say John Williams. Call it Elly Sings Ella - I'd certainly pay good money to hear her at the Carlyle or the Algonquin....(and, while I'm on that subject, the highest possible praise for each and every one of Mme. Ameling's accompanists).
A musician's singer, a singer's musician, an artist's artist. Thank you, Philips, for this invaluable collection!
And thank you, Elly Ameling, for the gift of your incomparable artistry.

Treasures from a Treasure.

Ameling, one of the world's most beloved recitalists is captured here in a 5 CD collection offering some of her most beautiful recordings of song. While we are used to her perfection in songs of Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Faure and Hahn, an added joy is her "pop" side, tackling - without a whiff of pretension, Porter, Kern, Gershwin, Ellington, et al.

What an absolute joy it is listening to this amazing artist sing these songs with an almost uncanny natural ease. There is no resorting to a "pop" voice and yet most of these pop standards songs sound as though they could have been written for her. Clean attacks, sometimes a bit of the pop technique of hanging on to a consonant longer than a classical artist normally would shows an appreciation and understanding of the style. Still, there is never once a compromise of her vocal beauty.

I like the way the songs have been arranged for her voice in that she sort of sings them clean, unaffected in the first half and then lets loose and kinda "swings" with it adding embellishments but never really changing her voice (Price, von Stade and other favorite singers of mine seem to have always added a breathy quality to much of their crossover material.)

Ameling doesn't resort to trying to "let her hair down" or get down and dirty, but rather the honest with which she approaches every one of these songs shows how much she enjoys singing them and her style is as refreshing as stumbling onto a cool spring on a sweltering summer's afternoon. A wonderful surprise.

As I had the privilige of hearing this outstanding Lied-singer during her long career in Holland and being the proud possessor of almost all her recordings, I cannot but fully agree with the professional and joyful review of Mr. Robert Holliston from Victoria, B.C. Canada.
Yes, it is unbelievable that of about the 150 recordings Mrs. Ameling made during her long career (for the greater part of course on the 'oldfashioned' LP's, as well as the innumerable Dutch live-recorded radio-concerts), so few CD's have been released.
Speaking of tradition: it was the page-turner of the Wigmore Hall in London who told Mrs. Ameling after her first recital in this hall, that she reminded him of Elisabeth Schumann. (And he certainly didn't mean her looks only!)
For those who are eager to hear her singing Ravel's Shéhérazade (just one example of stirring imagination combined with her Art of Singing) I can tell you that Philips released a 2-box CD of this work in 1999, combined with Debussy's La Damoiselle élue and a compilation of French mélodies, i.e. Debussy, Fauré, Duparc, Satie. One of the gems is Caplet's Le Corbeau et le Renard which even make children, who know the fables of La Fontaine, revel in the singing of the quarrelsome birds....
Her brilliant accompanyist is Rudolf Jansen. Let us cherish great artists in their art!

Elly Ameling held the quiet stage for recitals of great artistry and dignity for several decades and sadly most of the enormously successful CDs of her long career output are now unavailable. For those who have little access to the documentation of this very special artist, this box set is a must. It is a compilation of many of her recordings with differing accompanists, conductors, orchestras and composers. And while not all of the choices for inclusion here would be considered her greatest moments, there are enough works that sustain the warm memories of the little Dutch hausfrau who quietly and simply paid homage to composers with her clear and intelligent musicianship and radiant voice.

Ameling was known to schedule recitals of Schubert cycles and songs and in the afterglow of her performance answer the demand for curtain calls with additional Schubert melodies: she gifted her audience with the dignity of honoring a composer's works by maintaining the focus on that composer rather than milk the audience with the usual encore applause-getting favorites. And special moments such as quietly and pensively strolling through the orchestra during the Mahler 4th symphony to arrive at front stage, unapplauded, just in time for the opening line of her singing - those simple homage to composers and collaborators made her selfless manner endearing to audiences.

Despite the fact that Ameling's voice was on the small side she was always able to muster the projection to carry her message solidly in context with an orchestra. Yes, other more famous singers have recorded Ravel's quintessentially French SHEHERAZADE, but few have the perfection of diction and aura of mystery that Ameling maintained. Whether singing with piano or orchestra, or interpreting Bach, Mozart, Handel, and Vivaldi with the same degree of involvement as Brahms and Schumann and Schubert, Elly Ameling spanned a career that engendered passionate commitment from her fans. And this boxed set is a pocket full of memories to be treasured. Buy it before this too becomes unavailable. Grady Harp, May 05

To speak as briefly as possible about this superb collection from an equally superb singer, what can I say but that Ms Ameling possessed a voice that shone with radiant warmth and star-like shimmer? And unlike many another light lyric soprano, Elly Ameling was possessed of a very high standard of musicianship, considerable intelligence, and a sort of immediate charm that captivates the listener.

So many of her recordings have still to be released on CD, but this 5CD-set goes some way towards remedying the situation. The repertoire spans a wide variety - French mèlodies, Lieder, light-hearted "sentimental" songs, Bach, etc. - and in each piece, Ms Ameling shows that quality of pearl-like beauty. It is a beauty which is also extremely pretty - a beauty of voice that is never overbearing and over-ripe, but perfectly blossoming upon the tree of inspiration.

I recommend this set unequivocally. It truly is sheer delight.

I had a 33 rpm album of Elly Ameling singing Schubert lieder accompanied by piano and clarinet at times. It was one of my all time favorite albums so I have been disappointed that I have not been able to find it anywhere on CD.

Now I can just buy this excellent collection. So much music in one place! Since I confess that I am far from an expert on the rest of her records, I look forward to hearing her sing many other styles and composers.

I think it is silly to criticize her for not singing Wagner, for example, since her version of many songs, especially lieder, are nothing short of sublime. I would like to hear how many Wagnerians sing Schubert or Mozart.

I doubt if they could approach the skill and soul with which Elly Ameling sings lieder.