A glorious celebration of 'the Dutch nightingale'- all of Elly Ameling's song-recital albums for Philips in one original-covers box, including a premiere CD release for her first-ever recording.

All of Elly Ameling's recital discs for Philips (together with Schubert trios and quartets she recorded for Deutsche Grammophon) collected for the first time.

Original jackets; 29-CD limited edition - a true almanac of song.

Several tracks released on CD and digitally for the first time; several albums released complete on Decca for the first time. Nearly 26 hours of a wealth of song. Songs in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. Many of the recordings recognised in their day with an Edison Award, the Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d'Or and the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis.

In a career that spanned 43 years, Elly Ameling recorded over 150 LPs and CDs, many of them recognised with an Edison Award, the Grand Prix du Disque and the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis. She chose, from early on, to place art song at the heart of her repertoire. It is the full range of her mastery in this repertoire, from Monteverdi to Mahler, from Schubert to Cole Porter, which is celebrated in the present collection of her Philips and Decca recordings, issued to mark her 90th birthday.

Purity and beauty of voice, lively characterisation and the art that conceals art were the hallmarks of Ameling as a singer. She loved singing as a child, and studying languages as a teenager, and her singing radiated an inner warmth and intelligence throughout her career.

That career began in earnest soon after she won a Dutch singing competition in 1956, when a recording was made of the 'Laudate Dominum' from Mozart's Dominican Vespers, K321, issued by Philips on a 45rpm record and quickly forgotten. Only now has it been transferred to CD, from a rare copy of the disc in the collection of the Dutch writer René Seghers.

In his new booklet essay for this box, Seghers explains the story behind the recording, and analyses the elusive art of Ameling, informed by his own interviews with her. She recorded with pleasure, and brought an imagined audience into the studio with her, and her communicative gifts transferred readily to the microphone.

Philips captured her in Baroque cantatas by Vivaldi and Handel, and in the central German Lied repertoire from Haydn, Mozart and Schubert (eight glorious albums, including his little-known theatre music) to Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch and Mörike-Lieder.

Her perfect French is on display in mélodies by Debussy, Poulenc and Satie, and her linguistic virtuosity comes to the fore in several immaculately curated albums of mixed repertoire from Dowland to Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

Digitally recorded in 1982, Ameling's 'An die Musik' Schubert album had the distinction of being the first Lieder recital to appear on CD, and still deserves the accolades heaped upon it then. Though they were made in the CD era, and received with just as much lavish praise as their predecessors, Ameling's later Philips albums have become collectors' items, and several of them receive their first reissue in this box. There are even two albums of jazz standards, which Ameling sings in inimitable style.

"The recital is intelligently planned ... She sings with her usual musicality, freshness and warmth. She even manages, difficult on a recital disc, to differentiate between the characters she portrays." - Opera, December 1974 (Mozart: Opera & Concert Arias arias)

Contents:

CD 1
Vivaldi - Motets
- Vittorio Negri

CD 2
Handel - Cantatas
- Raymond Leppard

CD 3
Vivaldi · Handel · Mozart · Gluck
- Kurt Masur

CDs 4–5
Haydn - Complete original songs with solo piano
- Jörg Demus

CD 6
Mozart - Opera and Concert Arias
- Edo de Waart

CD 7
Mozart - Exsultate jubilate, Arias
- Raymond Leppard

CDs 8–9
Mozart - Lieder, Notturni
- Dalton Baldwin
- Netherlands Wind Ensemble

CD 10
Schubert on Stage
- Claes-Håkon Ahnsjö
- Edo de Waart

CDs 11–15
Schubert - Lieder
- Karl Engel
- Dalton Baldwin
- Rudolf Jansen

CD 16
Schubert - Vocal Trios & Quartets
- Dame Janet Baker; Peter Schreier;  Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
- Gerald Moore

CD 17
Schumann - Frauenliebe und -leben
Schubert - Lieder
- Dalton Baldwin

CD 18
Schumann - Liederkreis, op.39, Lieder-Album für die Jugend
- Jörg Demus

CD 19
Brahms - Lieder
- Dalton Baldwin

CD 20
German Romantic Songs
- Dalton Baldwin

CD 21
Wolf - Italienisches Liederbuch, 2 Mörike-Lieder
- Gérard Souzay
- Dalton Baldwin

CD 22
Wolf - Mörike-Lieder
- Dalton Baldwin

CD 23
Ravel - Shéherazade
Duparc - 2 Mélodies
Debussy - La Damoiselle élue
- Edo de Waart

CD 24
Soirée Française
- Rudolf Jansen

CD 25
Auf Flügeln des Gesanges
- Rudolf Jansen

CD 26
Serenata
- Rudolf Jansen

CD 27
Sentimental Me
- Louis van Dijk
- John Clayton

CD 28
After Hours
- Louis van Dijk

CD 29
Mozart · Thomas · Verdi · Schubert · Grieg · Mahler
- Halina Łukomska · Edna Graham
- Hein Jordans · Kurt Masur · Edo de Waart · Bernard Haitink