Friday, November 11, 2011

The Lost Recordings of Elly Ameling on CBS Masterworks

Dutch soprano Elly Ameling recorded more than 150 albums, mostly for the Philips Classics label in the Netherlands but also with a smattering of discs for Decca in London and Deutsche Grammophon in Germany. Many of these recordings won Ms. Ameling prizes like the Edison Award, Grand Prix du Disque, Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, among others. One can find recordings for more independent labels toward the end of her career. However, there is a significant amount of recorded material during the 1980s on CBS Masterworks, a label that would eventually be purchased by Sony and today is known as Sony Masterworks. This material has not been released on CD or in MP3 format.
Thanks to one YouTube user who has uploaded at the 1980 album of Fauré and Debussy, which you can listen to in its entirety here:

And three clips from the "Souvenirs" album are here for your delight:
"Music For a While" (Purcell)

"The Wakeful Nightingale" (Weldon)

"Jardin D'amour" (Vuillermoz)
We can only hope that someone will dig deep into the vaults at Sony Masterworks and release some of these gorgeous recordings of Elly Ameling.