Elly Ameling

Speaker 20:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Disc's Archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty five, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:30

This week, Our Castaway is a singer, it's Ellie Ameling.

Presenter0:35

Ellie, I believe, is short for Elizabeth. Is that right?

Elly Ameling0:37

Yes, my name is Elizabeth.

Presenter0:39

Well now we're taking you away from cities and concert halls and airports to a desert island. Have you ever visited one on your world travels?

Elly Ameling0:48

Yes. I was not long ago on the Galapagos Islands, and I can tell you I would never take records to those islands because there is a different type of music there.

Presenter0:56

Yeah.

Elly Ameling0:59

namely, the sound of the wind and the water, and of the birds, and of the sea lions, and I think we forget about our art music and listen to our master, nature.

Presenter1:14

It sounds as if you'd quite welcome a stay on a desert island.

Elly Ameling1:17

Yes, I think I would uh love to be uh away from noise especially.

Presenter1:22

Mm-hmm.

Elly Ameling1:23

and as I say for a time, from sound even.

Presenter1:27

Now you've made many records yourself. Do you play records? I mean, at home, when you are relaxing, do you put records on the turntable?

Elly Ameling1:34

Well

Elly Ameling1:35

You talk about my own records. When I receive them in the home, I have to take a good strong drink and then we will listen to them because it's always

Elly Ameling1:46

I wouldn't say a complete let down, but part of it, yeah, because you have in your head your ideal interpretation of this particular piece, and it is never

Elly Ameling1:58

The same on the record as what you had in your head.

Elly Ameling2:02

And so it costs me a lot of trouble to listen to them, but I have to, of course, just to check, and then I put them away for ten years, after which I may take one out for some reason, and think

Elly Ameling2:11

Wow, that wasn't bad

Elly Ameling2:14

Can I ever do it again? So well.

Elly Ameling2:17

So it's always a torture to listen to your own records. I think many colleagues will say the same.

Presenter2:20

BAAP

Presenter2:22

Do you play other people's for relaxation?

Elly Ameling2:24

No, no. For relaxation, certainly not. To learn from certainly yes. I listen to a small number of records very often, and too many records I listen never again, because I really do not like so much the medium.

Elly Ameling2:40

It sounds strange for somebody who has recorded a lot, but I believe in hearing the people sing and play themselves, and I hate a little bit that thing of steel.

Elly Ameling2:51

Right, like it is now before our nose, huh? A thing that doesn't react. At the worst, of course, is when you're on the stage.

Speaker 22:56

A d

Elly Ameling2:59

And singing live in a concert and it is recorded, because what you do is evoke.

Elly Ameling3:04

An emotion in the audience end

Elly Ameling3:07

hope to get an emotional reaction from them. And you usually get it may be a favorable one or not so favorable, but there is a reaction, only not from that thing that is right before your nose, the microphone. It only registrates.

Elly Ameling3:21

And I find it um well rather killing.

Elly Ameling3:24

But of course I have to discipline myself and uh if I consented to do a a recording, be it for radio or for record live, then I consented to do it and I will have to.

Presenter3:37

Well, on the Desert Island you can't run down to the record shop and get some records. You can only take these eight and play them over and over again. What's the first one you have on that little panel?

Elly Ameling3:46

I'll do it only for you, and of course because I do love this record. It is Suzanne Danco, this beautiful Belgian singer, and um

Presenter3:52

Exactly.

Speaker 23:52

Yeah.

Elly Ameling3:56

She will sing La Flutenchante from Shihrazad by Ravel.

Speaker 24:04

Au c'est moutra dor.

Speaker 24:09

Pa fait nor gon econic soi Es moulones journos savarbe bland.

Presenter4:59

Suzanne Danco.

Presenter5:02

You were born in Holland, whereabout?

Elly Ameling5:04

In Rotterdam

Presenter5:05

And your father was a watchmaker, is that right?

Elly Ameling5:07

Yeah. Still have that jewelry shop.

Presenter5:11

Do you come from a big family, or do you have a lot of brothers and sisters?

Elly Ameling5:14

Not one. I was an only child, yeah.

Presenter5:15

Oh dear.

Presenter5:17

Did we hear a lot of music in the family?

Elly Ameling5:19

Yes, my mother sang, and I think that was her best and first and best gift to me.

Presenter5:25

What sort of things did she sing?

Elly Ameling5:25

Well, she sang over my cradle, dear, and I think that's very important. I must have drunk it in with the buttermilk.

Presenter5:33

And did she take you to concerts when you were little?

Elly Ameling5:35

Yes, yes. Well, of course really visits to concerts started in my early high school years, when I was ten, twelve years old.

Presenter5:43

And we were given music lessons? Yeah.

Elly Ameling5:45

Yes, I had piano lessons which I hated when I was six, and throw the book on the ground and wanted to go on the street and play, of course, but now I'm very grateful because I can play everything.

Presenter5:51

He was treated.

Elly Ameling5:56

that I need to play. It's not beautiful. You should not come and listen to me. But for myself it's good enough.

Presenter6:02

What were you good at at school?

Elly Ameling6:04

Not at mathematics and rather good in languages.

Presenter6:08

A what? German, French?

Elly Ameling6:09

German, French and English in in our days in school now it's not so many languages anymore, elas, but we got those three languages, yeah.

Presenter6:16

Yeah.

Presenter6:17

What was the first time that you ever sang in public? Was it a school concert?

Elly Ameling6:22

Probably it was a school concert, Jaba. My first concert with an audience that were not schoolmates or teachers was in the Museum of Rotterdam, Bohemonds, this lovely museum.

Presenter6:32

When did you make up your mind that music was to be your life?

Elly Ameling6:36

To be your life that is very nicely put, because I thought it was my life always, but not it would be my life on stage. That came by itself. I never expected to make a career.

Elly Ameling6:48

And I wanted to sing, that was all, and I wanted to sing well, therefore I took lessons and tried to develop my musicality.

Elly Ameling6:56

But um then after winning these prizes

Elly Ameling6:58

Contest, you know, you get in the business, so to say, and now I am where I am. But I never planned that, but I felt that I had to sing.

Presenter7:07

We'll talk about the business in a moment. Let's have another record. What's that to be?

Elly Ameling7:09

Let's have another record. Watch that to be.

Elly Ameling7:11

That is really a record that moves me whenever I hear it Gerard Suzet, with Jacqueline Bonneau at the piano, singing by Chauson Nani.

Speaker 27:56

For who was

Speaker 28:03

But reason I call the f

Presenter8:25

Gerard Suzet with Jacqueline Bonneau at the piano, singing Chausan's Nanny.

Elly Ameling8:31

Whenever I hear this record.

Elly Ameling8:33

Even in a studio with a very prosaic surrounding I get the goose pimples.

Elly Ameling8:39

because not only has he a perfect voice production, but he sings so natural and at the same time so artistic.

Elly Ameling8:48

you know this eternal struggle

Elly Ameling8:50

Between nature and art which we have to solve.

Elly Ameling8:54

He succeeded, to my opinion, one hundred percent, on this record and in the whole time of his life when he made this record.

Presenter9:03

You talked about winning some competitions. What were those?

Elly Ameling9:06

I had a prize in Sertohun Bos in my country.

Elly Ameling9:10

And one in Geneva?

Presenter9:12

Yeah.

Elly Ameling9:12

And they were first prizes both. And uh well, it puts you on the track. And I'm happy to say maybe this is nice to know for young singers that there is now the Ellie Ameling Prize for the lead.

Elly Ameling9:23

And French Milodie, of course, in Certo Rembosse. This contest is still there and going ever better. And you can win a prize for OPRA, you can win a prize for Oratorio and my prize for the lead.

Presenter9:35

And if you're in Holland, you go and hear the finals.

Elly Ameling9:37

If I could, I would love to, but I haven't been there for the last three, four years.

Presenter9:43

As a student, what music did you like best?

Elly Ameling9:46

Schubert. I started doing Schubert out of myself.

Presenter9:47

Bye.

Elly Ameling9:50

Starting with the number one in book number one, which is Das Vandern, very much a song for a man from the Schoene Müllerin. But of course you dig deeper in those books and and at the same time I sang the songs of Jana Durbin.

Presenter9:57

From the sh

Elly Ameling10:05

Yeah.

Presenter10:05

Jana Dermino y.

Elly Ameling10:06

Yes, I loved her voice.

Presenter10:09

And you still have to do it.

Elly Ameling10:09

But that was when I was eleven. I'm so I'm I mean I still

Elly Ameling10:13

had no recognition yet of things, or, you know, finding my way.

Presenter10:17

And you studied French songs with Pierre Bernac?

Presenter10:20

In Paris?

Elly Ameling10:21

Yeah, from time to time, every time when there was a an important thing coming up, especially French records, of course, I would go and uh check everything with him, which was wonderful.

Presenter10:32

Tell me about Pierre Bernac. What did he look like? What sort of man was he?

Elly Ameling10:35

I always said I loved him dearly. He has the face of a cocker spaniel.

Speaker 210:43

Yeah.

Elly Ameling10:43

Yeah, they're not.

Speaker 210:43

Yeah, this is a very good thing.

Elly Ameling10:45

Yes, because I say I loved him dearly. He had um

Elly Ameling10:49

Those truthful eyes

Elly Ameling10:52

So genuine, and something long in the face, you know, and very sincere.

Presenter10:58

Was he a hard taskmaster?

Elly Ameling11:00

He could be yes, I have heard from the talks, I have never heard him do it in reality, he could be hard with people and desperate. Well, I presume he had reason to be desperate, uh, that happens. But he could also be very funny, and into his eighties he could sing a phrase so beautifully.

Speaker 211:20

Yeah.

Elly Ameling11:21

And so clearly, one phrase, not the whole song, but just one phrase, and make absolutely clear what he meant, so that I could do it my way.

Presenter11:27

Yeah.

Elly Ameling11:30

after having been explained.

Presenter11:32

So he he really was a gifted teacher.

Elly Ameling11:34

Oh yes. Yeah.

Presenter11:37

Your first notices were for Bach. You sang a lot of Bach oratorios and and cantatas at the beginning of your

Elly Ameling11:45

Mm-hmm.

Elly Ameling11:46

That was what I was invited for, and I was uh dearly wanting to sing leader.

Presenter11:48

Mana

Elly Ameling11:52

and French melodique, because I thought that that was my real field, because I loved the poetry.

Presenter11:56

Yeah.

Presenter11:57

But as a youngster you had to tick what there was.

Elly Ameling11:59

I think so you have to start somewhere.

Presenter12:02

Yeah.

Elly Ameling12:02

Uh And of course let me make that completely clear the music of Bach is a joy to sing, always at any age.

Elly Ameling12:09

But I wanted to do the other work too, and of course the trance to do that came later.

Presenter12:14

What's your third record for the Desert Island?

Elly Ameling12:17

What do you think a lot of Le Ma'? singing Viennese songs with Paul Ulanowski at the piano.

Presenter12:23

Which song shall she sing for you?

Elly Ameling12:25

Ich musvirin malin grind sing sein.

Presenter12:28

I want to be in Grinsey.

Elly Ameling12:29

Grinzing, yes, where you drink the wine, near Vienna, on the mountain, you know.

Speaker 212:37

Honey grandson Zy by boy, by boy, by boy.

Speaker 212:49

As Yishtma Yagrach visit him, my and I by fine, by fine, by fine.

Speaker 213:03

The southon the hell God should.

Speaker 213:10

The snack six stack all white and fire tackle.

Speaker 213:17

Darumusmani Mama Adonk Musa.

Presenter13:38

Lotte Lehmann singing a Viennese song I Must Be in Grincing once again.

Presenter13:44

When was your first London appearance? Do you remember it very vividly?

Elly Ameling13:47

Yes, I do. It was in nineteen sixty six. Well, that may be wrong, it may be sixty five, but I do know that it was in this famous, wonderful, great Wigmore Hall.

Speaker 213:55

But I

Elly Ameling14:01

And I got a very nice compliment. You know, you're very young and starting, and every compliment helps. And the gentleman.

Elly Ameling14:10

Cool Turned the pages had been there for thirty years or longer.

Elly Ameling14:14

And he said, This is the most lovely voice I've heard after Elizabeth Schumann. And I was so pleased when he said that. It gave me real courage for the concert.

Presenter14:19

And I was so

Presenter14:23

Yes, I've got one of your earlier notices here. It says that your voice is clear, pure, appealing, and small. Well, it got bigger, but but nothing.

Speaker 214:32

Uh

Elly Ameling14:32

I hope so.

Presenter14:34

Not of Wagnerian and and Verde dimension.

Elly Ameling14:37

No, no, it doesn't have to be, has it? There are the singers who do that.

Presenter14:39

Has it there are other singers who do that? You have sung very little opera. You have sung some.

Elly Ameling14:43

Some Mozart, yeah. But I got so much on this path of the leader singing and I really thought there are few people that devote all their time to it that I thought I better do it.

Presenter14:45

Yeah.

Elly Ameling14:55

And there are already many good countesses and melisandes, Susanas, and why should I add one? Where I think there's more singers just necessary in the field of the lead.

Presenter15:06

Tell me about your one appearance in the Opera House. Where was that? That was in.

Elly Ameling15:09

It was in Amsterdam and in Washington.

Elly Ameling15:12

Where we did Ilya. I sang Ilya in Idomene in my notes art.

Presenter15:15

Yeah.

Presenter15:17

Let's have your next record. What's that?

Elly Ameling15:19

What do you say about Yves Montan?

Presenter15:21

Eve Montour, yes, fantastic.

Elly Ameling15:22

He's singing La Chansonnette. That might be a good song everybody knows.

Speaker 315:27

La la la mindurien, la voila kiro yen.

Speaker 315:32

La champion élavé d'its paru le parai de maru.

Speaker 315:40

Et toubertes, les refin de parilla, ve prille maquis, les formin, la reféon, la champson, maqui, maisonoube lamais, le flan flanqui.

Presenter15:56

Yves Montaux singing La Chansonner.

Elly Ameling15:59

I remember that I heard him sing this in the Teatro de l'Olimpia.

Elly Ameling16:05

near the Paris Opera,

Elly Ameling16:07

I had been singing myself in concert there. They have a series of concerts five days a week. They last only one hour, but they have no intermission, so it's rather hard. And we had been singing this little recital from six to seven, after which followed an hour of standing up, giving signatures on records to people, and I was rather tired at eight o'clock.

Speaker 216:28

Mm-hmm.

Elly Ameling16:29

We come out of the theatre, it was raining, pouring, no taxi, and the underground was on strike.

Presenter16:35

Yes, that does happen in past.

Elly Ameling16:37

But that particular night we wanted to hear Yves Montin, so I walked all the way from this theatre to the Teatre de l'Holaine Pia, and when we were there they said you may have a chance of a ticket standing room only.

Elly Ameling16:51

And we got that ticket, so I got in there and stood on my two little feet from quarter past nine until by eleven o'clock, and when I came out I felt light as a feather, as if I hadn't been standing there all the time at all. Because you feel when Yves Montan sings as if you are personally being embraced by that man. His whole radiation is so warm and

Elly Ameling17:14

It was a great experience.

Presenter17:16

How much of your career do you devote to solo recitals?

Elly Ameling17:20

Well, ninety per cent. The rest is then recording. Solo recitals or singing songs and pieces with orchestra almost all the time.

Presenter17:24

Yeah.

Presenter17:29

Your accompanist must be tremendously important to you, to have the right kind of relationship, the right kind of sympathy with your accompanist.

Elly Ameling17:38

Yes, and musical tastes. Yeah. I am very happy to have found Rudolph Janssen. He is a compatriot, and we also worked with the same teacher, Felix de Noble, who must be quite well known here in London, too. He was a great accompanist.

Elly Ameling17:54

and also had a beautiful choir.

Elly Ameling17:58

And uh maybe that helped also because uh when Rudolph and I worked together

Elly Ameling18:03

We hardly have to rehearse. We do the piece, of course, you want to check on certain points. And even a piece as hard as, let's say, La Bon chanson by Fourier, we did it once and said afterwards, why did we do it? We could have gone on stage right away.

Elly Ameling18:16

We have the same ideas. Yeah. Very happy. I hope he's happy with me.

Presenter18:20

You must have the right accompanist. And of course the hall must be very important. You are playing in singing in so many cities, in good halls and other halls that are perhaps not quite right. Can you remember any particular unsuitable one that you came across?

Elly Ameling18:36

Yeah, I think in Quebec. I was once in Quebec.

Elly Ameling18:39

Where the hall was not right, but I have learned over the years

Elly Ameling18:43

To just imagine that you stand in Carnegie Hall, which I find for song recital the best hall I know, although it's very large, over three thousand people.

Elly Ameling18:52

But you just imagine, in spite of what you hear, you cannot take off those ears and not hear, you know, that would be such a help.

Speaker 218:59

Yeah.

Elly Ameling18:59

But you just insidely imagine, Oh, this is wonderful sound. I'm I'm having a great evening. I'm feeling fine in these acoustics. That is what you have to do, because if you start fighting a dry acoustic, you give too much, you almost force.

Presenter19:12

Yeah.

Elly Ameling19:14

And you get very tired and no better sound will come out, because you're just not helped by the hole.

Presenter19:20

Do you sometimes talk to the audience at a recital?

Elly Ameling19:23

If there is a reason, well there's one reason always, of course, to make them feel at ease and make them not think, Oh my god, this uh singer high on the stage and so high with art and so she's also a normal person and can just talk to them about the background of the songs. And of course when I do these little cabaret programmes from time to time I make some jokes in between because I think that belongs to the kind of programme.

Presenter19:51

Now tell me about these cabaret programmes.

Elly Ameling19:54

Uh

Elly Ameling19:55

You won't hear many of them, because I do them only rather seldom.

Elly Ameling20:00

Because people have an idea to label your qualities immediately and they would say Ellie Ameling doesn't sing anymore, she now does gabaret.

Presenter20:10

But you have recorded some cabarets on

Elly Ameling20:12

Yes, there are a few on the record, yeah. And there's even a new record coming out.

Presenter20:14

Yeah.

Elly Ameling20:16

And uh there I do quite some songs by Ellington, for instance.

Presenter20:17

There I

Presenter20:20

Is this anything that you'd want on your island?

Elly Ameling20:22

Well, not for my sake.

Elly Ameling20:26

Probably I'd just sing it, but for the sake of the instruments that play with me and for the sake of Allington, because he's just so great.

Elly Ameling20:33

Let's do it. Let's not hesitate. Let's play that little piece. It's called It Don't Mean a Thing If You Ain't Get That Swing.

Presenter20:41

Who are the other artists you are talking about?

Elly Ameling20:41

Uh

Elly Ameling20:43

Louis Van Dyck on piano and John Clayton on bass.

Speaker 220:48

What good is melody, what good is music, if it ain't possessing somethin' sweet?

Speaker 220:57

It ain't the melody, it ain't the music There's something else that makes the tune complete It don't mean a thing If it ain't got that swing Do what, do what, do what, do what, do what, do what, do what, do what It don't mean a thing All you've got to do is sing Do what, do what, do what, do what, do what?

Presenter21:19

It don't mean a thing, and it may come as a surprise to one or two listeners who've just this second tuned in that it was sung by Ellie Amling. It's a test pressing of a disc that hasn't yet been released.

Presenter21:31

Ellie, where did you get your sense of swing?

Elly Ameling21:34

Well, it must have been just in me, because I don't think you can learn it.

Elly Ameling21:39

But you must know, of course, a little bit what you do. You instead of putting the one where it belongs, one, two, three, four, you may do one, two, uh, three, uh, four and you swing over the bar line, which can be very nice, for instance, in a word like

Elly Ameling21:56

This or that is following me all over the place, and then you do it to illustrate the word. But we had, I remember this now suddenly, we had one recording of a song, and there, by acoustical phenomenon in the studio, I could not quite hear where they were, where their beat lay, because they variate a lot, they make many variations. So I thought, well, this must be the beat. I'll sing until the take is over, and then we can listen and eventually do it again. So I sang my ones that turned out to be for five or six bars, just one beat before their ones. And we listened back, and they said to me, I mean they are the authorities, I'm only the layman in this kind of music, and they said to me, That is wonderful, the way you swing that out for six bars. Very great. And it was just an accident.

Presenter22:45

You live in Holland still?

Elly Ameling22:47

Yes.

Presenter22:47

In the town or country.

Elly Ameling22:48

In the country, not so far from Amsterdam, about an hour.

Presenter22:51

Uh

Elly Ameling22:52

The real Dutch landscape with the mills and the cows is all around the house.

Presenter22:56

It's all around the house.

Elly Ameling22:58

Not too many tulips. We have a few in our garden. But the real tulips are right behind the coast and I live a little more inside the land.

Presenter23:06

Is your husband in the music world?

Elly Ameling23:08

No, but he can hear me study every part without ever getting crazy about it. I mean losing his head with impatience to hear me over and over again in the same phrase. And he's not that crazy about it either, no, I must say. He is very critical. Maybe he's my best critic.

Presenter23:24

Does he sometimes travel with you?

Elly Ameling23:26

Sometimes, yeah. Not too often, because he does all the things that have to happen at home.

Presenter23:31

Does he have to look after the dogs? You're very fond of dogs, aren't you?

Elly Ameling23:33

Yeah, I have two dear whippets. They get old. They're twelve years now. Floristan and Oisabeus. Yeah.

Presenter23:39

Korea

Presenter23:42

Where do you do most of your recording?

Elly Ameling23:44

That depends. I've been recording in New York for CBS and for Phillips in Holland and also in London.

Elly Ameling23:51

And uh

Elly Ameling23:52

I have done, of course, many EMI in Paris, in the Salva Grande.

Presenter23:56

You must have made a vast number of records. Have you ever counted them?

Elly Ameling24:00

Not really, but the question comes a few times, and then I always say it's about three feet when they stand up.

Presenter24:08

That's a lot of records.

Elly Ameling24:10

Uh

Presenter24:11

It's time we heard another one that you've chosen. What is it?

Elly Ameling24:14

Yeah, and time to turn to serious matters, which is certainly the song of Mignon, Kenstudas Land, Wuditzie Troenenblühn, von Hugo Wolf, and sung on this recording by my great favourite Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, accompanied by another great favourite, Gerald Moore.

Speaker 224:37

Instead of sword.

Speaker 224:42

Who did see?

Speaker 224:52

Imdun Carolo.

Speaker 224:55

Hey

Presenter25:34

Hugo Vols Do you know the country where the lemon trees flower?

Presenter25:38

Sung by Elizabeth Schwartzkopf with Gerald Moore at the piano. Did you ever record with Gerald Moore?

Elly Ameling25:45

Yes, I had the pleasure once in Berlin. We did the Tertzets and Quartets of Schubert. That was very nice. Janet Baker was there then, too.

Presenter25:55

How much time do you get at home?

Elly Ameling25:57

I see the move.

Presenter25:57

You seem to be racing round the world all the time.

Elly Ameling25:59

Uh not racing. No, no, don't think that I'm uh

Elly Ameling26:03

racing and that I am in a hurry, I'm never in a hurry, and I take all kind of little vacations on the road, so to say, when I'm traveling. And then I come back, but I must say this coming twelve, thirteen months I will be home No longer than ten days in a stretch.

Presenter26:18

There's not very much.

Elly Ameling26:18

No, and if the weather is bad

Presenter26:21

Yeah.

Elly Ameling26:22

We have the same type of weather in Holland as in England. There's lots of rain. You cannot even sit in your own garden.

Presenter26:27

Ever worked out how many miles a year you do?

Elly Ameling26:30

I never thought of that. I was very proud that I know that I have three feet of record, but I still do not yet know how many miles I travel.

Presenter26:38

In interminable plane journeys, what do you do? Do you like to sleep or read or watch the movie or or what?

Elly Ameling26:44

Well, I will work with my walkman, and study new parts, and learn things by heart, write letters, and a diary everybody's supposed to have a diary and read books, of course.

Presenter26:55

In foreign cities, if you get a day off, what do you make for? Do you go to the art galleries, or do you go to the theatres?

Elly Ameling27:00

Certainly, yeah. I tried to take a hotel in London which is right near the Wallace collection. So that I can always slip in even if I have twenty minutes. I go up to one or two favorite rooms, and in Japan I try to spend as many days as I can in Kyoto.

Elly Ameling27:16

and go out of Kyoto for the concerts in Osaka in Nagoya by bullet train. You know, you can do that and then in the night they bring you back and you stay in the middle of the temples. Wonderful.

Presenter27:27

Uh

Presenter27:28

Do you collect anything yourself?

Elly Ameling27:29

I collect very, very modestly Indian art.

Presenter27:33

Mm-hmm.

Elly Ameling27:33

Some sculptures, some miniatures.

Presenter27:35

What sort of miniatures?

Elly Ameling27:36

From the um sacred books or the the the religious tales, the Bhagavad Gita and so on.

Elly Ameling27:42

They come from books, of course, and elas they tore out the pages and sell them one by one. It is a

Elly Ameling27:49

Yeah, a mutilation, really. But once they have been torn out, you buy them, huh?

Presenter27:55

Well, we got to record number seven. What's that going to be?

Elly Ameling27:57

That is the Quintet in C major by Schubert, and of that I would love to hear a small portion of the Adaggio, where I think you can compare it

Elly Ameling28:09

like a not a ride through the heavens, but a glide through the heavens from one cloud to the next cloud on the shifting harmonies.

Elly Ameling28:17

There is an immense

Elly Ameling28:19

peacefulness and weightlessness in this part of this um quintet.

Presenter29:23

The beginning of the adagio from the Jubert Quintet in C major, the Orben Baer Quartet with Heinrich Schiff.

Presenter29:31

On this desert island, Miss Amering, could you look after yourself? Are you are you a practical lady? Could you build a shelter of some sort?

Elly Ameling29:38

No, I don't think I could do that. I'm very practical in what they call the civilized world of planes.

Elly Ameling29:45

And managers you know, there I'm uh considered rather practical, but on an island, no, no.

Speaker 229:47

Yeah.

Elly Ameling29:54

But wouldn't I have my husband with me? No.

Presenter29:56

No, I'm afraid not. No, no, no, no. No, no, you're quite on your own.

Elly Ameling29:57

Oh my god.

Elly Ameling30:00

But and what would I drink, my dear? Everything is salt water, huh?

Presenter30:04

Well, we'll assure somehow that there is a fresh water spring on the island.

Presenter30:09

Would you try to escape? Do you know anything about navigation?

Elly Ameling30:12

No. But should I have to escape?

Presenter30:14

Not unless you wanted to. You want to stay there?

Elly Ameling30:17

I think so. Well, maybe a ship comes by. I'll see you later.

Presenter30:22

All right, you're very philosophical about this. What's your last drink boy?

Elly Ameling30:25

The last record. The o the last record I think should be Kathleen Ferrier, of course, Life from Edinburgh with Bruno Walter at the piano. And she sings from Frauen Lieber und Leiben, the third song, Ich Kants nicht fassen, nicht glauben.

Speaker 230:41

This crime, this fountain, this glow at all

Speaker 230:55

Oh my gosh,

Speaker 230:58

Fear, oh fear.

Speaker 231:04

Was he striving of him?

Presenter31:49

Ich Kanznichtfassen from Schumann's Fraun Lieber und Leiben, sung by Kathleen Ferrier, with Bruno Walter at the piano.

Elly Ameling31:57

Lovely.

Presenter31:58

Ms. Herveling, if you could take just one record out of the eight you've chosen, which would it be?

Elly Ameling32:03

Well, in the first place I wouldn't like to have any of the records on the uninhabited island, because when I'm on that island I want to be quiet and listen to the sounds of Master Nature, you know.

Elly Ameling32:17

Button

Elly Ameling32:19

If I have to take one, I would take my own record and throw it in the water.

Presenter32:23

Yeah.

Presenter32:24

And one luxury, one object of no practical use whatever that would give you pleasure to have with you on the island.

Elly Ameling32:31

Then I would take my own Buddha sculpture with me.

Presenter32:34

One that you possess yourself. Where did you get it?

Elly Ameling32:36

Yeah.

Elly Ameling32:38

I'm not telling you, no way.

Presenter32:40

All right, a secret, Buddha. And one book. You already have the Bible and Shakespeare.

Elly Ameling32:46

I think I would take the poetry of Verlaine and mainly the songs of course that were set by Debussy and Foray.

Presenter32:54

Yeah.

Elly Ameling32:54

Yeah.

Presenter32:54

Right.

Presenter32:55

Poetry of Verlaine, and thank you very much, Elie Ameling, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.

Elly Ameling33:01

Thank you. It was my pleasure.

Presenter33:03

Goodbye everyone.

Speaker 233:11

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/radio four.