The German art song took on great importance in western culture as regards the history of music. As a genre of its own, the short but very condensed compositions demand the highest technical prowess and iron will from their interpreters in order to achieve the optimal musical and declamatory performance. A list of the truly great voices among German lied performers and their mostly congenial partners on the piano is therefore fairly short. The Dutch singer Elly Ameling is one of the most outstanding representatives of her art for which she has received numerous international prizes. With a soprano voice as bright as a bell, a flawless intonation, and captivating effortlessness, she unfolds line for line Romantic feelings for love, faith and nature. In each immaculately articulated word and every perfectly rounded phrase, the singer proves once and again that she is at one with the poetry, without every becoming academic. Dalton Baldwin yet again demonstrates that he is an astute creator of moods and emotions, in that he employs the wide spectrum of expression offered by his instrument to maximum effect and keeps the dynamics fully under control. All in all, this is a wonderfully diverse collection of Schubert lieder of the highest order. Recording: June 1972 and August 1975