Playlist

Various & sundry:

• Nazzareno de Angelis Vol. 2, on Preiser. One of the great bass voices on record, an absolutely solid, deep, dark, magnificent voice. The recordings on this set are all from 1907, when the singer was in his mid-20s, and they are of varying artistic skill, but the voice is a marvel throughout. There's plenty of him on YouTube if you want to check him out. Try this Italian recording of Wotan's Farewell, for example. "Addio, mia figlia!" indeed.
• Ignace Tiegerman, on YouTube. A great, little-known pianist, he fled Europe during the 1930s and settled in Cairo. Alan Evans had some fabulous stories about how he ran down some of Tiegerman's performances for an Arbiter CD devoted to the pianist.
• Raoul Koczalski, Polish pianist, student of Karl Mikuli, who'd studied with Chopin; an extremely beautiful player, with gorgeous tone and true 19th century rubato, also on YouTube.
• Béla Bartók on piano. I presume he needs no introduction; the composer was also a great pianist - he wrote the first two piano concertos for himself - and his recordings of his own and others' music are well worth seeking out. Again, he's on YouTube.