Piano Heaven: 12,267 shellac discs listed on APR’s ‘A catalogue of 78rpm Recordings of Classical Pianists’

It seems ironic that merely a week after the passing of ‘historic’ piano-recordings guru Allan Evans, APR’s Mike Spring should launch an online catalogue, years in the making, that includes over twelve thousand recordings, knowledge of which should warm the piano fancier’s heart. For example look up the Polish pianist and composer Raoul Koczalski (3 January 1884 in Warsaw – 24 November 1948 in Poznań), who studied under Chopin’s favourite student Karol Mikuli, and you’ll find 108 entries. Or if you’d rather delve among 78s made by the more familiar Artur Rubinstein, then there are more than twice as many options to read through. Beethoven legend Artur Schnabel has 144 entries to his name – or if you choose to search by recording locations, then London’s iconic Abbey Road studios show up with 1411 entries featuring the likes of Eileen Joyce, Alfred Cortot, Louis Kentner, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Tristan Risselin, David Branson, Colin Horseley, and so on. It’s a collector’s fun run and you can access it at http://www.aprrecordings.co.uk/apr78/

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