Sigismund Thalberg, Liszt s rival, was one of the great pianists of the nineteeth century. Before an 1837 keyboard duel between the two, Liszt penned an essay charging Thalberg s music with impotence and monotony. Modern tastes have awarded Liszt the palm, but, as pianist Stefan Irmer points out here in his own booklet notes (in German, French, and English), observers at the time would not have been unanimous in that judgment. He includes a hilarious commentary by Heinrich Heine, not naming Liszt but praising Thalberg in terms that unmistakably refer to him: The frail women are no less fond of [Thalberg], even though he does not appeal to their sympathy with epileptic fits on the piano, even though he does not speculate on the extreme sensitivity of their tender nerves....

The dreaded and powerful Nazi SS (or Schutzstaffel) began as the elite corps of bodyguards to Hitler, under the command of the infamous Heinrich Himmler. The SS soon expanded to include an intelligence arm and, from 1940 to 1945, an elite military corps, the Waffen-SS. This book is part of the two-volume The Secret Archives set that chronicles the exploits of the Waffen-SS, using information collected from old albums, as well as from newspaper and divisional archives. It includes a wealth of photographs, many of them previously unpublished, with extensive and informative captions. The author's account gives a vivid picture of what life was like for Himmler's so-called storm troopers. Each of the two volumes stands alone as an account of the Waffen-SS's notorious activities, one title concentrating on the Eastern Front; the other on the Western Front. This volume, which focuses on the Western Front, reports on the Waffen-SS attacks into Holland and Belgium in 1940; the recruitment of Waffen-SS soldiers from Nazi-occupied countries; its actions at Normandy; its destruction of the British "Market Garden" operation outside Arnhem, Holland; and its actions against American forces at the Battle of the Bulge. Approximately 250 black-and-white photos plus appendices.

Learn the three elements of mastering how to draw animals from life or imagination. Detailed demos and hundreds of drawings teach the fundamentals of anatomy, form and gesture.Includes works from master animal artists like Rembrandt, Durer, Dore, Heinrich Kley, Winsor McCay and many others.PS please be patient my first upload, I have Limited Monthly Bandwidth so please seed afterwards...thanks.