Albert Pincas

Cantor and baritone popular singer. Born 1897/1898 in Ruse (Rusčuk) in northern Bulgaria, on the Danube border with Romania. Sent to Germany at an early age for training as a cantor. Discovering an interest in opera, Pincas began a music degree. He wrote most of his own songs and texts and translated and arranged foreign hits. Many of his songs became extremely popular in Bulgaria after the war, sung by singers such as Asparuch "Ari" Leschnikoff (best known in the 1930s in Germany as a tenor in the "Comedian Harmonists.")The recordings documented here date from the late 1920s and early 1930s. In 1941 Pincas fled to Italy which became his adopted homeland. He died in 1967 in Milan, Italy.

His Sephardic repertory was regarded as somewhat novel: "Sehr interessant ist das spaniolische 'Jigdal': in den Sechs-Achtel-Partien ist spanischer Einschlag, in den Dreiviertel-Perioden christlicher Kirchengesang zu spüren." (A. J-L., Religiöse Musik auf Schallplatten, Jüdische Rundschau, Nr.26/27, 05.04.1929, S.167)

References: Lotz; Beatrice Pinkas (private correspondence)

Photo

Source: Baidaphon Catalog, June, 1928, from Michael Aylward