Myra Hess remembers her debut with Beecham

Myra Hess remembers her debut with Beecham

Daily Comfort Zone

norman lebrecht

August 25, 2024

An extremely rare interview with the grande dame of British pianism, heroine of the Blitz.

She also talks of making false crescendos to mask the noise of flying bombs. ‘When the bomb went away, I made a decrescendo.’

Comments

  • christopher Breunig says:

    Interesting conversation with well researched pics. There’s also one with John Amis where you hear some of her playing. This has more on the support received from American artists for the wartime National Gallery concerts. Both suggest she had a good sense of humour. (Stephen Bishop – as he then was – studied with her.) The only recording Hess made and actually liked was of the Op.109 Beethoven sonata.

  • christopher Breunig says:

    The recordings Myra Hess made for HMV are now on a bargain label, MVE, available from Presto as CD quality downloads only

  • WillymH says:

    Thank you for this NL.

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