A Birthday: Dame Myra Hess
Evening Music | May 6, 2010
Dame Myra Hess, one of the 20th century’s most important and celebrated pianists, and not because she was a woman, was born this day in 1890.
Myra Hess was declared Dame of the British Empire in 1941, recognized for her pianism but also for her continuous and courageous lunchtime recitals in the National Gallery when all London concert halls were closed because of the blitz. Her late Beethoven interpretations were fabled for phrasing, sense of architecture, clarity of articulation, and evenness of trills. We hear all that in this evening’s presentation of her Sonata No. 31, opus ll. Two Debussy offerings help fill out our first hour: “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” as played by the Cleveland Orchestra under Pierre Boulez, and “Syrinx” as piped by Barthold Kuijken on his magic flute.
Manuel de Falla’s music for the ballet “The Three-Cornered Hat” received its first performance at the Alhambra Theatre in London (!) in 1919. The major set pieces are based on popular Spanish dances, and Falla even quotes two authentic Spanish popular tunes. Light-hearted and colorful, this work will have you smiling, tapping your feet, and clicking imaginary (or real) castanets. Gerard Schwarz conducts the London Symphony Orchestra.
Myra Hess was declared Dame of the British Empire in 1941, recognized for her pianism but also for her continuous and courageous lunchtime recitals in the National Gallery when all London concert halls were closed because of the blitz. Her late Beethoven interpretations were fabled for phrasing, sense of architecture, clarity of articulation, and evenness of trills. We hear all that in this evening’s presentation of her Sonata No. 31, opus ll. Two Debussy offerings help fill out our first hour: “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” as played by the Cleveland Orchestra under Pierre Boulez, and “Syrinx” as piped by Barthold Kuijken on his magic flute.
Manuel de Falla’s music for the ballet “The Three-Cornered Hat” received its first performance at the Alhambra Theatre in London (!) in 1919. The major set pieces are based on popular Spanish dances, and Falla even quotes two authentic Spanish popular tunes. Light-hearted and colorful, this work will have you smiling, tapping your feet, and clicking imaginary (or real) castanets. Gerard Schwarz conducts the London Symphony Orchestra.
