Myra Hess

Dame Myra Hess DBE ( born February 25, 1890 in London, † November 25, 1965 ibid ) was a British pianist.

Life

Julia Myra Hess was the youngest of four children, a daughter of Lizzie Hess, nee Jacobs, and Frederick Hess Solomon, the son of a Jewish immigrant from Alsace, born on 25 February 1890 in London. She experienced a strict upbringing within the meaning of Orthodox Judaism. In the following, it emancipated itself from the conservative ideas of their parents, who were her wishes a career in music in the way. It can be an approach to Christianity prove, even if Myra Hess in solidarity with their Jewish environment never converted to Christianity.

At the age of five she took first piano and cello lessons, where they are increasingly focused on the former. At age seven she began at Trinity College of Music to take lessons and was the youngest student at that time Trinity College Certificate. In the following, she studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama Music Theory and Piano The composer Julia Pascal and Orlando Morgan, who later some of their works dedicated to her. During her studies she met the pianist Irene Scharrer, with whom she formed a piano duo. At twelve, she moved with the help of Ada Lewish scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied with Tobias Matthay.

She has toured through the UK, Germany, Austria, France, Holland and North America (on their tour after the Second World War, accompanied by Arturo Toscanini ), where they present their interpretations, especially by Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Robert Schumann, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, and Domenico Scarlatti, successes celebrated.

By organizing concerts during the Second World War at the National Gallery ( London) at lunchtime the patriot Myra Hess was part of the cultural resistance to National Socialism. The first concert took place on October 10, 1939, the last 1698. Concert on 10 April 1946. 1941 she was honored with the title Dame. In 1942, she received the Gold Medal (Gold Medal ) of the Royal Philharmonic Society.

Due to her poor health Myra Hess had to give up her concert career in the 60s. She died on 25 November 1965 in London.

Honors

Myra Hess was appointed in 1936 Commander of the British Empire, and five years later, in 1941, the Dame of the British Empire.