Beethoven 'Appassionata', 1st mvt: Dame Myra Hess (1945)

[satyu131089]

Taken for granted Myra Hess' superhuman talent, this video and audio are awesome for their time!

[thom2629]

she's great.

[GeoJDr]

Wonderful! Thanks for sharing this gem!

[johnst66xx]

I love the stormy atmosphere she conjures up. Not many pianists do that nowadays.

[SongsofInnocence]

@johnst66xx richter could

[darkblueangel1956]

Myra Hess mi ha sempre lasciato una certa perplessità, per il suo stile ormai sorpassato e fuori luogo, da molti decenni. La capacità di rinnovarsi e mettersi in discussione per cercare nuove strade NON E' PER TUTTI ! E il tempo è un filtro inesorabile, quando la qualità non è SEMPRE tutto oro puro. Basta ascoltare Rubinstein Brendel e Arrau per oscurare Dame Myra Hess. Scusate la mia franchezza !

[callasnuts]

@darkblueangel1956 Ma chi ha necessitá di "oscurare" a nessuno? Dame Myra Hess era un Titano del pianoforte,e questo clip é una storica testimonianza in tempi di guerra

[paulostroff99]

Right up there with Curzon and Solomon.

[radsdau]

This is one of the most amazing performances of this piece that I have heard; Myra is incredible! Great feel, executed extremely well.

[Andresppiiaannoo]

EXISTE ALGUNA MEJOR INTERPRETACION QUE ESTA??? NO NO NO!

[otakuloveran]

cool madam

[SyriaMosque]

Surely one of the great ones, and so, perhaps , greater than the current great ones. There is always the spirit rising above the need for approval. Or the need . . .

[YYZAP1]

Dame Myra Hess and Annie Fischer are my two favorite pianists, EVER!

Much similarity in their amazing no schtick playing.

Thank you for posting this.

[David16848]

nice I love this sonate...it reflects deep feelings

[MrReeves6]

My mother took me to see Dame Myra at the Hill auditorium in Ann Arbor. It must have been about this time, 1945. She played Beethoven's sonata Les Adieu and I shall never forget her performance. Her playing was so grand and majestic. I was totally entranced.

[PianoCussoSFHA]

excelente documento. Gracias por subirlo

[kleinbogen]

She looks like my uncle wearing a wig. Amazing pianist (her not my uncle)!

[spasman]

She split up the hands in the run at 0:42, not sure if youre meant to...

[radsdau]

@spasman

Yeah, it's recommended as a way of playing it with more 'virtuosity' (easier). You can't get away with it in the same run later on when the left hand is already tied up with the bass drone. She pulled it off pretty amazingly.

[Zyghnwyr]

This is playing of a very high order. Impassioned yes, but superbly controlled. She was a very fine musician, and it's good that she's still admired forty-five years after her death.

[SupermansWheelchair1]

Amazing technique

[todnacht]

sin duda, la mejor interpretacion!!!!

[uhartchristian]

anything she touches transform into beauty....

she always has the feeling for the composer , is it Scarlatti Mozart Beethoven or Schumann. You always have the impression of best interpretation. Her sound never was brutal but powerful . I think at her time she was definitely one of the top pianists. And maybe the best musician...

[maynardgirl21]

Beautiful!

[MCCXK120]

A superb and sensitive pianist-i listen to her play Schumann

[inazuma3gou]

The lady has spoken beautifully.

[Scott1916]

Wow--I've never heard any of her recordings--she's wonderful!

[ShawDAMAN]

Superbity!! ;-O

[FourtyTwoLetters]

Those fingers are made of magic!

[MusicMan20061210]

Did anybody miss what brand of piano she played?

[flies101]

steinway...

[usarra]

una interpretacion inigualable

[karinamayai]

She is awesome!!!

[Andresppiiaannoo]

Myra Hess , fue mucho mas que una mujer...excelentisima , perfecta, medida, tecnica mas alla de lo correcto...interprete maravillosa...

[killerbunny123123]

I really love the way she uses the fingers....I mean she always switches and quickens and all....her technique is a god-like skill!

[paulostroff99]

Superb! Brava! TY.

[Wcross34]

Wonderful irony that someone named Hess should become something of a heroine in wartime London!

[TheAtma]

I had the same thought, though perhaps the OTHER Hess wasn't in common knowledge at the time.

[leeena33]

NOT!!! LOL

[eros313100]

omg she is sooo hot X)

[xurumambo]

LOL

[g00gleh00]

@eros313100  WTF? lol

[sweetm0on]

amazing! great woman XD she had magical&musically hands

[ip7778]

is this a man?

[maalga2008]

are yu stupid ?

[ellandelachapelle]

Let the bombs fall! Dame Myra will play anyway! (and in the Soviet Union they had Maria Yudina.) (ironically enough they both played German and Austrian music.)

[alexkrantz23]

What an artist!

[weltmeister12]

She played great as Rubinstein

[peterchopin22]

Very beautiful Playing The Old School.

he plays the ta ta ta ta ta with one

Finger better sound controlled and not 321 321 321 with litel sound control.

I like this better.

Very beautiful piano technique!

[AZazaxe]

It is the good stong, what a fanatastic pianist!!! Bless her and her abilities and the pianoforte

[astronomo16]

excellent

[Hervinbalfour]

Out of all the interpretations of this Sonata this is now my favoroite. I don't quite have words to describe it but there is something about her playing of this that just mesmorizes me.

[dapdudida]

WOW....!

[phoobat]

Myra was my Great Aunt, so I was really lucky

to have been a child of artists throughout my family in all the Arts. She used to enourage people to laugh, if the music so decreed. She never liked people to take it all too seriously. However, she was spectacular, and a rebel, and we loved her. I used to play for her, which was extremely difficult, as you can all imagine! She was a fine critic.

I thank you all for your great comments.

[simmo303]

You were indeed fortunate! Superb playing.

[ellandelachapelle]

Congratulations! Did she ever mention Irene Scharrer? Did you hear Scharrer yourself?

[vakareden2345]

Fantastic! No words....

[swanningaround]

Great video. Other shots of this performance show many American troops in the audience, and also the King of England George VI. This is historic war footage, and not a bad performance also.

[BrentKnoll29]

mecussi pinomenta

[Shumeshi]

Some alternative ways to play certain passages there, interesting.

[folsak]

great interpretation of the appassionata and good tecnique

[veseli601]

Great performance! Thanks for posting!

[bobon47]

Very strictly and command respect!

[gani1025]

OMG! The best performance of the appassionata I've ever heard. I just listen from the first note to the end with full of surprise. Another great performance of Hess is the Schubert big Bb sonata from Live at the University of Illinois.

[pianoenthusiast11]

7:53 is just wonderful!!

[killerbunny123123]

yeah thats always been my favourite point in the appassionata 1st mov.

[destinystarseneca]

*breathless*

O.o

i wanna play like that too! <3

[miykeey]

A treasure! What a wonderful experience just to watch and hear this great lady. Thanks for posting.

[superhao69]

very very very nice!!!

[judyanddavid]

Thank you so much for this. When I was a girl during the war, I used to go to the National Gallery for the concerts. She was just wonderful.  So moving. I'm sorry to say that I also remember the delicious sandwiches as much as the music.

[skowarsky]

What a treasure. Magnificent. Thank you.

[opl1n4]

Be careful on your fingering, on the trills.

[borminblood]

wonderful

[amakrid]

Beethoven's answer to the Nazis through Dame Myra. Nothing more, nothing less.

[minirausch]

Listen to her recording of Op. 109 sometime if you can. Myra Hess was an incredible talent, and as far as I'm concerned, unmatched (before and since) in Beethoven...

[jinfiesto]

Schnabel... That's all I have to say.

[WelshSaddler]

Sorry, I didn't make it clear... during World War II (before the days of computers) communicators often used "Morse Code", where each letter of the alphabet has a different format of short and long pulses (dots and dashes). The letter "V" goes ...- (dot dot dot dash) or pam pam pam PAM. The letter "V" was adopted by Winston Churchill (and the whole country) as "V for Victory", and the BBC used the motif performed on bass or kettle drum at every opportunity.

Propaganda!!! (Hope that helps)

[TimandBen]

Ironically, she specialised and performed the German classics while her city was being blitzed.

[WelshSaddler]

Is it mere coincidence that this movement features the "pa-pa-pa-PAM" motif strongly - just as in the opening movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Don't forget that this phrase was a huge part of British propaganda during the war, as it is a direct copy of the morse for the letter "V" ("V" for Victory). The BBC used it (solo drum) at every opportunity in its broadcasts.

[TimandBen]

I get the "pa-pa-pa-PAM" motif part, but not the V for victory part. do elaborate please =)

[teichiboy]

this is moving and yet it doesn't touch me as much as secret garden's version I mean don't get me wrong beethoven has beutiful touching pieces that cannot be described in words like the fur elise , silence, moonlight sonata , the erotica symphony, the 5th symphony but this is touching in a different way just think of it if we had a recording of beethoven playing it how it would sound.

[Trillis1]

It would probably sound really bad. He was known more so as a composer than a virtuoso pianist. Not to mention he was deaf when he wrote this.

[teichiboy]

Well he might have been deaf and couldn't hear what he was playing but he knew in his mind exactly how it was suppose to sound ... if you play an instrument you can close your eyes and plug your ears and play what feels right to you just looking at the music and if you do that you will find that you really do play better then you think.

[JxDanger]

that's true but not if you're playing with other people. I heard that when Beethoven went to perform the "Emperor" concerto, he was completely deaf, and he was laughed off stage because he couldn't play in time with the orchestra. they kept having to start over and he'd yell at them for not playing loud enough.

[openfifth]

If Beethoven wrote an erotic symphany I'd like to hear it. "The Eroica"'s not too bad either.

[LaFleurDeLys]

Wow... this left me in tears. A beautiful piece of music and an incredible performance.

[pierretang]

definitely my all time favourite

100%favourite work

[blabThebla]

that is waht i want to hear when i type in beethoven into the search

[alexongcs]

Beautiful Comment!!! I totally agree

[pierretang]

...better than those home-made and sight-reading-like "performances".

[paulostroff99]

As good as any recorded version IMHO! Brava!

[fabio0077]

what personality!!!!...she's fantastic!...as Norton, as Blotsfeldt....as Argerich...between the greatest pianists all over the story of the music!

[felipefelipe]

at 7:54.. sounds so powerfull is she playing more than one note???

[viharrad]

No, it's just a C

[felipefelipe]

ok i guess is the recording quality, a lot of bass. i think it sound amazing

[swanningaround]

Probably the most famous recording of this piece of music anywhere.

[inturtaner]

Nice Unibrow me thinks :D

[stridje]

At last we meet!

[prongated]

...I just realised...

...if it's a Hamburg Steinway, it'd be ironic...

[NGS712]

prong: Isn't it ironic enough that it's a GERMAN composer. ;)

[belemuski]

Music doesn´t care about polithics

[NGS712]

belemuski: I know that.

I'm just saying it's ironic.

[WENCHINGTON]

No it isn't, you're an idiot.

[NGS712]

WENCH: Wow, what an intelligent rebuttal.

[WENCHINGTON]

Saying WENCH and then a colon denotes that I said what followed.

[romymistique]

wow brilliantly played! such clarity & virtuosity...

[bernardocarmopiano]

My God, what is t?? She has the BEST performance of all times, she is like a monster and extremely lyric. I can´t discribe my feelings about this great DAME. I know two pianists with a power that can be aproach to her, but she is the major. The two other nmes: ANNIE FISCHER and MARIA YIUDINA!!

[jeanette1939]

My Aunt was a great fan and I know why. I saw her in a Chicago recital in the Fifties when I was a teenager and was awed by her technic and her beautiful tone. Thanks so much for putting in on YouTube.

[3NUNS]

Note that there are two performances here !

[paulostroff99]

MUSICALLY ENLIGHTENING!Beautiful playing!

[ipmoic]

Wow--her great musicality just oozes out of her being. What an artist! I must get some of her recordings.

[GetMeThere1]

Fantastic. It doesn't get any better than this!

[suzettegm]

In short: a great performer indeed.

[hellomate639]

Great pianist. She interprets better than a lot of the other ones I hear, for instance, Horowitz... The guy who takes perfectly good pieces and makes his own thing out of it.

Brendel's interpretation tops this one though. Thats like saying, on a smaller scale, that Beethoven was better than Mozart.

Both are extremely good at interpretation.

[pinkange23]

I saw Dame Myra play when I was a teenager. That is how my love affair with classical music began, for which I will always be greatful.

[JotaTR]

This piece is so big as Myra Hess :)

[swanningaround]

No German made pianos allowed then! No Bluthners, Bosendorfers or Bechsteins! However, the composer was German.

[jjp009]

swanning: Where do you think this Steinway was made? You can tell by the rounded arms framing the keyboard that it was built in Hamburg, Germany, unlike the squared "Sheraton" arms of the New York models.

[jinfiesto]

No. That's the old Steinway casing. It's American.

[blargy02]

This piece is beautiful, i also like the old filming =)

[Icezyreal]

Beethoven's rules.

[Solstasis]

The truest and most sincere interpretation. Legendary.

[naninani84]

magic

[Beethoven1216]

THIS IS A GREAT INTERPRETATION ! !! BEETHOVEN FOREVer

[slicejl152]

my favorite so far. great

[canman5060]

Dame Myra Hess is a absolute phenomenal.With the power equal to and even surpass a great many male pianists.Her Beethoven Hammerklavier Sonata is THE Hammerklavier with the strength of the strongest and mightiest player ever.

[seahyimin]

is there a recording of she playing the hammerklavier on youtube?

[seahyimin]

this woman transcribed one of my favourite bach cantatas

[seahyimin]

the old recording makes held notes sound like they vibrate. i like this kind of tone plus the performance is amazing

[adib37]

I can just say: Amazing

[Kesariacity]

I totally agree with A. Dickson's judgment.

It is a unique interpretation which engraves the WWII period of anxieties and confusion.

[Kaimo1]

This is wonderful - are the other two movements around?

[Icezyreal]

She played on Steinway & Sons, The Grand Piano.

[bandia19]

what kind of piano is she playing?

[musicy88]

she is one of the greatest musicians of all time..just marvelous!

[jonalgerIII]

Here is one of the truly great musicians of the 20th century. What I revere above all in the performances I've heard of her's is the Schumann Piano Concerto. My father had a recording of it. I would love to see any of it on youtube!

[sdfjklri]

She is a wonderful woman pianist .

[FlorestanEusebius]

Woman? Ah, yes, I didn't notice it, thanks!

[mitralyc]

cheap

[boytub]

It was amazing,thank you very much to uploaded this great movie! Best regards.

[paminaase]

how do you fix the sound?

I also have some records but I cannot fix them!

[coopandre]

I didn't know these recordings existed.  Thanx!!!

[paristravelor]

beautiful trills, but I prefer Gilels playing

[nico22059]

Thanks for uploading THIS!

[pedro2000pe]

excellent!

[Fedidovisk]

Ela conseguiu tirar o melhor de Beethoven... são poucos, como Kempff .

[sfkcbf]

What a wonderful time-trip back to hear a fine musician! Thank you!

[MissElfreda]

Marvellous!

[Pianowrestler]

Thanks for fixing the sound!