Chopin Nocturne No 13 C Minor Myra Hess Rec 1948

[palmerplantagenet]

Myra Hess' monumental largesse is similar to Ethel Leginska's in this piece. Perhaps except for the chorale section, which Leginska said Anton Rubinstein could make hearers weep from his prayerful tone, rolling the broken chords with quiet majesty. Both Hess and Leginska occasionally pulled back grand climactic points to an instant inverted dynamic of piano. Makes me think of sobbing amidst unsettled hysteria. And visions of Pere Lachaise.

[420sexybitch420]

This is the greatest interpretation of this piece ever

[MrJbhg]

Wonderful rendition, but still owes a lot to that of, for instance, Guiomar Novaes.

[seremerow]

@samhtliu

That's so nice to hear your agreement with me.

Her playing is full of thoughts that build up the possibility to make us review and rethink.

The soud contains deep,light,heavy,storial...all kinds of expressions of piano playing.

I believe she's a great teacher,musician and artist.

She also play an important role in British's piano playing.

Anyway,Hess is so amazing.

That's pitty that tthe amount of her playing on youtube is too few to know her.

[musicist001]

Are you sure that this composition was playing by Myra Hess and not by Chopin?

[townsendjean]

What a remarkable performance of a complicated work whose chief subject is a masterly expression of a great powerful grief ... a cry of deepest anguish. There are fevers and cold sweats in this music and Hess renders it almost as if in a somnambulant daze, with a tremulous delicacy of intensity, as if it were a living thing whose nerves were being operated upon, where every touch might mean life or death.

[StonerManiac11]

This is incredible

[petroushka80]

thanks. Both the music and images are magnificent

[hg5iel9revo]

Incredible, very moving, Thanks Chopin, Dame Myra @ Beckmesser2

[operascenestudy]

Astonishing!

[Haeronthegreat]

The appearance of the chorale section is like heaven opening.

[OttoSpoonmore]

The sound of the celestial night raining stars.

[kempff95]

susan boyle playing this stunning!

[uhartchristian]

Myra Hess has many qualities in common with Vladimir Horowitz.

The sound , the legato, the phrasing which gives another dimension to this piece of music.

It must have been great to hear here live, as this recording was not able to capture her powerful play as it should have.

[AvidHobbyist]

i can't imagine how much genius it takes to compose masterpieces like these, and the talent it it takes to perform them to its full potential.

[alexilmagnifico]

listen to arraus version too... !

[herodot2]

Beautiful. Pity that the sound quality is what it is.

The recent Maria Joao Pires recording is, in my view, at a similar level.

[concertobub]

how wonderful - thanks

[meredith21846]

Tempo too slow,even for this noble and stately piece. I usually admire Hess in Brahms,Beethoven and Mozart but feel she is somewhat miscast in Chopin.

[Pischnaholic]

I disagree. It is not too slow. She brings out the darkly expressive nature and chooses not to emphasize the virtuosic elements which too often come off as a bombastic tour de force that calls attention to the pianist more than the music, itself.

Hess is first and foremost a musician. Her skills as a pianist were always subservient to that.

[meredith21846]

That is your opinion and I respect it. The great thing about listening to interpretations from these iconic artists is that they can provoke such diversity of opinion. I stick to my original comment.

[arash505]

One of my favorite chopin nocturnes, 5 stars

[gerryrains]

Fantastic! A highlight from your collection of highlights!

TY for the post.

[soami2u]

STUNNING is the word!

[soami2u]

This is truly a fascinating and commanding performance...Myra Hess was known for disliking the recording studio, having been quoted as complaining about "that little red light"...there must be more live recordings of this great artist, in concert or from radio broadcasts still floating around...let's hope more of them resurface!

[Deimosxsz]

It was great...

[stan724]

Never heard anything like it. Steady as a rock in its dark mood, full of beautiful nuances of hope that shine through now and then. How she maintains this throughout the piece is singularly amazing. Another piece of Chopin that Hess recorded which I like very much is the Fantasy Op. 49, I think at a University of Illinois recital in around 1949. Perhaps someone will post it.

[PolkRidgeAesthete]

Surely one of the darkest, most profoundly pessimistic performances of any Chopin work I know. Every Chopinist must come to terms with this interpretation. D.T.R.

[racher7]

you might want to include in the title of your video: Op. 48 No. 1...cuz i was looking for the Hess version of this nocturne and didn't think it was this. clicked on it anyway and well, it's the one i was looking for!

[Beckmesser2]

I have added the opus and number to the tags. Thank you.

[ecko1o1]

great piece

[soami2u]

Magnificent! To my knowledge, Dame Myra didn't play a lot of Chopin, but she was such a consummate musician that one wishes she had played and recorded more. At first I thought her tempo too slow, but now I see the logic and integrity in this performance. The chorale-like "B" section is wonderful; she maintains the line through all the octaves, and doesn't abuse rubato, unlike the vapid and mannered approach of some old-timey pianists like Paderewski. 5 stars--I'd give it 6 if I could!!!

[Beckmesser2]

On page 99 of Marian McKennas, Myra Hess, a Portrait, she writes, Of all of the magnificent executants of the golden age of pianists produced it was Paderewski Myra idolized above all the rest.

[soami2u]

Ironic, to say the least! Paderewski was widely admired by some of his colleagues who admired his tone, among other things. Yet some professions had open scorn, even contempt for his playing, citing rhythmic inaccuracy and technical limitations. Rosina Lhevinne thought him "overrated", and my own teacher Gyorgy Sandor called him "an amateur". He did have tremendous charisma in his youth, however, having something of the effect of a matinee idol on women.

[soami2u]

I wonder what period it was of her life that Hess is supposed to have "idolized" Paderewski. Dame Myra would have been a young girl when the Paderewski craze was still on--I wonder if she would have felt the same way about him in her maturity--certainly no two artists could have been more different!

[caijpp]

No, dear soami2u, I can assure you that a girl's crush on someone like Paderewski is a life-changing experience. Plus, despite their polar styles and seemingly different approaches, IMO what they wanted to see in art is the same, perhaps just through different angles.

[soami2u]

Perhaps--but through very different angles!

[soami2u]

I might add...just listen to some of Paderewski's recordings and contrast them with those of Myra Hess--you can immediately see that each held very different musical values, including attitudes towards fidelity to the score. Is that wanting to see the same in art?

[caijpp]

"fidelity to the score": that's not my field of expertise, but here is a quote by Picasso-

"What is a face, really? Its own photo? Its make-up? Or is it a face as painted by such or such painter? That which is in front? Inside? Behind? And the rest? Doesn't everyone look at himself in his own particular way? Deformations simply do not exist."

[soami2u]

Very interesting. But abstract painting is another subject altogether.

[acortot]

@soami2u rubato abuse is highly misunderstood and overdiagnosed IMO

[jmanthirtyseven]

I always love hearing the live performance recordings, It shows, imo, the true performers art! This is one of the best I have heard..

[jilgijs]

Thank you, this is incredibly beautiful.

[alexkrantz23]

The most truly moving performance of this piece I've ever heard!

[vsbcompany]

Brought me to tears.

[Starwalker6978]

This is great Beckmesser, yet you should listen Fanny Bloomfield playing this -- she surpasses really any recording ever heard!

[ilovescarlatti]

Beautiful. but slow on my opinion .. from 4'20" fantastic.. my favourite performance in this nocturne is Rubinstein... sorry

[EuropeanArchive]

Thanks. Does someone have by any chance Myra Hess her performance of John Field's 4th Nocturne, from the Columbia "ear and eye" music history set?

------------------------

Greetings,

Rolf

Historical classical recordings

European Archive, Paris

[Beckmesser2]

I have placed the Hess recording on my channel

[chopinopus28]

@Beckmesser2 i wouldn't say surpass but among with hess i would say gilels recording from 1949 which is on a video here on you tube and of yakov flier, unfortunately not avaliable.

[Liszt1886]

Je connaissais Myra Hess comme une pianiste très classique et quelque peu neutre, mais cette magnifique interprétation a ouvert mes yeux.

[truecrypt]

Monumental, larger than life performance!

[chad410]

very movin

[snaaptaker]

Priceless!

It is difficult for me to type this because of the tears in my eyes. Recordings of her playing Chopin are extremely rare, and I had no idea this one existed. This now superscedes my prior favorite by Hofmann.

Dame Myra has been, for the past half-century, and remains my very favorite pianist.

Thank you so much, Beckmesser2.

[RabidCh]

Incredible! Thanks for posting this.

Now if somebody could restore those damned skips/overloads...

[caijpp]

Leave them in there...they make the experience more cruel and painful...