DESCRIPTION :  Up for auction is an original BEAUTIFULY HAND SIGNED AUTOGRAPH - signature ( Signed with a blue fountain pen ) of the much beloved and admired female JEWISH English PIANIST - Dame MYRA HESS , which is beautifuly and professionaly matted beneath her reproduction action photo of HESS playing her piano. The hand signed AUTOGRAPH - signature and the reproduction ACTION PHOTO are nicely matted together , Suitable for immediate framing or display . ( An image of a suggested framing is presented - The frame is not a part of this sale  - An excellent framing - Buyer's choice - is possible for extra $ 80 ). The size of the decorative mat is around 8 x 12 " . The size of the reproduction action photo is around 4.5 x 7 " . The size of the original hand signed autograph ( Autogramme )  is around 2 x 3.5 " . Very good condition of the hand signed autograph, The reproduction action photo and the decorative mat .( Pls look at scan for accurate AS IS images )  Authenticity guaranteed.  Will be sent inside a protective rigid packaging .

PAYMENTS : Payment method accepted : Paypal & All credit cards.

SHIPPMENT :SHIPP worldwide via registered airmail is $ 25 . Will be sent inside a protective packaging. Handling around 5-10 days after payment. 

Dame Julia Myra Hess, DBE (25 February 1890 – 25 November 1965) was an English pianist best known for her performances of the works of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann.[1] Career Early life Julia Myra Hess was born on 25 February 1890 to a Jewish family[2] in South Hampstead, London.[3] She was the youngest of four children and began piano lessons at the age of five.[2] She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and at the Royal Academy of Music under Tobias Matthay.[1] Hess in 1921 External audio audio icon You may hear Dame Myra Hess playing her piano transcription of Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" in 1940 Here on archive.org Her debut came in 1907, when she played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with Sir Thomas Beecham conducting. She went on to tour through Britain, the Netherlands and France, with the violinist Aldo Antonietti, with whom she had a love affair.[4] Upon her American debut in New York City on 24 January 1922, she became a favourite in the United States, both as a soloist and ensemble player. Second World War Hess garnered greater fame during the Second World War when, with all concert halls blacked out at night to avoid being targeted by German bombers, she organised almost 2,000 lunchtime concerts, starting during The Blitz. The concerts were held at the National Gallery, in Trafalgar Square. Hess began her lunchtime concerts a few weeks after the start of the war. They were presented on Monday to Friday, for six-and-a-half years without fail.[5] If London was being bombed, the concert was moved to a smaller, safer room. Promising young performers (such as Eiluned Davies, who gave the UK premiere of Shostakovich's Piano Sonata, Op. 12 at the Gallery on 31 May 1943)[6] were given the opportunity to appear in the concerts alongside established musicians, initially for no fee but after a while all the performers received a standard 'expense fee' of five guineas, no matter who they were, with the exception of Hess herself, who never took a fee for her appearances in the series.[7] In all, Hess presented 1,698 concerts seen by 824,152 people; she personally played in 150 of them.[8] She made a brief appearance performing at one of her lunchtime concerts in the 1942 wartime documentary Listen to Britain (directed by Humphrey Jennings and Stewart McAllister), a performance enjoyed by the Queen in the audience. For this contribution to maintaining the morale of the populace of London, King George VI created her a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1941. (She had previously been created a CBE in 1936.)[9] Hess's lunchtime concerts influenced the formation of the City Music Society, according to the organisation's website.[10] Post-war career In 1946, Arturo Toscanini invited Hess to perform with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in New York City. According to Toscanini's biographer Mortimer Frank, after Hess and the conductor had failed to agree on tempos for Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto, they decided instead to perform Beethoven's Third. The 24 November 1946 broadcast concert was preserved on transcription discs and later issued on CD by Naxos Records.[11] Hess was most renowned for her interpretations of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann, but had a wide repertoire, ranging from Domenico Scarlatti to contemporary works.[12] She gave the premiere of Howard Ferguson's Piano Sonata and his Piano Concerto. She also played a good amount of chamber music and performed in a piano duo with Irene Scharrer who was her cousin.[13] Hess promoted public awareness of the piano duet and two-piano works of Schubert. In 1926 and 1934 she famously arranged, for both solo piano and for two pianos the chorale Wohl mir, daß ich Jesum habe from Bach's Cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (BWV 147). This is Movement 6 of the cantata; the music is the same for Movement 10, Jesus bleibet meine Freude. Each of these movements takes its text from a verse of the hymn Jesu, meiner Seelen Wonne by Martin Janus (or Jahn). Her arrangement was published under the title Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring,[14] which is a rough translation of the name of this hymn, although the line does not itself appear in Bach's cantata. The chorale melody, written in 1641, is by violinist Johann Schop, not by Bach, who composed its setting. External audio audio icon Hess performing Brahms' Piano Trio No. 2 with cellist Gaspar Cassado and violinist Jelly D'Arani in 1935 (on archive.org) Blue plaque erected in 1987 by English Heritage at 48 Wildwood Road, Hess's home. Protégés and influence Her protégés included Clive Lythgoe and Richard and John Contiguglia. She also taught Stephen Kovacevich (then known as Stephen Bishop)and Jane Carlson.[15] She also has a link to jazz, having given lessons in the 1920s to Elizabeth Ivey Brubeck, mother of Dave Brubeck.[16] Arnold Bax's 1915 piano piece In a Vodka Shop is dedicated to her. Last concert and retirement In September 1961, Hess played her final public concert at London's Royal Festival Hall. She was forced to retire after suffering a stroke in early 1961 that left her with permanent brain damage.[17] By the end of the summer of that year it became clear that her public playing days were over. She continued to teach a handful of students, notably Stephen Kovacevich, during her last years. Death On 25 November 1965, Hess died at the age of 75 of a heart attack in her London home.[18] Her ashes were scattered in Golders Green Crematorium in London.[19] A blue plaque marks her residence at 48 Wildwood Road in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London.[20] Hess's Steinway piano remains at the Bishopsgate Institute and has been renamed "Myra The Steinway" in her honour. Hess's great-nephews included the British composer Nigel Hess,[21] who named his music publishing company Myra Music in her honour, and the Conservative politician and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson.[22] Chicago Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts In 1977, the Chicago Cultural Center began a series of free lunchtime concerts held at its Preston Bradley Hall every Wednesday from 12:15 pm to 1:00 pm, named in Hess's honour as the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts. The series is produced by Chicago's International Music Foundation. Since 1977, the concerts have been broadcast live on radio station WFMT and streamed at WFMT.com.[23] ****** Dame Myra Hess February 25, 1890–November 25, 1965 by Ruth Rosenfelder Myra Hess Photo of pianist Myra Hess in 1937, courtesy of the Library of Congress. In Brief One of Great Britain’s most famous classical pianists, Dame Myra Hess had the idea of setting up lunchtime concerts at London’s National Gallery during the Second World War to boost the low morale of Londoners. The success of the National Gallery concerts made Hess an international star, though she preferred to perform in smaller concert halls. She had a complicated relationship with Judaism; she rejected the Orthodox tradition of her father’s family and was drawn to American Episcopalian teachings, though she never converted for fear of being perceived as a deserter by her fellow Jews. The honor of Dame of the British Empire was conferred upon Hess in 1941. Contents 1 Family Life & Myra’s Character 2 Music Education 3 International Success & Honors 4 Bibliography One of the most potent symbols representing the spirit of war-torn Britain during World War II must be the series of concerts at London’s National Gallery that continued throughout the war. Within a month of hostilities being declared, the National Gallery was closed and its paintings safely stored outside the capital. Cinemas, theaters, and concert halls were all dark; Myra Hess, by then an established concert pianist, was concerned about the effect of this cultural blackout on the lives of Londoners. Towards the end of September 1939, she approached the Director of the Gallery, Kenneth Clark, with the idea of mounting lunchtime classical concerts. Clark shared her concerns and swiftly obtained government approval for the scheme. On Tuesday, October 10, the first lunchtime concert was staged; a resounding success, it was the first of an uninterrupted succession that continued for six and a half years until April 10, 1946, 1,698 concerts later. Family Life & Myra’s Character Julia Myra, the youngest of four children, was born in London on February 25, 1890. Her paternal grandfather, Samuel Hess (1824–1905), arrived in England from his native Alsace and set up his own textile firm in London’s East End in 1847. He married English-born Alice Cantor and moved into an elegant Islington home and, an Orthodox Jew, regularly attended Dalston Synagogue. Frederick Solomon, Myra’s father, was the oldest of his seven children, three boys and four girls. Frederick joined his father in the expanding family firm and in 1884 married Lizzie Jacobs (“Lizzie” is the name that appears on the marriage register) at Bayswater Synagogue. Myra’s character was essentially a paradox. She was serious and disciplined, as was her father, but she also inherited her mother‘s sense of fun, as well as her mother’s small feet and hands; Myra’s hands were so small that her teacher at the Royal Academy of Music created a device to develop her hand span. However, her penchant for Rabelaisian stories, vulgar jokes, and smoking in public was in part, according to her biographer Marion McKenna, a reaction against a restricting upbringing, which included an adherence to Orthodox Jewish practice. See Also: Pnina Salzman Encyclopedia: Pnina Salzman Frederick and Lizzie Hess’s idiosyncratic interpretation of traditional Jewish practice included eating any meat so long as it was not pork or ham, while at the same time prohibiting all forms of vehicular travel on the Sabbath, including riding a bicycle, which the children found irksome. Frederick would go to synagogue with his sons on Friday evening and return to a traditional Sabbath meal; even at the end of her life, Myra could chant the kiddush, the somewhat lengthy benediction over wine that precedes the Sabbath meal. Her attitude to religion was complex. She rejected any level of Orthodox Judaism, recognizing that it was incompatible with the life of a professional musician. She became increasingly drawn to Christianity through the teachings of the American Episcopalian Theodore Parker Ferris, whose circulated sermons she began to read in 1942. However, although she discussed baptism, she did not convert to Christianity, believing the act could be construed as desertion of her fellow Jews. Music Education When she was five, Myra Hess began to take lessons in piano and cello but soon abandoned the latter instrument. At seven, she was admitted to Trinity College of Music and was the youngest pupil to receive the Trinity College Certificate. Following her time at Trinity, she went to the Guildhall School of Music where she studied theory and piano under Julia Pascal and Orlando Morgan, composers who subsequently dedicated works to her. However, she objected to any reference to herself as a child prodigy, stating, “I’m glad I didn’t have to begin the life of an artist as a child. … At twenty they are saying, ‘She was not such a good artist as she was at ten.’” She made her début in 1907, aged seventeen, with a recital at the Aeolian Hall. While at school she met the pianist Irene Scharrer. The two became virtually inseparable and formed a piano duo; however, they were not cousins, as is widely believed. When she was twelve, Hess won the Ada Lewish scholarship to study with the renowned teacher Tobias Matthay at the Royal Academy of Music. Scharrer was also a pupil of his, and he remained an important figure in both their lives. Even after his death Hess commented, “He is always beside me when I play.” Hess, who never married, made abiding friendships with women such as Irene Scharrer and men such as Howard Ferguson, whom she met during her time at the Royal Academy. International Success & Honors Always nervous before a performance and subject to periods of depression, Hess claimed, “When I listen to myself play, I feel I am going to my own funeral,” but she was saved by her sense of humor and fund of common sense. She was also happier performing in small halls than large auditoria, but the success of the National Gallery concerts made her an international star, encouraging such idols as Arturo Toscanini to invite her to perform a Beethoven concerto with him and his orchestra during her first postwar tour of America. Her favored programs, however, were uncompromising recitals of works such as the demanding late Beethoven Sonatas. The honor of Commander of the British Empire was conferred upon her in 1936, followed by Dame of the British Empire in 1941. During the 1960s, increasing bouts of ill health forced her to abandon the concert platform in favor of teaching. She died in London on November 25, 1965. For pianists, a lasting legacy is her transcription of the Bach Chorale Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, and although she was reluctant to enter the recording studio, there remains for all a body of recorded performances that includes invaluable examples of her radio broadcasts. Bibliography Ewen, David. “Myra Hess, a Poet in Tones.” The American Hebrew (October 1929): 688. Grove, George, Stanley Sadie, and John Tyrell (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. McKenna, Marion. Myra Hess. London: H. Hamilton, 1976. Scharrer, Irene. “A Unique Friendship.” In Myra Hess: By Her Friends, edited and compiled by Denise Lassimonne and introduced by Howard Ferguson. London: Vanguard Press, 1966. ***** .Myra Hess: an introduction to the iconic pianist Jeremy Nicholas Tuesday, April 4, 2023 Jeremy Nicholas pays tribute to this British pianist who became a national treasure owing in part to her instigation and dedicated promotion of a wartime concert series in London Dame Myra Hess (photography: Granger/Bridgeman Images) Dame Myra Hess (photography: Granger/Bridgeman Images) To an older generation of readers, Dame Myra Hess is remembered not only as one of the most beloved pianists of her day but also as a much-cherished symbol of British sangfroid during the Second World War. There she is in a fur coat practising for one of the concerts she instigated at the (unheated) National Gallery in London, even as the bombs dropped. And there she is on film playing a Mozart concerto with Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) in the audience seated next to gallery director Kenneth Clark. How imperiously she addresses the keyboard, yet how high her hands come off at the ends of phrases, a smile playing round her lips. A concert pianist might have seemed an unlikely figure to have become a national treasure, but Dame Myra (as she became in 1941) was classical music’s Dame Vera Lynn. See also: Lili Kraus – an introduction to the icon of the piano The 10 greatest Chopin pianists 50 of the greatest classical pianists on record There is film, too, of her playing the piece of music for which she is equally fondly remembered: her transcription of the chorale from Bach’s cantata no 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben; written in 1920 and published in 1926 as Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. She recorded it three times in all (1928, 1940 and 1957), one of those evergreens on a par with Paderewski playing his Minuet in G, or Ernest Lough singing ‘O for the wings of a dove’. In one iteration or another, it has never been out of the catalogue. The epitome of dignity and composure in public, she was quite different off stage Julia Myra Hess was the youngest of four children born to Orthodox Jewish parents in affluent Hampstead, north London, on February 25, 1890. Her father was a partner in the family’s textile firm. After studies in London at Trinity College, the Guildhall School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, she made her debut in the capital with a performance of the fourth piano concertos of both Beethoven and Saint-Saëns (playing her own cadenzas in the Beethoven, though these were later destroyed by her) conducted by the 28-year-old Thomas Beecham. In early portraits, she appears striking rather than beautiful. The most familiar image is of her in later life when she was rather stout, her hair ‘arranged’, as her friend the actress Joyce Grenfell described it, ‘in two shallow scallops on her forehead and drawn back into a bun at the back’. While she was the epitome of dignity and composure in public, she was quite different off stage. ‘Hyra Mess’ (as she sometimes referred to herself) had an irrepressible sense of humour; her lifelong friend Irene Scharrer recalled that this led to ‘times when we were overcome with giggles’. Scharrer, two years older than Hess, had been a fellow student at the Royal Academy of Music under Tobias Matthay, whom they adored as ‘Uncle Tobs’ and who exercised an enduring influence on them. ‘Hers was the most brilliant wit I have ever known,’ wrote Scharrer, ‘with an almost infectious delight in nonsense.’ In her few extant interviews, you can hear what a deliciously smoky voice and mischievous chuckle Hess had. In 1908, she made her Proms debut playing Liszt’s Piano Concerto in E flat under Henry Wood, the first of many occasions on which they would perform together. Indeed, from this point onwards she played with many famous conductors and star soloists, such as Willem Mengelberg, Fritz Kreisler, Nellie Melba and Lotte Lehmann; she also gave two-piano performances with Scharrer. However, after her debut it took over a decade for her career to become firmly established. Her fame grew during the 1920s and ’30s, but one aspect of her life remains a mystery: she seems never to have had a significant other, keeping her private life firmly out of the public gaze. In the years before the war, Hess played around a hundred concerts a year and was at the very heart of British musical life. During her career, she made a total of 96 appearances at the Proms, beginning with her 1908 debut and then playing in every season but one (1946) from 1916 until 1961, sometimes engaged for as many as four concerts. After the war she continued living in St John’s Wood in London, but moved to a house that backs on to Lord’s cricket ground. ‘She loved living there,’ her great-nephew the composer Nigel Hess tells me, ‘because when she heard the applause at the end of each cricket over it reminded her of the applause she used to get at her concerts.’ Her final years were not happy. With a number of debilitating illnesses and unable to play in public any longer, she suffered from acute depression. In the words of her friend the composer and musicologist Howard Ferguson, ‘Life became a desert, and each morning brought anew the fearful problem of how in the world she was going to get through the next day.’ Defining Moments • 1895 – An early start Begins piano lessons aged five • 1897 – Enters Trinity College of Music, London Becomes youngest ever recipient of its certificate • 1903 – Wins scholarship Begins studies at Royal Academy of Music, London, with long-term mentor Tobias Matthay • 1907 – Official debut Aged 17, at Queen’s Hall, London, two concertos under Thomas Beecham; followed in January 1908 by recital debut, Aeolian Hall • 1908 – London ‘Proms’ debut At Queen’s Hall (under Henry Wood); later appears every year (except 1946) from 1916 to 1961 • 1922 – US debut First of more than 40 visits to America • 1927 – First studio recording December, New York: Schubert’s Piano Trio in B flat, D898, with violinist Jelly d’Arányi and cellist Felix Salmond • 1934 – Diagnosis of illness Unbeknown to the public, she was diagnosed with fibrocystic breast disease and underwent a double mastectomy • 1936 – First of two UK honours For services to music: CBE; 1941: DBE • 1939 – Begins National Gallery concert series First concert October 10: plays programme of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Scarlatti and Schubert • 1946 – National Gallery concert series ends Last concert April 10. The weekday lunchtime concerts had been attended by 824,152 people; Hess played in 146 of 1,698 of them • 1961 – Last public performance October 31: Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A, K488; LPO under Sir Adrian Boult, Royal Festival Hall, London • 1965 – End of an era November 25: dies at home in London of a heart attack, aged 75 Essential Recording Myra Hess ‘The Complete Solo and Concerto Studio Recordings’ Myra Hess, Hamilton Harty pfs CBSO / Basil Cameron; Philharmonia Orchestra / Rudolf Schwarz; et al APR Hess professed not to like her own recordings. Many of her admirers think she is heard at her best in live concert performances, but her studio discs are a treasure trove of varied repertoire where a generous spirit and the warm, singing tone common to all Matthay pupils are always much in evidence. This five-CD box-set contains her complete solo and concerto studio recordings made between 1928 and 1957.     EBAY6181/214