Hess, Myra - Columbia Records Pamphlet.Click Image to ZoomEnlarge Image

Hess, Myra (1890-1965)

Columbia Records Pamphlet.

New York, Likely 1920s. 9.25" h x 6" w. 4 pp. In good condition except for residue from two paper clips at top margin; small crease at right bottom corner. Unsigned.
A small pamphlet introducing Myra Hess, Phenomenal English Pianist, printed by Columbia Records. The inner pages contain press notices praising Hess' performances, and the final page provides a list of Hess' recordings with Columbia.
Hess was a celebrated English pianist, best known for her interpretations of the German Classical and Romantic repertories. She is also fondly remembered for her lunchtime concert series during World War II at the National Gallery in London, which she organized because concert halls were blacked out in the evenings to avoid detection by German bombers. The concerts were, remarkably, held every weekday for six and a half years, beginning just a few weeks after World War II began. Hess herself appeared 150 times, and she offered five guineas per concert to all those she enlisted to play, though she herself never took a fee. She was knighted by King George VI for this extraordinary effort to boost wartime morale in the city.
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