Description: Throughout World War II, Dame Myra Hess, Britain's greatest concert pianist, ran lunchtime concerts at London's National Gallery. They became the stuff of legend, proving music's power to support the human spirit in the darkest of times. This biography, the first in nearly five decades, follows Hess's transformation from rebellious young musician into inimitably powerful woman and national heroine. She was born into a religious Jewish family in Victorian north London and studied at the Royal Academy of Music with the renowned pedagogue Tobias Matthay. Nevertheless, as a woman seeking to build a performing career before World War I, she faced a struggle for recognition. At home, a clash with her father led her to seek alternative ways of building a substitute family of friends. Stardom ensued when she reached the US in 1922. Soon, with America at her feet from coast to coast, her beloved transcription of Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring capturing public imagination, and British artistic luminaries, politicians and royalty flocking to her UK performances, Hess seemed unstoppable. During the war and through the National Gallery concerts, she became an unsung activist, helping refugee musicians from Nazi-occupied countries to find their feet in Britain and personally endeavouring to aid young British musicians faced with wartime deprivations. Myra Hess - National Treasure offers previously unpublished extracts from her correspondence and postwar American tour diaries, full of insights into her collaborations with towering musicians of her day, including Arturo Toscanini, Pablo Casals, Bruno Walter and Kathleen Ferrier. Interviews with her former pupils shed light on Hess's rigour, intensity and warmth, her dislike of recording and her special way of building her connection with her audience when on stage. Hess encountered innumerable personal challenges nonetheless, including some disastrous medical misdiagnoses. A sociable woman who disliked being alone, she sacrificed her personal life in her determination to dedicate herself entirely to music. And though warm and giving, she did not hold back when faced with betrayal, cruelty or deception, or when others failed to meet the ferociously high standards she set for herself. Dame Myra Hess emerges at last from behind the myths: a unique personality full of generosity, courage, humour and sheer, unfailing 'chutzpah'.
Brief description: Jessica Duchen is a music journalist, critic and author. She grew up in London and studied music at Jesus College, Cambridge, plus piano with Joan Havill. Her previous biographies have included books about Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Gabriel Faure and the London Chamber Orchestra. Her work has appeared in the Sunday Times, the i paper, BBC Music Magazine and specialist periodicals such as Pianist and International Piano. In the 1990s she became the founding editor of Britain's first independent piano magazine and subsequently wrote for The Independent for 12 years. Among her novels on musical topics are Ghost Variations - the story of how the suppressed Schumann Violin Concerto was discovered - and Immortal, about Beethoven's 'Immortal Beloved'. Alicia's Gift, about a child prodigy pianist, was described by the Kanneh-Masons as 'the book that inspired our family'. As a librettist, Jessica has worked extensively with the composer Roxanna Panufnik on the award-winning community opera Dalia, its predecessor Silver Birch, some large-scale choral works and a song cycle. She lives in London with her violinist husband and their cat.