| Beethoven 'Appassionata', 1st mvt: Dame Myra Hess (1945) Dame Myra Hess in a lunchtime concert at the National Gallery plays the opening movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata in F minor, Op 57. During the war years, and the blitz, Dame Myra Hess organized over a thousand concerts at the National Gallery. The Gallery had removed all their paintings, keeping just one on display each month as thousands of folks (many not regular concert goers) came to hear, be inspired, and maybe gain a little hope by these wartime concerts. Andrew Dickson wrote in his blog at the "Guardian": "the monumental Appassionata - always associated in my mind with a wartime film of Myra Hess at the National Gallery, playing those crashing F minor chords at with a stubborn intensity that takes on all the death and mayhem around." Tags: Beethoven appassionata MyraHess 1945 Romantic sonata |