APR 5646, 65:34 (Distrib. Harmonia mundi) ****:
It seems the art of Dame Myra Hess (1890-1965) warrants considerable CD mileage these days, especially her 13 October 1950 account of Schumann’s Carnaval – made for the BBC Studios and just issued as well on the BBC Legends label. This restoration from APR is a mite cleaner than the BBC restoration, and the playing captures Hess in an elegant form of bravura, her fleetness and poetry equally evident. The “little scenes on four notes” hurry, skitter, plummet, swirl, and dance across the stage of Schumann’s imagination with sympathetic aplomb. If the Papillons and Paganini sections turn the demonic loose, Chopin reminds us that, according to Schumann, genius communes only with genius. A tender Aveu leads to a swaggering Promenade, then to the pregnant, brisk Pause and the ferociously spirited March of the David’s-Leaguers Against the Philistines. Unselfconscious and fervently adept, this version is far and away superior to her 1938 inscription, which took four takes to achieve a lesser energy.
The Brahms Quintet from 25 August 1942 is a rarity indeed, representing the only surviving document of the Grillers’ work with Hess in an association that stretched (at the National Gallery) from 1939-1946. The sound suffers from distinct acetate wear, but the naturalness of the Brahms style is evident from the outset, and I still await someone to reissue the Hess C Major Trio, Op. 87 with Cassado and d’Aranyi. A dark momentum carries the opening Allegro non troppo forward, Sidney Griller’s wiry, rasping violin countered by the Hess legato and velvet arpeggios. A lovely diminuendo prior to the coda’s onslaught, Colin Hampton’s cello providing a firm pedal over which the tumultuous Brahms pours out his heart. Since the material for the Brahms Andante derives from Schubert’s song, Pause, the lyrical humor comes to Hess and ensemble inevitably enough; it was Hess whose 1929 inscription of Schubert’s little A Major Sonata, D. 664 indelibly sold that work to me. Nice stretti from the Griller, and Philip Burton’s viola shines with burnished luster. The third movement Allegro always possesses for me a Bismarckian militancy, and this realization adds a zesty urgency to the broth. Wicked entries and sforzati, angular phrasings, breathless staccati, all keep us glued to our seats. A most Schoenbergian opening to the last movement Poco sostenuto, the dissonances ripe, leads to generously warm cello entry for the dazzling Allegro non troppo. Once the head of steam is up, it’s damn the torpedoes, even if Brahms the man can never quite relish his own passions. This is a real addition to the Hess discography and a stirring account by any standard.
— Gary Lemco
