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WEEK 2 of 3 weeks of great auctions – this is the SECOND week of three weeks of great records. As a default, I will not send you an invoice until the end of my sales cycle on September 27 – that way you can see my next listings and you can combine your wins into one parcel for a low postage.

International shipping: approx postage 1x10"=$25: 1x12"=$28: 10"Album 4 Rec=45$: 12" Album 2 Rec=45$

Less to Canada. Pls ignore international postage displayed in Ebay, rates are too high

IF YOU WIN MULTIPLE ITEMS DO NOT USE EBAY CHECK OUT in order for me to get you low combined postage. Send me an invoice request instead.

 

 

I am currently selling a series of great Richard Wagner and classic European 78 rpm orchestral recordings on all the great European labels:

Famous British WOMAN Pianist Myra Hess Plays

Myra Hess plays Schubert Sonata  in A Major Op 120 D664 (3/3)
recording: February 1928

 

 

1928 SCHUBERT CENTENNIAL Edition with Schubert Signature on Label 3x12" Viva Tonal 78 rpm records  Generic Album

Condition: Excellent VERY dirty needs cleaning. Album solid, spine rough.

 

 

Carnaval, Op. 9, is a work by Robert Schumann for piano solo, written in 1834-1835, and subtitled Scènes mignonnes sur quatre notes (Little Scenes on Four Notes). It consists of a collection of short pieces representing masked revelers at Carnival, a festival before Lent. Schumann gives musical expression to himself, his friends and colleagues, and characters from improvised Italian comedy (commedia dell'arte).

For Schumann the four notes were encoded puzzles, and he predicted that "deciphering my masked ball will be a real game for you." The 21 pieces are connected by a recurring motif. In each section of Carnaval there appears either or both of two series of musical notes. These are musical cryptograms, as follows:
A, E-flat, C, B - signified in German as A-S-C-H
A-flat, C, B - signified in German as As-C-H
E-flat, C, B, A - signified in German as S-C-H-A.

The first two spell the German name for the town of Asch (this is now Aš in the Czech Republic), in which Schumann's then fiancée, Ernestine von Fricken, was born as well as representing the German word Fasching or carnival. Asch is also German for "Ash," as in Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. It also encodes a version of the composer's name, Robert Alexander Schumann. The grouping S-C-H-A encodes the composer's name again with the musical letters appearing in Schumann, in their correct order.

Carnaval had its origin in a set of variations on a Sehnsuchtswalzer by Franz Schubert, whose music Schumann had only discovered in 1827. The catalyst for writing the variations may have been a work for piano and orchestra in the form of variations on the same Schubert theme, by Schumann's close friend Ludwig Schuncke. Schumann felt that Schuncke's heroic treatment was an inappropriate reflection of the tender nature of the Schubert piece, so he set out to approach his Variations in a more intimate way. He worked on his variations in 1833 and 1834. The work was never completed, however, and Schuncke died in December 1834, but Schumann did re-use the opening 24 measures for the opening of Carnaval. Andreas Boyde has since reconstructed the original set of Variations from Schumann's manuscript.

In Carnaval, Schumann goes further musically than in Papillons, Op. 2, for in it he himself conceives the story of which it was the musical illustration. Each piece has a title, and the work as a whole is a musical representation of an elaborate and imaginative masked ball during carnival season. Carnaval remains famous for its resplendent chordal passages and its use of rhythmic displacement, and has long been a staple of the pianist's repertoire.

Schumann dedicated the work to the violinist Karol Lipiński.

Both Schumann and his wife, Clara, considered his solo piano works too difficult for the general public. Frédéric Chopin is reported to have said that Carnaval was not music at all. Consequently, the works for solo piano were rarely performed in public during Schumann's lifetime, although Franz Liszt performed selections from Carnaval in Leipzig in 1840. However, today, despite its immense technical and emotional difficulty, it is one of Schumann's most often performed works.

Here is some fascinating information on the crucial role Myra Hess played for the British Music Scene:

Amidst the extraordinary circumstances of wartime Britain, there arose a musical heroine, the pianist Myra Hess, whose leadership in bringing music to her countrymen from London's National Gallery was ofttimes an act of considerable bravery. In defiance of the Nazi raids, Myra Hess, along with hundreds of other musicians, performed Classical music concerts as bombs fell on the city. Ironically, the music most often featured at these concerts was that of German composers, which sent a strong message to the enemies of democracy that Britain could admire the culture of the German people while abhoring the political realities of the Nazi Reich. In these remarkable times, Myra Hess became a symbol of British resolve to withstand the attacks, and she earned a special place in the hearts of the people and in the history music.

Born in 1890 in prosperous Hampstead, now North West London, Myra Hess was the youngest of four children. She commenced playing the piano at the age of five and in due course passed the junior examinations at Trinity College of Music. By the age of seven she was a student at the Guildhall School of Music where she was influenced by Julian Pascal and Dr. Lando Morgan. Upon gaining a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, she became a student of Tobias Matthay, one of the greatest piano teachers of all time, and it was his deep insights into both the psychological and technical aspects of playing that were responsible for her early maturity as a concert pianist. Matthay's unfailing advice to pupils before concerts was "Enjoy the music," and that was always a help to the nervous Hess.

Her career got off to a slow start, and she had to organize her first London concerts herself. However, she was not a typical prodigy, and unlike many other gifted youths, she was spared any exploitation. Years later she said, "I was a very slow worker. I'm glad I didn't have to begin the life of an artist when I was a child. That is tragic. At twenty they are saying she is not such a good artist as she was at ten."

The venerable Tobias Matthay at the Royal Academy was keenly aware of Hess's rare talent that had been placed in his hands to develop. Hess adored him, and of those early lessons she wrote, "I had a startling awakening to all the beauties of the music of which I had not even dreamed... Till then, I had just played, now I began to think."

Myra Hess made her debut in 1907 at age 17 with a recital at the Aeolian Hall. She was subsequently invited to play the Beethoven Concerto No. 4 in G Major with Sir Thomas Beecham conducting, and the outstanding success of this performance gained her recognition, but it was acclaim that proved to be short-lived. The stage was still held by giants like Hofmann, Paderewski and Godowsky, and HessÆs tasteful, heartfelt and flawless tone was not at all popular at first.

Teaching kept her afloat, and she was also an active chamber musician, appearing with violinists such as Joseph Szigeti and Fritz Kreisler, and honing her skills as an accompanist with such great names as Nellie Melba and Lotte Lehmann. Her first major successes were in Holland where she won critical praise in February 1912 for her performance of SchumannÆs Piano Concerto in A minor with the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Willem Mengelberg which was followed by subsequent performances there of many other works. But the end of the World War I saw her increasingly celebrated in England, and a sensational New York debut in 1922 finally made her a star.

Of her first New York concert, the well known critic W.J. Henderson wrote: "She is a great pianist without limitation," and he praised the imagination and sensitivity shown in the "subtly wrought details of her readings and the singular aptness of her purpose." Myra Hess later performed in the major cities of the United States in recitals and as a soloist with many American orchestras.

In 1936 King George V made her a Companion of the Order of the British Empire, and five years later she became a Dame Commander of the same Order. In 1941 she was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society, a distinction reserved for only the greatest musicians.

Before the outbreak of World War II, she widely toured Germany, Austria, France and Holland as a recitalist and guest performer with orchestras. During this period, she was noted for her performances of Bach, Scarlatti, Mozart, and Beethoven. She also specialized in Schumann and Brahms, and she took an active interest in all types of chamber music, having previously formed a piano duo with her cousin Irene Sharrer.

However as a solo pianist, Myra Hess originally had a wide-ranging repertoire including contemporary composers and virtuoso showpieces. In the 1930s she pruned her repertoire to what she dubbed the "roast beef of music" ù Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Scarlatti, Schubert and Schumann ù seasoned with occasional "shrimp cocktails" from Debussy and Ravel. Her most highly regarded recordings are perhaps those of Schumann's works.

In the first months of the Second World War, all live music performances ceased in Britain. Dame Myra cut short a tour of America that was in progress, and on returning to London, she inaugurated what was to become a remarkable and popular series of lunch-time concerts at the National Gallery, a building then emptied of its treasures for safekeeping during the Blitz. This was exactly what people needed since the black-outs made it difficult for London's suburban residents to travel up to town after dark. And so Classical music symbolically and physically replaced the paintings and sculptures of the National Gallery, and an audience which included not only regular devotees, but also many who had never heard such music before came about as a result of Hess's brainchild to replace one kind of art with another, enabling the National Gallery to continue functioning as Great Britain's chief center of art.

Undoubtedly an enormous range of works were performed at these concerts by hundreds of composers and performers. However, particularly outstanding among the Gallery Concerts were the performances of the complete series of Mozart Piano Concertos by Myra Hess in collaboration with Alec Sherman and his New London Orchestra.

By the Autumn of 1944, more than 1300 concerts had been performed at the National Gallery in this series, ú15,000 paid out in artists' fees and ú10,000 paid to the Musicians' Benevolent Fund. The concerts continued throughout the bombing of London though they ran at a loss during the most difficult days. However, contributions from music lovers in the United States and Canada helped to defray expenses when attendances were small.

In the aftermath of World War II, Hess resumed her international career and was particularly successful in the United States. Throughout her career, she continually gave credit to her beloved teacher, Tobias Matthay, and even after his death, Hess remarked, "He is always beside me when I play." From the 1920s, with Hess's increasing fame, due to her frequent American tours, there had begun a migration of American piano students to London to receive Matthay's wisdom.

But in the years after World War II when her teacher and mentor was no longer alive, Hess's programming changed and was often uncompromising (a favorite recital consisted entirely of the late Beethoven Sonatas); yet her box-office appeal remained as strong as ever. When illness struck in the l960's, she returned to teaching again as a means of making her musical contribution.

Dame Myra Hess died in 1965, but she will always be remembered for her morale-boosting concerts at the National Gallery during some of Britain's darkest days. To many, Hess was a living symbol of Britain's resolve to outlast the German attacks on London, and so she gained a very special place in the hearts of her countrymen, not only as a brilliant pianist, but also as a true patriot since her music became part of the 'glue' that held Britain together during the Nazi's devastating air raids. Harold C. Schonberg gave the great pianist this epitaph in the New York Times: "Dame Myra was one of the most civilized of pianists." Her transcription of the Bach Chorale Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, and her recorded interpretations of Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, and Schumann remain as a shining legacy for all who love serious music.

A series of great Violin, Piano and Orchestra records on rare labels, from 1902 Monarch to 1940 War Germany recordings.

More Great Records on sale right now:

 

 

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A Quick NOTE ON GRADING AND SHIPPING:

As you can see from my feedback, I try hard to earn your POSITIVE FEEDBACK and FIVE STAR RATINGS.

If for any reason your transaction was NOT SATISFACTORY, pls contact me and I will work something out with you. YOU WILL NEVER HAVE A REASON TO GIVE ME A NEGATIVE RATING or a LOW STAR RATING.

Quick note on grading:

The Grade (Excellent to Fair, I don't give Mint) refers to the WEAR of the record. Any other defects are stated separately

When I listen to a record, I may also give it an aural grade (again E to F), and make a SUBJECTIVE judgment of the pressing quality for hiss and surface noise.
"SUPERQUIET" is basically noiseless, like a vinyl pressing.
"VERY QUIET" is an exceptionally quiet record for a given pressing.
"Quiet" is a record that is a great example without undue noise for a give pressing.

These judgments are SUBJECTIVE and will depend one the styli, phonograph etc. you use on your own equipment.

Pls check my other auctions for more great records and phonograph items:

Multiple item shipping: I am happy to combine items for shipment in one parcel.

 

If you win multiple items, pls send me an INVOICE REQUEST to calculate the correct postage. Ebay check out will not give you the multiple item discount!

Records will be packed safely between corrugated cardboard in a sturdy box with plenty of padding for safe shipment.

Shipment is usually Media Mail, unless another service is requested. Shipping is at your risk, I will be happy to insure items at your cost.

I charge actual postage plus a small fee for packing materials

As always, I guarantee your satisfaction. If you don't like the item, just return it, and I will refund the full purchase price.

If you are in the San Francisco area, I encourage pick-up in person.

US Domestic Shipping:

Here is a guideline for US Media Mail Shipping:

Prices below are for regular 78 rpm records. Up to about 5 records, I will ship Edison Discs for the same rates. Albums from Album Sets count as 1 record. Above that and for international shipments, it will be actual weight plus a small packing charge (1-3$ depending on size of shipment)

1 record: 4.50 – 5.00$

2 records: 5.75$

5 records: 7.50$

10 records: 9.50$

MANY MORE RECORDS: Don't worry. I safely ship 40 - 50 pounds of records double boxed in moving boxes, and even then Media Mail will probably not exceed 30$.

Please send me a message if you would like to lower your shipping rates!

 

International Buyers:

All'attenzione degli acquirenti italiani:

ATTENTION TO ITALIAN BUYERS:

Due to rare problems with delivery in ITALY, I will NOT GUARANTEE delivery of parcels sent by US Postal Service First Class and Priority Mail. If you prefer secure delivery, I will be happy to quote you either Registered Mail or shipment by FEDEX

I am very happy to ship records worldwide.

Please use the EBAY shipping cost only as a guideline. My actual charges are usually lower

One record usually ships for 25 – 28$ (Less for Canada).

I can get competitive rates from FedEx and the US Postal service for any kind of parcel weight, and will make use of all the cost-saving shipment methods

Pls contact me for a shipping estimate, or send me an invoice request after close of auction. 

AND AGAIN -THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST

As you can see from my feedback, I take great care in presenting, grading and shipping your items. I really want you to be happy with the purchase. If you feel that anything is wrong with the item or the shipping, contact me and we will work it out !!!

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Thank you very much, and good luck bidding !!!

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