Autograph Easter Note on Photograph Card

An autograph Easter greeting from the important German pianist, signed on a greeting card printed with her photograph on the front and with the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi in a facsimile of her handwriting on the verso. Ney has inscribed the card in English to the pianist Alice Caldwell "with kindest regards and heartiest greetings," and dated Easter 1948. Blank inside. 6 x 4 inches.

Elly Ney was one of the 20th century's outstanding pianists. Of her great performing, Willhelm Kempff wrote: "My ears still hear her melodious voice, with its unmistakable hint of her Rhineland origins, which had the gift of establishing immediate contact with everyone she spoke to. This happened even more intensely when she stepped onto the concert platform. Just one mysterious chord (Beethoven's D minor sonata, for instance), and the listener was drawn into her magnetic field. What then ensued cannot and should not be described in words, nor should it be scientifically dissected. Those who had ears, heard for themselves. But that was by no means the end of the matter. A realisation continued to resonate in her listeners' hearts, as it had begun to resonate from the moment this greatest of performers stepped onto the platform - the realisation that artistry of this quality draws its strength from roots that have their being in the unfathomable depths of the human soul."

The pianist Alice Caldwell studied at Oberlin College and toured Europe as a concert pianist from the 1920's through the 1940's. (15026)

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Signed Photograph

Autograph Letter

Classical Music

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