Myra Hess and Elly Ney were both celebrated pianists and contemporaries. At first sight, the parallels between their careers are remarkable. In the 1920s, both toured the United States, where  they became famous for their interpretations of the Austro-German canon. Both had Beethoven at the heart of their repertoire.

But come wartime, their Beethoven performances came to mean two completely different things in two completely different contexts. Ney’s warmongering, violent Beethoven stood as proof of Germany’s difference from the rest of the world; Hess’s Beethoven provided a vision of a more compassionate, shared world.

Music historian Leah Broad examines why Beethoven was so important to both Ney and Hess, and how they used his music to shape wartime culture in Britain and Germany. Along the way, she meets family members and close confidants of both pianists – some of them speaking to English-language media for the first time.

Recordings of Ney in her car courtesy of DokFabrik