Category Archives: Uncategorized

I was fortunate enough to hear the great man play twice, the first time at a fund raiser for the Musicians Pension Fund in Philharmonic Hall in New York, with George Szell conducting the New York Philharmonic. They played Mozart K. 466, the  Piano Concerto in D Minor, my favorite. The second time was nearContinue reading “One of the great ones, Arthur Rubinstein.”

A stunning video from 2021 of the recording session that resulted in the  release below. Such sounds as I’ve never before, it’s a fine complement with the Morales Requiem for Philip II, posted earlier. Josquin de Prez is regarded by many music scholars as the greatest composer of the Renaissance. Watch and listen to gleenContinue reading “Extraordinary Video.”

Translated: Overture to the Flying Dutchman as Sight-read by a Bad Spa Orchestra at 7 in the Morning by the Well. Two amusing things happening here. Paul Hindemith wrote this as a comic work, which its title makes clear. Yet observe the audience. None of them even cracks a grin, which suggests they are either tone-deaf or, moreContinue reading “Ouvertüre zum “Fliegenden Holländer”, wie sie eine schlechte Kurkapelle morgens um 7 am Brunnen vom Blatt spielt”

Paul Schoenfield’s Café Music. There’s something infectious about these beautifully crafted compositions. While there are certainly jazz idioms throughout, your Tatler’s ears tell him Schoenfield’s oeuvres are more a hybrid of classical and jazz; jazzy compositions using classical forms and nomenclature, i.e, presto, andante, etc. There is also an element of what might be calledContinue reading “Get happy music.”

Not really, Mr von Hoffman has been dead these six years, and is no longer well known, but he was most certainly well known 50 years ago when he got into huge trouble for his utterances on CBS Television over the collapsing presidency of Richard Nixon during the height, or depths, of the Watergate scandal.Continue reading “Nicholas von Hoffman on Joe Biden.”

Why hello, are you still checking into this moribund blog? Your Tatler is tickled pink there are a precious few still interested in it. Grateful thanks to you few. Your reward for such loyalty is, for what it’s worth, this blog’s revival, but taking a slightly different editorial tack. Critical essays on the mess thatContinue reading “A voice from the past . . .”

–Attributed to Lavrentiy Beria, Chief of Josef Stalin’s Secret Service. A similar but more detailed offering was given by Robert Houghwout Jackson, Attorney General of the United States and Assosociate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. If the prosecutor is obliged to choose his cases, it follows that he can choose his defendants. ThereinContinue reading “Give me the man and I will find the crime.“

Since this writer alluded in his last post to the College of Cardinals and the future of the Papacy, the thought occured to him future outcomes of conclaves might produce different results, were membership in the College determined by the process of competitive examination, as with the peerage in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe. How anContinue reading “A Modest Proposal.”

Judge Andrew P. Napolitano attended a forum on Thomas Acquinas last week at the Vatican. He stayed at the Domus, the Pope’s house, and from there he wrote an excellent primer on Aquinas and free will. He closed however with some words about the pope, which is what we are concerned with here. From theContinue reading “Quote without Comment.”