Category Archives: Uncategorized

Your Tatler’s favorite TV show is What’s My Line from the 1950s. Not only are the panelists witty and urbane, they are just plain brilliant in the way they discern what a contestant does for a living, often with only the scantiest evidence. Another segment of the show featured “Mystery Guests,” in which the panelists, wearingContinue reading “What’s my line – Bishop Fulton J. Sheen”

Tell me your choice of weapon and Bickerstaff will get it to you immediately, fully loaded, even. Don’t you tarry now!

https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2024/07/24/why-i-signed-an-open-letter-from-the-americas-to-pope-francis/

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 . . .”