In the current issue of the magazine, Jay has a chronicle on the 2021 Salzburg Festival. In this episode, he plays some of the music he discusses: from Bach to Mozart to Gershwin. (There are seven composers in all.) A marvelous array of pieces and performers.

Bach, Keyboard Partita No. 1 in B flat, Gigue

Handel, “Lascia la spina, cogli la rosa,” from “Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno”

Bach, Keyboard Partita No. 5 in G, Gigue

Mozart, Exsultate, jubilate

Cimara, “Stornello”

Gershwin, Preludes

Massenet, “En fermant les yeux,” from “Werther”

Beethoven, Missa solemnis

James Panero, the Executive Editor of The New Criterion, reads the essay “New worlds,” his reflections on a discovery of fifteenth-century Venetian glass beads in Alaska, from the September issue.

The opening piece, Jay says is one of the most joyous, most exuberant pieces ever written. It is a movement of a symphony, actually—the finale. Jay closes this program with Victor Borge, the musician-comedian, or comedian-musician—but in a serious vein. There is much to soak in, in this relatively brief program. Maybe the kind to listen to twice.

Mozart, Symphony No. 34 in C, K. 338, finale

Rorem, “Ferry Me Across the Water”

Bach-Loussier, Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565

Henriques, Lullaby

Roger Kimball, the Editor and Publisher of The New Criterion, discusses highlights of the September 2021 issue and reads from its opening pages.

It is characteristic of this podcast to contain a variety of music. But this episode is exceptionally diverse, with music by George Walker, Lili Boulanger, and Florence Price, to go with music by Mozart, Shostakovich, and Hindemith. Jay lays it out for you. Interesting and rewarding musical terrain.

Walker, “Lyric for Strings”

Shostakovich, Concerto No. 1 in C minor for Piano, Trumpet, and Strings, last movement

Mozart, Serenade No. 10 in B flat for winds, “Gran Partita”

Boulanger, Lili, “D’un vieux jardin,” from “Trois Morceaux”

Price, “Ethiopia’s Shadow in America”

Hindemith, “Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber,” March

“Care to romp around in some Romantic piano music?” asks Jay. “Virtuosic Romantic piano music? High-quality salon stuff? Well, that’s what we’re going to do.” Jay gives us a program of the talented, witty, dashing Moritz Moszkowski (1854–1925). The final piece is maybe Moszkowski’s best loved: “Étincelles,” or “Sparks.”

Music of Moritz Moszkowski

Étude de Virtuosité in F, Op. 72, No. 6

“Chanson bohème”

“Caprice espagnole”

Piano Concerto No. 2 in E, Op. 59

Étude de Virtuosité in A flat, Op. 72, No. 11

“Guitarre,” arr. Sarasate

“Étincelles”

Jay has a piece by Bach, and one of his best. He has another piece once attributed to Bach. And he has a third piece that may or not be—by the master, that is. In any case, wonderful music, and a highly interesting program.

Bach?-Stokowski, Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565

Stölzel (formerly attributed to Bach), “Bist du bei mir”

Bach, Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 538

When Jay says “just perfect,” in this episode, he is referring to Marilyn Horne’s singing of “At the River.” This is the piece that ends the podcast. It’s a little Independence Day nod. Elsewhere, Jay discusses and plays a Debussy song, two famous guitar pieces, and a piano piece by Frederic Rzewski, the American composer (also a political radical), recently deceased. A neat, varied, interesting, and enriching program.

Debussy, “La mer est plus belle que les cathédrales”

Villa-Lobos, Prelude No. 5

Rzewski, “Down by the Riverside”

Barrios, “Julia Florida”

Lowry, arr. Copland, “At the River”

Roger Kimball, the Editor and Publisher of The New Criterion, discusses highlights of the June 2021 issue and reads from its opening pages.

This episode begins with a poem, first published in The New Criterion, in 2002: Charles Tomlinson’s “If Bach had been a beekeeper.” It speaks of “the honey of C major.” We then duly hear some Bach in C major. We also hear a famous aria—an aria made famous by a movie. And “Estrellita,” in two different versions: the original song, plus what Heifetz did to it, or rather, for it. The podcast includes other appetizing items as well. A fine smorgasbord.

Bach, Prelude and Fugue in C major, “The Well-Tempered Clavier,” Book 2

Catalani, “Ebben? Ne andrò lontana,” from “La Wally”

Ponce-Heifetz, “Estrellita”

Coleridge-Taylor, “You Lay So Still in Sunshine”

Milhaud, “Love, My Heart”

Shostakovich, Piano Concerto No. 2, first movement

Ponce, “Estrellita”