If you’re in the mood for a music podcast, I’ve got one for you: here. The heading is “Ringtones and other tunes.” My latest Q&A is headed “Better Call Sol”: here. My guest is Sol Stern, the veteran writer and policy analyst. My column today — my Impromptus — is here. That one is headed “Storming democracy, &c.” It concerns events in Brazil and elsewhere. Along the way, we meet Joseph Eskenazi, the oldest living Pearl Harbor vet (age 105). Amazing man.
What is the most familiar tune in the world? “Happy Birthday”? Hard to say, for the world is vast, and diverse. But the “Nokia tune” is right up there. That tune is plucked from a guitar piece: the Gran Vals by Francisco Tárrega (1852–1909). On my music podcast, I play that (rather, I play a recording of it). I also pay tribute to two late-greats: Stanley Drucker, the clarinetist, and Frederick Swann, the organist. Drucker was in the New York Philharmonic for a cool 60 years. Always looked the same, pretty much, too. Full head o’ hair. Swann was one of the most important organists — and arrangers for organ — in the world.
As for Sol Stern, he was born in Israel, or rather, Mandatory Palestine, in 1935. His parents had gone there in 1929. The family left for New York in 1939. Sol became a journalist. He was part of the New Left, and part of that illustrious gang at Ramparts magazine. He covered the Yom Kippur War for the New York Times. But he became disillusioned with the Left — New or Old — as so many did. He worked in the New York City government. Then he joined the Manhattan Institute, where he worked for 20-plus years. He made a particular specialty of education, championing school choice and other reforms.
In our Q&A, Sol and I talk about Israel, the state of New York — by which I mean the condition of New York City — and other things. He has experienced the rough-and-tumble of his times. He soured on the Left. He has soured on the Right. (Those two camps have a number of things in common.) These days, he belongs to what Robert Conquest called “the United Front against Bullsh**.”
My readers and listeners will enjoy Sol Stern, Francisco Tárrega, etc.
Paul Johnson passed away yesterday, at 94. He meant a lot to a lot of us. I will have a great deal to say about him later on. For now, let me share two things.
He loved music. Music was very important to him. Below is a picture of a painting that hangs in my home — a painting by Paul. He gave it to me some years ago. It’s called “Listening to Schumann”:
Last night, in anticipation of writing about Paul, I reviewed some mail. In 2007, he wrote, “I have decided that Brahms’s Intermezzo in B-flat minor, Op. 117, No. 2, is the finest short piece of piano music I know of.” That piece is here, played by the great Julius Katchen.
All for now. See you later.