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Jay begins with some festive music: specifically, the “Festive Overture” of Shostakovich. He has a showtune: “Some Other Time.” He has an Aretha Franklin hit, about zoomin’. He has a spiritual: “Ain’t Got Time to Die.” Some French organ music. And more. He ends with Karel Ančerl, the great Czech conductor who endured horror and produced much beauty and brilliance.

Tracks played:

Shostakovich, “Festive Overture”

Bernstein and Comden & Green, “Some Other Time,” from On the Town

Aretha Franklin et al., “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?”

Trad., “Ain’t Got Time to Die”

Guilmant, March on a Theme by Handel

Tchaikovsky, “Garland Waltz” from “Sleeping Beauty”

Mahler, Symphony No. 9, final movement

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James Panero, the Executive Editor of The New Criterion, reconsiders the Gilded Age author Anna Bowman Dodd and her uncanny predictions about the future.

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Jay plays some music by a Bach son. There is also Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, and other composers. The episode ends with a tribute to Rosalind Elias, the late American mezzo-soprano: the thirteenth and last child of Lebanese immigrants.

Tracks played:

Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel, Rondo II in C minor

Saint-Saëns, “Aimons-nous”

Beethoven, Sonata for Piano and Violin in G major, Op. 3, No. 3, final movement

Hahn, “À Chloris”

Dohnányi, Serenade in C

Wolf, “Benedeit die sel’ge Mutter”

Tchaikovsky, String Sextet in D minor, “Souvenir de Florence”

Verdi, “Stride la vampa,” from Il trovatore

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Roger Kimball, the Editor and Publisher of The New Criterion, discusses highlights of the May 2020 issue and reads from its opening pages.