The New Criterion Podcasts

James Panero, the Executive Editor of The New Criterion, sits down with Robert Erickson, Assistant Editor, to discuss the Histories of Herodotus and other major works in ancient Greek.

Nelson Freire, who passed away this month, said that pianists ought to play with joy. He did. There is a lot of joy in this episode, and sublimity, ethereality, and other qualities to savor. From Wagner to Errol Garner. Trad., arr. Schindler, “Jasmine Flower” Puccini, “Signore, ascolta,” from “Turandot” Wagner, “Selig, wie die Sonne meines Glückes lacht,” from “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” Albé...

A piece he was writing about soccer, believe it or not, put Jay in mind of a song. So did the title of the latest Bond movie. There have been some passings in music recently: of Carlisle Floyd, Edita Gruberová, and Bernard Haitink. Jay pays tribute to these musicians, and, as usual, to music itself. Trad., arr. Britten, “Come You Not from Newcastle?” Trad., arr. ?, “Ain’t Got Time to Die” Chopin,...

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

Conrad Black delivers the third annual circle lecture titled “Is America in irreversible decline?” with an introduction by Roger Kimball.

Occasioned by the third annual Circle Lecture of The New Criterion, Conrad Black discusses his essay for the forthcoming November 2021 issue with James Panero.

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

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, K...

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,...

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...

“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 bo...

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,...

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...

On May 26, 2021, Mene Ukueberuwa addressed a gathering of the Young Friends of The New Criterion in New York. Listen to his remarks on the state of American journalism and what it means to do journalism well. Mene is introduced by Roger Kimball, Editor of The New Criterion, with prefatory remarks by Executive Editor James Panero. Mene works as an editorial writer at The Wall Street Journal, where...

Jay provides a program of songs and arias about spring: a variety of composers and languages. And performers. Maria Callas and Ella Fitzgerald are among them. This is a wonderful category of music: rhapsodic, hopeful, giddy, appreciative. Spring it up. Argento, “Spring,” from “Six Elizabethan Songs” Hahn, “Le printemps” Strauss, “Der Lenz” Wagner, “Du bist der Lenz,” from “Die Walküre” Rachmaninof...

James Panero, the Executive Editor of The New Criterion, reads the essay “The right angle,” his reflections on Isaak Walton’s “The Compleat Angler” from the June issue of The New Criterion.

In this episode, Jay begins with some playing by Maxim Lando, a teenage pianist. There is also a solo-violin piece by John Corigliano: “Stomp.” At the end, Jay pays tribute to Christa Ludwig, one of the greatest singers of all time, who has passed away at 93. In a life of interviewing, he has been starstruck very few times, he says. He was by Christa Ludwig. Sibelius, Piano Sonata in F, Op. 12 Led...

James Panero, the Executive Editor of The New Criterion, reads the essay “Man & beast,” his reflections on the zoo from the May issue of The New Criterion.

This episode ends with “Embraceable You,” the Gershwin song—but in a piano arrangement by Earl Wild. An extraordinary thing. The episode begins with some Bach—the same piece, more or less, two different ways. Jay also has some music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, known by some as “the African Mahler.” There is a story, too, about French horn playing. Does your pulse race when you have a big solo? You...

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

“Like many adult pleasures, poetry is an acquired taste. We don’t grow up surrounded by it, the way we do pop music and movies, whose conventions become second nature. Rather, poetry is to our usual ways of reading and writing as classical music is to pop, or as ballet is to dancing at parties.” That’s from “On ‘getting’ poetry,” a feature essay in the April 2021 issue by our poetry editor, Adam K...