The New Criterion

That’s what Jay calls a Bach piece arranged for organ by Jean Guillou: pure joy. There is some more pure joy in this episode too—including the final movement of Brahms’s Horn Trio, which Jay plays to honor Myron Bloom, the great French-horn player who died on September 26. He also honors, at the end, Christopher Rouse, the American composer, who died on September 21. Music, said Rouse, in a statement to be issued after his passing, “has given me life and a reason for living.” Jay also plays some Ella Fitzgerald, some Leontyne Price, and more. There is also a tale from opera lore: about Rudolf Bing and George Szell, who were too big for the same town. Tracks played: Bach-Guillou, Sinfonia Beethoven, “Pastoral” Symphony Brahms, Horn Trio Gershwin, “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” Chopin, “Winter Wind” Etude Barber, “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” Rouse, Symphony No. 3