On the homepage today, I have an essay: on the Ukrainian flag and the politics surrounding it. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, many people around the world have displayed the Ukrainian flag. Many others have objected, of course. Such is the push-and-pull of the world. In any event, that essay is here.
I thought I would devote my Corner post this morning to music — and something that goes beyond music. Earlier this month, I had a review of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, which gave a concert in Carnegie Hall. The conductor was the orchestra’s chief, Sir Simon Rattle. Dominating the program was Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 — which has some (famous) hammer blows. These blows, I said, “had their desired effect.”
I received a note from Scott Eddlemon, a veteran percussionist and administrator. He studied with Saul Goodman, the legendary percussionist of the New York Philharmonic. Goodman became the orchestra’s principal timpanist in 1926, when he was 19. He stayed in that role until 1972, when he was 65.
Scott says,
I think I have told you this story before, but Churchill once commented that what he had really wanted to be was a timpanist! Goodman wrote him a letter saying he was thankful he had helped save the world instead. Churchill sent him back a lovely handwritten note, which Goodman had framed on his wall at home.
Scott sent me an image of a press release, issued by the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York on September 30, 1942. The release read as follows:
The Philharmonic-Symphony Society has contributed over 1,000 pounds of metal in the form of old musical instruments which can no longer be used and other musical gadgets to the Salvage Campaign. The material was found through the efforts of Saul Goodman, the Philharmonic timpanist, and Maurice Van Praag, the orchestra’s Personnel Manager, who rummaged for hours through the Society’s old storeroom at Carnegie Hall and dug out from boxes and dust-covered corners things which had not been looked at for years. Most of the metal, it was discovered, had originated in Germany and it seemed particularly fitting that it help build boats and planes to defeat Nazi Germany, one of whose tenets is the destruction of free art.
The press release then detailed the items contributed — beginning with, “2 German machine timpani with paddle wheel pedals brought over here by Gustav Mahler.” Mahler, mind you, was the music director of the orchestra from 1909 until his death in 1911. I think he would have been quite pleased with his old orchestra’s efforts for the Salvage Campaign.
Long live liberty. And have a look at that press release:
