“Christmas is coming, and the goose is getting fat. / Please do put a penny in an old man’s hat. / If you haven’t got a penny, then a ha’penny will do. / If you haven’t got a ha’penny, then God bless you!” So the old nursery rhyme goes although, along with myriad sayings, words, rhymes, and traditions, I’m not sure who remembers it nowadays.
Maybe I’ve spent too many years around college students whose cultural memories are lamentably short. Be that as it may, Christmas is a time for celebration, maybe not chiefly but certainly through the giving of gifts. Here, therefore, follows a short list of potential presents for (here I hope I don’t flatter myself) the discerning buyer.
Gift #1
At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump Whitehouse by H. R. McMaster, Harper, 357 pages. Retired General McMaster, whom many of you may have seen as a regular on the Hoover Institutes’ “Good Fellows” on YouTube, accepted President Donald Trump’s invitation to become National Security Advisor. His tenure, lasting from February 2017 to April 2018, may not appear very long: a mere fourteen months although in Trump’s first term the revolving door for incoming and outgoing secretaries and advisors moved at a fairly constant rate. McMaster’s account of his time proves fascinating and informative for several reasons, not least for its picture of the frenetic pace of life in the upper reaches of government. One wonders how Trump, McMaster, Secretary of State Tillerson, and Secretary of Defense Mattis mustered sufficient energy to hop from country to country—Italy, France, Germany, the Middle East—and still get anything done at home. No doubt, the schedule is typical of the life of a upper-government official, and it takes very special, thoroughly dedicate men to fill the offices these men held. That said, the Trump Administration was fraught with its share of intrigue and obstruction. McMaster is clear that he understood his job in terms of providing the president with clear policy options. To his credit, he felt very strongly that he was not there to implement his personal agenda. But not everyone close to Trump took that view. Who were they? What were their goals? Read the book and find out. With Trump’s second term about to commence, McMaster will give you some food for thought, believe me.
Gift #2
Haydn: The Complete Piano Sonatas, performed by Jean Efflam Bavouzet, Chandos (11 cds).
Most lovers of music know the great “name” sonatas of Beethoven (“Moonlight,” “Appasionata,” Pathetique,” “Hammerklavier,” “Waldstein”); most know a few of Mozart’s equally well (the A major with its famous “Alla turca” final movement, among others); and Schubert’s B-Flat major sonata and Chopin’s three sonatas hold a firm place in the repertoire. But what about Franz Joseph Haydn? With David Hurwitz of Classics Today, my view of Hadyn for some time has been that he isn’t given anywhere near his due. Is he the father of the modern symphony? Yes, but it’s a rare individual that has heard more than two or three (the “Surprise” or maybe the “Clock”) of the 104 he wrote. Is he father of the string quartet? Yes, again, but, as with the symphonies, too few people know the quartets well. Sometimes I wonder whether the sheer volume of Haydn’s output hasn’t worked against him. No one knows where to begin. The same may be said of the piano sonatas. Haydn composed over sixty (some of which are lost), but how many people have listened to or can name one? One way to remedy that is to purchase Jean Efflam Bavouzet’s outstanding collection of the complete sonatas. Happily, I’ve got it and so far have listened to eight of the eleven volumes with undiluted pleasure. Since I’m not a scholar of music, I can’t argue for their greatness as Hurwitz or, in the set’s booklet, Bavouzet himself does, but I can authoritatively speak of what I like. Give Haydn a try. If the price of the complete set is too much, they’re available still in single volumes or in streaming format. They’ll make your Christmas merrier; I can tell you.
Gift #3
The Taste of Things. Directed by Ang Hung Tran; starring Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel. DVD.
I reviewed this magnificent film last March shortly after its U.S. debut, so my opinion of it is easy enough to find. Suffice it to say that it is easily one of the most beautiful, romantic, emotionally engrossing movies I’ve ever seen, a feast for the senses and the emotions. Its subject on the surface is cooking, but its plot and characters take the story far beyond the dishes that are so lovingly filmed in the first twenty minutes. Binoche and Magimel play lovers in late nineteenth-century France: he, the theorist and critic of gastronomy, and she, the cook who realizes his ideas. The perennial question of what constitutes the pinnacle of life, ideal or particular, hovers over the action (or perhaps bubbles beneath the surface), lending a special substance to Dodin’s (Magimel) and Eugénie’s (Binoche) love. The Taste of Things is a film that can be watched again and again without paling—and I’ve seen it three times this year. Do yourself a favor and watch this exceptional movie. (Note: If you don’t want to buy the physical DVD, Amazon Prime streams it.)
Well, there you have my Christmas list for this year and with plenty of time to receive any one of these gifts before the great day—and, who knows, enjoy it with a glass of egg nog or a helping of figgy pudding. Merry Christmas!
