REVIEW POTPOURRI – Author: Ladislas Farago

Ladislas Farago

by Peter Cates

Ladislas Farago

A 1954 book War of Wits, by journalist Ladislas Farago (1906-1980), is an account of intelligence networks during World War II. What gave Farago’s book interest was his own work in South Am­erica and his access to many spies and agents who were eager to tell their stories.

One such incident tells of an elderly German couple who owned an inn along the Kiel Canal which connected the Baltic Sea with the North Sea.

Sailors and officers from Nazi submarines would often drop in for a glass of beer before going on a dangerous mission against the allies which the innkeeper offered free to them as a patriotic gesture. In return, these men would sign their names in a guest book as a memento of their visit.

When the coast was clear, the innkeeper would take the guest book down into the cellar and through a tunnel to a neighboring house where British agents had radio transmitters to relay information on these U boats from the names in the register.

On a different topic yet having some relevance to the hospitality industry of inns along German canals, Ten Restaurants that Changed America, a 2016 book by Paul Freedman, chose the hotel/restaurant chain of Howard Johnson’s as one of the ten topics and mentions one item dear to the appetites of so many Mainers – “The fried clams…were originally quite unusual…not an easy sell at first…Virtually unknown outside of New England…promoted…at the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair. It took a further concerted campaign to win acceptance – this was not a case of simply providing what people already were accustomed to consuming. The fact that the class would become a fondly regarded signature item of Howard Johnson’s was an accomplishment, not an accident.”

Scandal

I recently finished binging on all seven seasons of the ABC television series Scandal, which ran from 2012 to 2018. The most memorable character was Eli Pope, who, under the code name of Rowan, ran an off the books black ops agency known as Control.

Rio Bravo

A 1959 classic western, Rio Bravo, had Howard Hawks directing and an all star cast of John Wayne, Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, Ward Bond and Claude Akins.

Dimitri Shostakovich

Dimitri Shostakovich had completed his 4th Symphony in 1936 just when Joseph Stalin was beginning his bloody purges of millions. That same year the dictator had attended the premiere of Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth and stormed out in a rage before the presentation was finished.

Given the circumstances, the composer held off on the world premiere of the 4th Symphony until 1961.

The work is scored for more than 100 instruments , including extra brass and percussion. It is powerful music with some very loud climaxes but it ends with about 5 minutes of the quietest , most exquisitely heavenly notes scored for hushed strings, muted trumpet and the celeste which looks like a small piano but sounds like chimes.

A 2005 youtube video features Semyon Bychkov conducting the WDR Orchestra in Cologne . It is a very exciting performance.

Since 2017, Maestro Bychkov has been Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic . Born in 1952, he grew up in the former Soviet Union but, due to the growing anti-semitism of the government – Bychkov is Jewish- he left the country in 1974 with 100 dollars in his pocket, settling in Vienna to further his musical studies.