Was Haydn a Bigot? Are You?

[Valin]

PJ Media

Michael Walsh

August 13, 2017

 

My friend Dennis Prager, the radio talk-show-host, is conducting the Santa Monica Symphony in a Haydn symphony this Wednesday at Disney Hall in downtown Los Angeles, and, of course, his appearance has "drawn fire" and "raised controversy" in the fever swamps of the Left, which is freaking out at the prospect of having a "bigot" on the podium. Anyone who knows Dennis, or who even listens to his daily radio show on the Salem Network, understands this is codswallop.  Prager is an observant Jew and a man who has spoken and written extensively on the moral issues of our day. His bona fides as a public intellectual are impeccable.

And yet...

 

(Snip)

 

And that's the point. Prager's large following already knows where he stands on the big issues of the day. They likely know of his fondness for Haydn. What they may not know, however, is the wider world of classical music (a world in which I spent the first half of my professional life, and with which I continue to be involved), and the purpose of this concert is to introduce it to them. No sinister, coded, dog-whistled anti-gay message will be passed along in the opening vivace; no surreptitious Trump endorsements will be inserted into the extended lyrical horn solo of the slow movement, no Islamophobia into the minuet, and no homophobia will lurk within the rollicking allegro finale.

What the Left is trying to do here is to demonize and, if possible, shut down the event. It's what they always try to do, especially latterly, when the Central Committee of the Social Justice Party, aka the Compromised Media™ has given them carte blanche to ignore their former dedication to free speech and indulge their inner socialist fascism to their hearts' content. That their ham-fisted tactics are not only treated with equanimity, but actually endorsed by media outlets is both a national disgrace and the new normal.

Musically, God help the horn players in the Santa Monica Symphony on Wednesday. Culturally, God spare us from politicized art. Morally, God help us all.

 

 

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This is how the Left thinks....and I use the word Think in its loosest sense of the word.