29 August—Chances are you’ve never heard of Henri Herz. Or even Heinrich Herz, as Henri was born in Vienna, 218 years to the day before the moronic horde of Donald Trump’s election deniers invaded the United States Capitol. Herz died in Paris, one day short of his 85^th birthday. You can figure the dates with simple arithmetic.

Herz was a virtuoso pianist, composer, inventor, piano manufacturer, author, and professor. No surprise that he was Jewish, but preferred to keep that skeleton in the back of his closet, lest the antisemitism that pervaded nineteenth-century French cultural circles (and most of the world, for that matter) stymie his brilliant career.

Henri concertized all over Europe and the Americas. He wrote a book about his travels, Mes voyages en Amérique, in 1866, which wasn’t translated into English until 1963. While he was here, he composed, among other flashy numbers, Tribut à l’Amérique.

Herz’s piano music—most of his extensive oeuvre—was criticized by some of his contemporaries as being showy and shallow. Showy—obviously intended to show off his own and possibly other pianists’ consummate virtuosity—it certainly is. Just looking over his piano scores is intimidating. Most of his critics likely didn’t have the skill to play Henri’s piano music.

As for shallow, what makes any music shallow? Even some of the crap that deafens and mesmerizes the great unwashed these days may have some depth and quality to it. And who but critics cares anyway, just as long as the money keeps pouring in? What should matter is that it sounds great. So enjoy Henri Herz’s showy, shallow, and undeniably brilliant Tribut à l’Amérique . . .