Album Review: John Adams- Girls of the Golden West

John Adams’ operas Nixon in China and Doctor Atomic stupefied my ears and expanded my mind. How is it possible it took the recent Nonesuch Records release of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s reading of Girls of the Golden West to make me aware of the Adams work that premiered in 2017? 

Giacomo Puccini set his 1910 opera La Fanciulla del West amid the American gold rush. (Unlike Girls of the Golden West, it’s an opera I’ve had the pleasure of watching.) Adams successfully refreshes the theme. Girls of the Golden West is so catchy I elected to listen a third time while mowing my lawn yesterday. The valuable time slot had been dedicated to Beyoncé since March 29. 

The shared Western theme aside, the opera is obviously quite not as “country” as Cowboy Carter. Girls of the Golden West more closely resembles an avant-garde “Oklahoma” starring the impeccable Julia Bullock.  Adams’ vigorous pieces about greed, sex and violence at a mining camp are well suited to a sweaty workout in the Kansas humidity.

Album Review: Mdou Moctar- Funeral for Justice

The several John Lee Hooker performances I attended in the 1980s seem like delirious dreams at this late date. The blues master put me in trances at the most mesmerizing of those club shows. The aggressive boogie of Funeral for Justice, the new album by Mdou Moctar, recalls that halcyon era. The surface elements may be dramatically different, but the boogie at the core of the sound of Hooker and Moctar is essentially the same. Just as my pals and I once relished getting “shook with the Hook,” my life is now enlivened by being “delivered by Doctor Moctar.”

Album Review: Quatuor Danel- Dmitri Shostakovich: The Complete String Quartets

I shouldn’t be surprised by my uncharacteristic passion for Quatuor Danel’s six-hour and twenty-minute Dmitri Shostakovich: The Complete String Quartets. Reading Jeremy Eichler’s Time’s Echo: The Second World War, The Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance primed the pump last year. The study schooled me about the constraints imposed upon and the compromises made by the Russian composer. Secondly, a methodical investigation of all forms of classical music put Wigmore Hall on my radar during the pandemic. Attending performances at the hallowed institution last month felt like a celebratory graduation ceremony. Immediately upon returning to Kansas, a livestream of Quatuor Danel at Wigmore Hall made me aware of the ensemble’s latest release. I was finally prepared to receive a large dose of Shostakovich. Thorough social and political histories of Russia in the twentieth century are contained in Quatuor Denel’s vehement new interpretation of Shostakovich’s string quartets.

May Flowers

I’m proud of my May concert recommendations feature for Kansas City’s NPR affiliate KCUR. Notices about the prominent appearances of stars are balanced by previews of outings by relatively unknown artists. A healthy range of genres and venues is represented. Far from regurgitations of sanctioned talking points, my occasionally deprecatory commentary will never be mistaken for AI-generated claptrap. A Midwestern outlier, I don’t grant favors to friends or attempt to curry favor with artists, publicists or venue owners. But it’s not all about me. While I don’t care for the music made by my tenth and final selection, I acknowledge the significance of his concert for much of the KCUR audience.

April 2024 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

Screenshot of the trailer for Garsington Opera’s production of Richard Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos” by There Stands the Glass.

The Top Ten Albums of April

1. Oren Ambarchi- Ghosted II
Scary good.

2. Fred Hersch- Silent, Listening
The pianist’s best.

3. أحمد (Ahmed)- Wood Blues
Ahmed Abdul-Malik lives.

4. Bill Frisell- Orchestras
What a time to be alive!

5. Parsnip- Behold
Hocus pocus.

6. Meshell Ndegeocello- Red Hot & Ra: The Magic City
A one-way trip to Saturn.

7. José James- ​​1978
My bespoke catnip.

8. Kilian Herold- Serenade: Works for Clarinet and Strings by Krenek, Gál and Penderecki
In which I discovered Ernst Krenek.

9. Nia Archives- Silence Is Loud
The groovy poets’ department.

10. Skilla Baby- The Coldest
Detroit vs. everybody.

The Top Ten Songs of April

1. Fat White Family- “Visions of Pain”
“Águas De Março” fermented.

2. Arooj Aftab- "Raat Ki Rani"
Smooth operator.

3. Shabaka- "As the Planets and the Stars Collapse"
Astral projecting.

4. Staples Jr. Singers- “Lost In a World of Sin”
On bended knee.

5. Kamasi Washington featuring George Clinton and D Smoke- "Get Lit"
Hit it and quit it.

6. Mabel- "Vitamins"
Restorative.

7. Eliza Rose- "Lovesome"
Dream house.

8. Anitta- "Lose Ya Breath"
Steam bath.

9. Chino Pacas- “Tunechi”
Tha block is hot.

10. St. Vincent- “Big Time Nothing”
The best track on a disappointing album.

The Top Ten Performances of April

1. Véronique Gens and Susan Manoff at Wigmore Hall (London)
My Instagram snapshot.

2. Mozart’s “Missa Solemnis”, Peter Schipka, Choralschola der Wiener Hofburgkapelle, Wiener Sängerknaben and Wiener Staatsoper, at Wiener Hofmusikkapelle (Vienna)
My Instagram clip.

3. Georges Bizet’s “Carmen” at Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna)
My Instagram snapshot.

4. Joe Lovano, Marilyn Crispell and Carmen Castaldi at Wigmore Hall (London)
My review.

5. Franz Schubert’s Messe in C-Dur, Markus Landerer, conductor, at Stephansdom (Vienna)
My Instagram snapshot.

6. Mike, 454, Niontay and El Cousteau at recordBar
My Instagram clip.

7. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music” at Volksoper (Vienna)
My Instagram snapshot.

8. Steve Hackett’s “Genesis Revisited” at the Uptown Theater
My Instagram clip.

9. Eddie Moore, Ben Tervort and Jalen Ward at Yardley Hall
My Instagram snapshot.

10. Marvin Gruenbaum, John Blegen, Kent Brauninger and Nils Aardahl at the Market at Meadowbrook
My Instagram clip.

The previous monthly recap is here.

Wien

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

I found my people during my first visit to Vienna. Like me, the inhabitants of the spectacular Austrian city tend to be fastidious, disdainful and aloof. The clean streets are filled with bookstores, ice cream parlors and cafés. I’d fit in rather well if I learned to speak German, dressed much better and lost fifteen pounds. Not insignificantly, music is an integral aspect of Viennese culture. For the first time in years I didn’t feel put out by going more than two weeks without playing pre-recorded music. Echoes of the concerts and music-themed masses I attended involuntarily played on repeat in my head. I’m home now. Based on the throes of ecstasy ignited by new albums by Ahmed, Oren Ambarchi and Bill Frisell, the break refreshed my ears.

Concert Review: Joe Lovano, Marilyn Crispell and Carmen Castaldi at Wigmore Hall

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

I’ve addressed numerous items on my proverbial bucket list during a whirlwind visit to London. Yesterday, I sat in the top front seat of a red double-decker bus after taking in my first Premier League match. Attending a concert at the world’s premier venue for chamber music meant even more to me. Given my predilections, it’s apropos that I heard a jazz trio on my first visit to Wigmore Hall.

I relish the three albums the grouping of saxophonist Joe Lovano, pianist Marilyn Crispell and drummer Carmen Castaldi recorded for ECM Records. Hearing them in perfect clarity amid an audience of about 500 was dreamy. Suffering from jet lag, displeased with Lovano’s sartorial choices and unwilling to continually crane my neck to watch Crispell’s fingering from my $50 seat in the center of the room, I occasionally closed my eyes.

With torrents of improvised sound akin to spray from a fire hose, the musicians’ lack of inhibition often overwhelmed me. Once or twice, I was reluctant to open my eyes for fear I had somehow slipped out of my chair and had passed out on the floor of Wigmore Hall. Three days later, I’m still reeling.

Album Review: funk.BR- São Paulo

I consume music as if it were chewing gum. After squeezing the flavor out of a song or album, I dispose of it. Music becomes a permanent part of my being once ingested. There’s little need to return to it. That’s why I’m always on the prowl for fresh sounds. I’d rather hear something for the first time than return to something I know backwards and forwards. The new compilation funk.BR- São Paulo hit me like an industrial-sized bag of bubblegum. Having heard nothing of the malevolent subgenre that combines Brazilian rhythms with crunk, nu metal and hyperpop, I’m gobsmacked. It will take weeks to digest these innovative flavors.

Concert Review: Steve Hackett at the Uptown Theater

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

The overblown music performed at the Uptown Theater on Wednesday, April 3, was filled with showboating instrumentalists and songs with laughably absurd lyrics. Like most of the audience of more than 1,000, I loved it.

I purchased Genesis’ 1972 album Foxtrot at Metro North Shopping Mall as a cutout in 1974. It’s been my favorite prog-rock album ever since. Of course, I haven’t spent much time with it since the Ramones spoiled my taste for grandiose art-rock in 1976.

Still, I happily laid down $25 plus $14 in fees to hear Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett and five able musicians play a note-perfect rendition of Foxtrot in pleasingly high fidelity on the “Genesis Revisited: Foxtrot at 50 & Hackett Highlights” tour.

Experiencing the concert as a beautiful requiem for the two or three years I unironically embraced prog-rock as a child served as a soothing therapy session. As “Time Table” has it, it was “a time of valor and legends born.”

I'll Remember April

Screenshot of KCUR feature by There Stands the Glass.

Just three of the 17 performances I enjoyed in March were among my concert recommendations for KCUR last month. I just couldn’t bring myself to spend more than $150 for concerts by Bad Bunny and Drake. Yet I’ve invested that much for an impossibly refined event in another continent in three weeks. That’s why I’ll be in attendance at just a few of my April concert recommendations.