Blind Spots

The predictable backlash to the sharing of Spotify Wrapped reports by subscribers of the streaming service is becoming increasingly annoying. Bitter killjoys who claim “Spotify doesn’t pay artists” clearly don’t care to read financial statements. Besides, the fact that the overwhelming majority of  artists and record labels employ Spotify speaks for itself.

Spotify hasn’t paid me a penny for my “content” (ugh!) at the service. Instead of deflecting the blame for my unpopularity, I’m thrilled my work is just a click away for anyone with an internet connection. With a more marketable concept I might be among the more than 10,000 artists earning more than $100,000 a year through Spotify streams.

Yet I’ve noticed an even more troubling trend. Citing principles, an increasing number of individuals claim to boycott all music streaming services. When I hear the audacious assertion, I’m forced to believe that either these people don’t really care for music or they limit their listening to highly specialized niches.

The internet killed my career twenty years ago, but there’s not point in being bitter. The capacity to hear almost everything on demand fulfills a lifelong fantasy. I consume hundreds of newly released songs and albums every week. It’s not a coincidence that I spent an unprecedented amount of money on tickets to more than 100 music events in 2024. That’s among the reasons why the 2024 edition of my Spotify Wrapped represents a dream come true.

Back in the day, I bought CDs, DVDs and VHS videos directly from Rich the Factor O.T.T. (out the trunk) or at the Kansas City retailer 7th Heaven. Now the groundbreaking local hero has more than 100 titles posted at Spotify. I almost certainly wouldn’t have become enamored with Grupo Frontera without access to music streaming. The band’s buoyant songs were my go-to party soundtrack throughout the year. As a dozen Hank Williams CDs moldered in the Museum of Dead People and Obsolete Music Formats in my basement, streaming versions of his pain songs were staples of my roadtrips.

Here’s a concession to the naysayers: obviously, I didn’t listen to Johann Sebastian Bach or Henry Purcell. That’s impossible. Spotify apparently prioritizes the composers’ tags over the performers’ labels. That’s presumably why the likes of Hilary Hahn, Anja Lechner and Brad Mehldau don’t show up here. I can only assume their representatives are aware of the anomaly.

Concert Review: Jeremy Denk at the Folly Theater

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

The author of a recent guest essay in The New York Times ponders the “divine presence” in mathematics. The transcendent math logic embedded in the compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach has long been studied by scholars.

Jeremy Denk emphasized the spirituality conveyed in the calculations made by Bach four centuries ago in rapturous interpretations of all six Bach partitas on Tuesday, February 13, at the Folly Theater.

Once again, I purchased bargain-priced front row tickets. More than 300 patrons were obligated to look at the back of my head as the pianist made frequent eye contact with me for more than two hours. My date suggested Denk’s animated flirtations possessed a “look ma, I’m playing Bach!” sensibility. His mugging reminded me of Fats Waller. 

Although he emphasizes Bach’s earthly uplift rather than the ghostly solemnity András Schiff imparted at Muriel Kauffman Theatre in November, Denk isn’t shallow. Intimations of divine inspiration pierced the veil throughout the recital presented by The Friends of Chamber Music.

Hilary Hahn: There Stands the Glass’ Artist of the Year

(Screenshot of Hilary Hahn video by There Stands the Glass.)

A confluence of circumstances makes Hilary Hahn There Stands the Glass’ Artist of the Year for 2023. Already immersed in solo interpretations of Johann Sebastian Bach, I was primed for the American violinist’s October concert at the Folly Theater. I’d also developed a passion for Hahn’s new album Ysaÿe: 6 Sonatas for Violin Solo, Op. 27. A recent reading Isaac Stern’s autobiography My First 79 Years further enhanced my appreciation of Hahn’s place in the continuum of classical violinists.

Honorable mention: Danny Brown, Lise Davidsen, Kassa Overall and Morgan Wallen. The previous winners of the Artist of the Year designation are Joyce DiDonato (2022), Pat Metheny (2021) and Bad Bunny (2020).

Wrap It Up

Haters be damned. I look forward to the annual sharing of Spotify’s personalized Wrapped initiative. I already know what I listened to in 2023, but I relish seeing other people’s lists of most-streamed artists.

My enthusiasm is ironic, as the streaming revolution killed my lucrative career 20 years ago. Everyone who protests about the ethical and sonic superiority of physical recordings is welcome  to visit my home.

I spent tens of thousands of dollars building a collection of more than 5,000 LPs and CDs in the 20th century. That era is over. Streaming is a dream come true for passionate music fans with broad tastes.

The brief thank-you videos popular artists provide Spotify aren’t coerced. A thousand artists earn more than a million dollars on Spotify every year. And Spotify pays 8,000 artists more than $100,000.00 every year. Not bad for a level playing field.

Oh, by the way, here are my December concert recommendations for KCUR.

Concert Review: András Schiff at Helzberg Hall

Pre-recital image by There Stands the Glass.

Unlike her intemperate husband, my life partner isn’t prone to hyperbole. So I took notice when she proclaimed “this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience” during the intermission of András Schiff’s solo piano recital at Helzberg Hall on Tuesday, November 14.

Indeed, the circumstances were fortuitous. I purchased tickets for a pair of seats in the third row when a deep discount was offered to the public by The Friends of Chamber Music on Halloween. We were ideally positioned to witness Schiff’s delicate fingering and pedal work amid the attentive audience of about 1,000.

Schiff made eye contact with us while introducing each selection with illuminating and highly entertaining analysis. And what music! By my count, he rendered four pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, two apiece by Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert and single selections by Joseph Hayden and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The centuries-old works seemed brand new in Schiff’s hands. He seemed aware of the transcendent“once-in-a-lifetime” spell he cast as he played for well over two hours. Even at 70, Schiff gave the impression that he was entirely willing to perform all night.

Concert Review: Hilary Hahn at the Folly Theater

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Hilary Hahn’s solo recital at the Folly Theater on Friday, October 13, administered spiritual balm in a fraught moment. The violinist offered 90 minutes of ethereal restoration for members of the near-capacity audience of about 950 rattled by current events. The room’s excellent acoustics allowed Hahn’s elevated reading of four timeless works by Johann Sebastian Bach to sanctify the back row seat I purchased for $20. The event was less a concert than a consecrated prayer.

Album Review: Daniel Pioro- Saint Boy

Hearing musicians and arts presenters apologize to audiences for staging challenging or unconventional music always makes me furious.  The excellent Kansas City bassist Krista Kopper came uncomfortably close to begging forgiveness for the cutting-edge repertoire performed at InterUrban ArtHouse in Overland Park, Kansas, on Wednesday, January 18.

The program exhibited by her No Treble trio included premieres of experimental pieces by three Kansas City area composers.  Even though the audience of about 40 was presumably receptive to new music, Kopper offered defensive explanations of the adventurous sounds.  The strength of Viktor Suslin’s woozy “Grenzubertritt” and “Evening Redness in the West,” Seth Andrew Davis’ twist on Spaghetti Western scores, spoke for themselves.

Nothing on Saint Boy, the wondrous new album of chamber music by the British violinist Daniel Pioro, is as jarring as the gnarliest moments of the concert in Kansas.  Even so, the album’s blend of old (Johann Sebastian Bach and Hildegard von Bingen) and new (Laurence Crane’s “2020 Music” and Pioro’s Glass-like title track) is unconventional in the hidebound realm of classical music.  In this ahistorical moment, apologies aren’t necessary.

Concert Review: The Kansas City Symphony’s Mobile Music Box at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Several hours after news broke that an instrument of evil died in prison seven years after murdering two people at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City as part of a hateful rampage, a life-affirming concert was held on the grounds of the same site on Tuesday, May 4.

Limited to an audience of 100, the free outdoor concert by three young musicians from the Kansas City Symphony provided a vastly superior experience to my initial foray into live music in the post-quarantine era.  Given the glorious weather and tranquil atmosphere, I wasn’t surprised to see a robin refuse to abandon a tree planted in a parking lot median even though a pair of loudspeakers were placed directly under its nest.

The amplification of the 45-minute performance on the symphony’s mobile stage added an unavoidably metallic but not unpleasant edge to works by the likes of Johann Sebastian Bach and Zoltán Kodály.  Tears of joy soon dripped into my facemask.  In spite of the disconcerting coughs and sneezes of a couple seated nearby, I was overcome with gratitude for merely being alive to savor the immortal flare of a Ludwig van Beethoven string trio.

A yellow finch joined the steadfast robin during a lively reading of an arrangement of a gospel-inspired piece by Adolphus Hailstork.  The transitory symbol of a harmonious world signaled that good repeatedly triumphs over evil, beauty is more powerful than ugliness and the resilience of a loving community is capable of overcoming unimaginable horror.