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).

Infinite Dread

Original image of George Bernard Shaw’s The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by There Stands the Glass.

I persuaded one of my houseguests to watch Bayreuth Festspielhaus’ 2022 production of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen with me over the holidays.  Doing so required signing up for a free trial of Deutsche Grammophon’s Stage Plus streaming service.

The decision was wildly unpopular with those who might have preferred to view sports and holiday movies on the single television monitor in my compound.  After all, Wagner’s cycle is a notorious test of endurance.  

Powering through the outrageous updates of Das Rheingold (154 minutes), Die Walküre (234 minutes), Siegfried (244 minutes) and Götterdämmerung (274 minutes) took more than 15 hours.  I loved it, but I’ll admit to growing restless during the twilight of the gods.

Contemporary elements such as using humans to represent the titular ring thrilled me. Yet a scene featuring the famed soprano Lise Davidsen in Das Rheingold is so jarring that I literally ran screaming from the room.  I’m still shook.  Here’s The New York Times’ review of the production.

Stage Plus’ video and audio quality is superb.  And the lifelike fidelity of the Dolby Atmos version of Peter Gregson’s Quartets Three & Four gave me goosebumps.  I’d rather pay for Stage Plus than Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Disney+ and Hulu.  So why did I cancel the service before I was billed $149 for a full year?  There’s a glitch.

While I could access everything Stage Plus offers on my laptop and phone, only about a third of the video options were accessible on AirPlay.  Here’s Stage Plus’ response to my concern about the matter: “we are already aware of the problem and our developers are currently fixing it.”  Yet the issue remained unresolved six days after my objection.

January 2022 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

Screenshot of the trailer of The Face of Another by There Stands the Glass.

Top Ten Albums (released in January)

1. The Weeknd- Dawn FM

My podcast analysis.

2. Andrew Cyrille, William Parker and Enrico Rava- 2 Blues for Cecil

My review.

3. Earl Sweatshirt- Sick!

My review.

4. Tony Malaby’s Sabino- The Cave of Winds

My review.

5. Silvana Estrada- Marchita

Not unlike peak k.d. lang.

6. Modern Nature- Island of Noise

Jazz-stained freak-folk.

7. Lise Davidsen and Leif Ove Andsnes- Edvard Grieg

My review.

8. John Mellencamp- Strictly a One-Eyed Jack

My review.

9. Pan Daijing- Tissues

Industrial opera.

10. FKA twigs- Caprisongs

Peculiar pop.

Top Ten Songs (released in January)

1. The Smile- "You Will Never Work in Television Again"

Static.

2. Big Boss Vette- "Heavy"

The weight.

3. Christina Aguilera- "La Reina"

I knew she had it in her.

4. Barbara Hannigan- "Youkali"

Well done Weill.

5. Che Noir- "Split the Bread"

Food for thought.

6. The Streets- "Wrong Answers Only"

“I am a God: I can turn wine into vomit.”

7. Banda Los Recoditos- "Me Siento a Todo Dar"

Drinking and dancing.

8. Love Regenerator featuring Sananda Maitreya- "Lonely"

Terence Trent D’Arby!

9. Sebastián Yatra featuring Rosario and Jorge Celedón- "Dharma"

Dance, laugh, cry.

10. Benny the Butcher and J. Cole- “Johnny P’s Caddy”

The Butcher arrives.

Top Ten Movies, Television Broadcasts and Streaming Programming (viewed for the first time in January, in lieu of live music)

1. The Face of Another/他人の顔 (1966)

Freaky Japanese psychological thriller.

2. Jeopardy! (2022)

Amy Schneider’s remarkable 40-game streak ends.

3. Handsome Serge/Le Beau Serge (1958)

Très barbare.

4. Buffalo Bills vs. Kansas City Chiefs (2022)

The NFL is made for TV.

5. Mary Lou Williams and Carline Ray- At Les Mouches (1978)

My associated review.

6. The Lost Daughter (2021)

Grief in Greece.

7. The Royal College of Music’s Die Zauberflöte (2021)

My review.

8. The Catered Affair (1956)

Ernest Borgnine, Bette Davis and Gore Vidal.

9. Winter JazzFest (2022)

A handful of the virtual performances are stunning.

10. From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration 2022

Life goal.

Links to previous monthly surveys begin here.

Album Review: Lise Davidsen and Leif Ove Andsnes- Edvard Grieg

I often wonder if the ongoing pandemic is making my world bigger or smaller.  The new album by the magnificent soprano Lise Davidsen compels me to reexamine the question.  While I haven’t touched my passport during the past 24 months, I’ve become increasingly dedicated to reading literature, studying history and furthering my musical literacy.  

Scouting potential day trips from Kansas City about a year ago, I considered driving to the site of Willa Cather’s family homestead in Nebraska.  I reckoned I should first familiarize myself with her work.  What began as a casual investigation quickly became an obsession.  I’ve since read almost everything she published.

Opera, another of my nascent infatuations, figures heavily in Cather’s 1915 novel The Song of the Lark. Although she rose to fame after the novel’s publication and was of Norwegian rather than Swedish descent, the opera star Kristen Flagstad served as my proxy for Cather’s protagonist Thea Kronberg. A few of Flagstad’s vintage recordings of Grieg are astonishingly vibrant.

So while I’m still little more than an enthusiastic greenhorn, "Møte" and "En Svane" are among the repertoire on Davidsen and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes’ exquisite Edvard Grieg that were previously familiar to me. I’m having an unreasonably good time comparing Flagstad’s approach to Grieg to Davidsen’s. My soundtrack for the Red Cloud road trip is set.

Joan of Aria

August 9 came and went without the compulsion to make an outlandish investment in opera tickets.  The date individual tickets for the 2021-22 season of the Metropolitan Opera went on sale had long been circled on my calendar.  I’d hoped to wheel a trip to New York City around Lise Davidsen’s appearance as Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.  It’s not a great role, nor is it my favorite Wagner opera, but Davidsen was my lodestar during my quarantine-era immersion in opera.

A bit of good news temporarily prevents me from making definitive plans in 2022.  Instead of pouting about the likelihood of missing Davidsen, I’ve taken consolation in the work of one of her most famous antecedents.  Since making the boxed set my default soundtrack in recent weeks, all but three or four of the twenty hours of Joan Sutherland’s Complete Decca Studio Recitals have enlivened and uplifted me.

After coming to my attention through a handful of vintage operas I streamed last year, Sutherland came to mind as I read Willa Cather’s The Song of the Lark.  Thea Kronberg, the heroine of Cather’s novel, is an unlikely opera star.  Sutherland’s ascent was similarly implausible.

Dissociated from the stage, the Australian’s renderings of arias are entirely ingratiating in spite of her staggering vocal athleticism.  The extensive documentation of Sutherland’s welcoming approach nullifies opera’s unfortunate reputation as a difficult discipline meant to be appreciated only by ostentatious aesthetes and prosperous patrons of so-called high culture.

July 2021 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

Screenshot of Bahar Pars in the trailer for En man som heter Ove.

Top Ten Albums (released in July, not including July 30 titles)

1. Lise Davidsen and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra- Sibelius: Luonnotar, Op. 70 & Other Orchestral Works

Finnish fever dreams.

2. Cochemea- Vol. II: Baca Sewa

My review.

3. Rey Sapienz and the Congo Technical Ensemble- Na Zala Zala

African footwork.

4. Les Filles de Illighadad- At Pioneer Works

Tuareg trance.

5. Rodney Crowell- Triage

The truth hurts.

6. Maya Beiser- Maya Beiser x Philip Glass

Transparent cello.

7. Attacca Quartet- Real Life

My review.

8. Drakeo the Ruler- Ain't That the Truth

Truth to tell.

9. Alasdair Roberts and Völvur- The Old Fabled River

Scottish/Norwegian freak-folk.

10. Leon Bridges- Gold-Diggers Sound

Bridges’ best album by a country mile.

Top Ten Songs (released in July)

1. Little Simz- “I Love You, I Hate You”

Decisive.

2. IDK with the Neptunes, Swae Lee and Rico Nasty- "Keto"

On sight.

3. Snow Tha Product- "Que Oso"

Agua bendita.

4. Big30 featuring Yo Gotti- "Too Official"

Outlawed.

5. Lolo Zouaï- “Galipette”

Candy store.

6. Willow featuring Cherry Glazerr- “¡Breakout”

Ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!

7. Kevin Abstract featuring Snot and Slowthai- “Slugger”

“On my Lauryn Hill ish.”

8. Tinashe- “Bouncin’”

Elastic.

9. Billie Eilish- “NDA”

Creep.

10. Lorde- “Stoned at the Nail Salon”

Pure heroine.

Top Ten Concerts (attended in July)

1. Pistol Pete- recordBar

The rapper was accompanied by the rock band Various Blonde.

2. Te Deum- St. Mary's Episcopal Church

Latin vespers.

3. Eddie Moore, Ryan Lee and Zach Morrow- Charlotte Street Foundation

My review will be published at Plastic Sax on August 1.

4. Kyle Hutchins, Aaron Osborne, Seth Davis and Evan Verploegh- Charlotte Street Foundation

My review.

5. Summerfest- Atonement Lutheran Church

My notes.

6. Trinity Jazz Ensemble- Rolling Hills Church

My review.

7. Jackie Myers, Matt Hopper and Ben Tervort- Market at Meadowbrook

Fresh readings of jazz standards.

8. Granger Smith- KC Live 

Yee yee!

9. Rod Fleeman, Gerald Spaits and Ray DeMarchi- Green Lady Lounge

Spare the Rod, spoil the month.

10. Big Spin- 1400 Union

Explosive Fourth of July punk party.

Top Ten Films (viewed for the first time in July)

1. Z (1969)

Grotesque political thuggery in Greece.

2. The Steel Helmet (1951)

War is hell.

3. Der blau Engel/The Blue Angel (1930)

L-o-l-a, Lola.

4. Fruitvale Station (2013)

Oscar Grant III.

5. En man som heter Ove/A Man Called Ove (2015)

Saab story.

6. Journey into Fear (1943)

WWII noir.

7. Summer of Soul (2021)

So much talking.

8. Mahler (1974)

Wut.

9. The Wrath of God (1972)

Proto-Tarantino bloodbath.

10. The Hunt (2020)

Deplorable!

June’s recap and links to previous monthly surveys are here.

Opera Show at The Concertgebouw

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Witnessing Lise Davidsen’s mesmerizing turn in the title role of the Royal Opera’s production of Beethoven’s gender-bending “Fidelio” was crucial in fostering my nascent love of the form during my virtual opera binge last year. I pegged the 34-year-old Norwegian as a contemporary artist I’d faithfully follow for the remainder of my life. In spite of its lackluster title, Davidsen’s new album Beethoven Wagner Verdi doesn’t disappoint. Her commanding voice on pieces including Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder affirm my devotion to the 6’2” soprano. On a vacation in 2011, I spent a glorious hour basking in the sun on the lawn of The Concertgebouw. With kids in tow and a train to catch, I didn’t bother to see what was playing that evening. Watching Davidsen promote Beethoven Wagner Verdi at the site in Amsterdam deepens my resolve to wheel a trek to famous European opera houses and concert halls around an appearance by Davidsen before I die.