There Stands the Glass

The Top Ten Albums of April 2025

1. Sumac and Moor Mother- The Film
End times.

2. Sherelle- With a Vengeance
British footwork.

3. Leif Ove Andsnes and the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir- Liszt: Via Crucis & Solo Piano Works
Sometimes it causes me to tremble.

4. Gerald Clayton- Ones & Twos
My review.

5. Salif Keita- So Kono
Hushed beauty.

6. Black Country, New Road- Forever Howlong
My review.

7. Marilyn Crispell, Thommy Andersson and Michala Østergaard-Nielsen- The Cave
Improvisation worthy of Plato.

8. Willie Nelson- Oh What a Beautiful World
Willie on Rodney.

9. The Mars Volta- Lucro sucio; Los ojos del vacio
My review.

10. Tucker Wetmore- What Not To
My review.

The Top Three Reissues, Repackagings and Reimaginings of April 2025

1. John Hicks- Steadfast
Forty-year-old solo piano.

2. Sun Ra- Nuits de la Fondation Maeght
The space bop motherlode.

3. Stanley Cowell- Musa: Ancestral Streams
A 1974 classic reemerges.

The Top Ten Songs of April 2025

1. Emma-Jean Thackray- "Thank You for the Day"
Blessings abound.

2. Sault- “L.U.”
Gospel truth.

3. Bon Iver featuring Dijon and Flock of Dimes- "Day One"
We miss the old Kanye.

4. Lorde- "What Was That"
Royal.

5. Carin León, Diego El Cigala and Chanela Clicka- "Te Quiero Y Me Miento"
Intercontinental fusion.

6. Christian Nodal- "Amé"
Love.

7. Mark Morton featuring Nikki Lane- “Down No More”
Straight and narrow.

8. Viagra Boys- "You N33d Me"
Needy.

9. Jane Remover featuring Danny Brown- "Psychoboost"
Hyperpop fantasia.

10. Mekons- "Before the Ice Age"
Warmth.

The Top Ten Performances of April 2025

1. Jake Heggie’s master class at Grant Recital Hall
My review.

2. Joseph Genualdi and Sean Chen at White Recital Hall
My review.

3. Les Arts Florissants with Théotime Langlois de Swarte at the Folly Theater
My Instagram clip.

4. Lauren Auge and Jacob Hofeling at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
My Instagram clip.

5. Electronic Music Midwest Festival at Kansas City Kansas Community College
My Instagram clips: day one and day two.

6. Helen Sung with Bach Aria Soloists at the Folly Theater
My review.

7. Opus 76 at Shawnee Mission South High School
My Instagram clip.

8. The Extemporaneous Music and Arts Society’s “3 Expressions of Light and Sound” at Charlotte Street Foundation
My Instagram clip.

9. Bob Bowman at Westport Coffee House
My Instagram clip.

10. Aaron Sizemore, Craig Akin and Taylor Babb at the Music House
My Instagram clip.

The previous monthly recap is here.

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.

April 2025 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

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