Recent Ottawa outings were pleasant so I planned for more this week. Ticketmaster pushed ads for folk singer Anna Graves at Club Saw but it was too rainy mid-week. Finally, I came across a show ($25) at the NAC Fourth Stage with pianist Sarah Hagen. What a surprise since I have seen her several times in Toronto starting back in 2013.
This recital was originally for April of 2025. It was the first to be cancelled due to the pandemic and the last to be rescheduled. During that lock-down, ensconced in PEI, Hagen finally decided to tackle The Goldberg Variations. Something that, she joked during the intro, she thought to save for her 80th birthday celebration.
So on Friday, more than 35 years early, we heard her take on this famous J.S. Bach composition. First came the Prelude from Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, although it likely was written after the Variations. Then Hagen gave a short intro. The popular story that Bach wrote them so that Goldberg could soothe Count Kerserlingk's insomnia is believed to be false. She thought that the perennially poor Bach owed Goldberg money because J.S. is best-known for being "Baroque". The punchline to this extended joke got groans from the audience. But Hagen did impart some useful info for a newbie like me. There were only 3 variations in a minor key: the 15th which marked the first half and the 25th that "ended" the composition. The last 5 was the hopeful resolution. That gave me markers for her uninterrupted recital.
It was an enjoyable show, especially those minor variations, that I listened mostly with my eyes closed. Though I was sitting near the back, I did have a clear sightline to her hands. So on the faster, complicated passages, I marveled at their speed and precision. The opening aria and its reprise at the end was instantly recognizable in popular culture. Her encore was a shimmery prelude by Rachmaninoff.
During the talkback, Hagen continued to charm the audience with her wit: Her 30 art collages, displayed around the stage, were created with each variation playing on a loop; this was a challenge auditory-wise on the short 1-minute ones; her favourite variation was number 13 for its beauty and "easy to play"; of all versions she heard before she started practicing, Lang-Lang's was the best as, in her opinion, it truly escaped from the shadow of Glenn Gould's; the ones with accordion or sax quartet, not so much; his team replied to her inquiries about their gear when she recorded hers but the $100,000 mic set-up was not doable; if she could talk to Gould, she'd ask him what drugs he took and if they expanded his playing. The woman who asked that question told a story of her own. As a 19-year-old working at Hampton Court Hotel, she spoke regularly with Gould who had a residence there. She had no idea who the ramshackle man was until a friend clued her in about 1 month before his sudden death.
That April concert would have been music from women composers. I saw it at Gallery 345 late in November 2019 before the world shut down. Hagen opined that she might still do that showcase in Ottawa. Considering that her next album will be the music of Cécile Chaminade, that could well happen.