Anne Akiko Meyers: Seasons... dreams

Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers joins Reiko Uchida on piano and harpist Emmanuel Ceysson on a collection of music by Beethoven, Debussy and the like.

Title: Seasons... dreams...
Composer: Beethoven, Debussy, Fauré, Gershwin, Wagner et al
Repertoire: Music for violin and piano/harp
Artists: Anne Akiko Meyers (vln), Reiko Uchida (pf), Emmanuel Ceysson (hp)
Rating: 3/5 
Genre: Chamber
Label: EOne Music EOM-CD-7780

The Music A collection of seasonal musings and a journey into a dreamscape, this recital travels from the elegance of Beethoven (‘Spring’ Sonata) via Schnittke to jazzy, soulful Gershwin and Vernon Duke. The bulk of the music is dreamy Romanticism: Wagner’s yearning Lied Träume, and Impressionist favourites by Debussy and Fauré, accompanied by harp. 

The Performance Central to this disc is an elegant, well-argued, sprightly performance of Beethoven’s ‘Spring’ Sonata notable for assertive piano accompaniment from Reiko Uchida. Californian violinist Meyers plays with a consistently sweet, full and lyrical tone throughout the disc, although she swoops in Fauré’s Après un rêve in a way a singer wouldn’t. There’s a breathless, improvised feel in Autumn in New York, and Schnittke’s bizarre ‘broken music box’ treatment of Silent Night gives this album an edge (listen for the creepy clicks and groans as Myers unravels her Strad’s G string). 

The Verdict What initially seems like a disc of sweetmeats and encores has a thread of steel running through it. Meyers shows she is equally adept at playing Classical, Romantic and jazz idioms in this imaginatively programmed recital. 

Want more? Meyers’s 2009 recital disc Smile explores the world of song arrangements (Koch KIC-CD-7762).