Anne Akiko Meyers, who makes her Bargemusic
debut Dec. 11-14, admits she was warned about the ’dangers’ of
playing the barge.
"I’ve been told not to wear heels," the 33-year-old
violinist says with a laugh, referring to the occasional swaying
of the barge on the East River during a performance.
"Seriously, I’m really looking forward to playing there
– it’s such an old New York tradition to play the barge. It’s
something everybody should do – and I hope to get a reservation
to [Peter] Luger’s [Steakhouse] afterwards," she adds.
Meyers is equally enthusiastic about this weekend’s programs.
"I really wanted to do Aaron Copland in Brooklyn,"
says Meyers, speaking of that most famous of composers who called
this borough his home. "He grew up in a very middle-class
family, and his dad had a department store there. Their real
name was Kaplan, but [the immigration officials] screwed up and
made it Copland."
Meyers’ second recital, on Dec. 12, includes Copland’s Violin
Sonata, with pianist John Neuman, and she is understandably excited
about returning it to her repertoire.
"I recorded it years ago, and it’s a work that definitely
should be played more: I don’t understand why it’s a little under
the sheets," she says. "He wrote it in the 1930s when
he was writing a lot of music that was kind of inaccessible for
the general public. He wrote it before [his famous ballet] ’Appalachian
Spring’ – he was going through a change with the public, trying
to make his music much more accessible. It has a lot of song-like
qualities: it just makes the violin sing. Obviously, I think
it’s a great sonata."
Along with the Copland sonata on Dec. 12, Meyers and Neuman perform
a Mozart sonata and "Birds in Warped Time II" by the
Japanese composer Somei Satoh.
"It’s a nice contrast to the Copland," Meyers jokes
about Satoh’s piece. "We’ll do a little Japanese music and
a little Jewish music!"
A 12-minute work for violin and piano composed in 1970, "Birds
in Warped Time II" is music very close to Meyers’ heart.
"I’ve performed it many times, and was fortunate enough
to premiere Satoh’s Violin Concerto about a year ago in Tokyo,"
she says. "His music is very Zen-like, very much like a
monk’s chanting over and over. His music makes you much more
aware of your surroundings. I love performing it; it takes so
much control, and it’s very beautiful.
"The space in between the notes is almost more important
than the notes themselves in Japanese music," explains Meyers.
"I have a Japanese mother who taught me to understand all
the subtleties in life. I only can play music that moves me on
a personal level and an emotional level."
Neuman also performs two solo works by Chopin and Alexander Scriabin.
Much of the music on the Bargemusic programs is, as Meyers says,
"conventional." ("A lot of this music is crowd-pleasing,"
she concedes. "With all the people involved, everyone has
different taste, but we were all pretty flexible.") But
that’s not to denigrate its quality.
Indeed, the music on the Dec. 11 program combines more solo Chopin
and Scriabin for Neuman to play with two very diverse piano trios
(for which cellist Michael Mermagen joins Meyers and Neuman).
"I grew up playing the Mendelssohn D-minor trio," Meyers
says, "but the Rachmaninoff Trio [in G-minor] is new for
everyone involved. It’s a short, very sad, somber trio. In other
words, a perfect opener."
The final program, on Dec. 13 and Dec. 14, has Meyers and four
other musicians – cellist Mermagen, violinist Gloria Schmidt,
violist Andy Simeonescue and pianist Navah Perlman – playing
Mozart, Handel and Schumann, climaxing in his great E-flat Major
Piano Quintet.
Originally, Meyers had planned to perform the Duo for Violin
and Viola by an under-appreciated Czech composer from the first
half of the 20th century, Bohuslav Martinu, but unfortunately
she was unable to track down the sheet music.
"Oh, the joy and frustration of trying to do undiscovered
music!" the violinist says, before mentioning that she’s
currently searching for a rare chamber work by another neglected
master, Italy’s Ottorino Respighi.
In addition to the Bargemusic concerts, Meyers has also been
touring in conjunction with her new CD on the Avie label. With
pianist Li Jian, she performs music by Satoh and another Japanese
composer, Toru Takemitsu, as well as by French composers Olivier
Messiaen and Maurice Ravel, and another Czech master, Leos Janacek.
"I felt strongly about all of these works and I wanted to
get it all onto a CD," she explains. "I decided to
push the envelope a little bit, because it’s not your typical
program, that’s for sure. But I’ve always been a little weird
in my musical taste. I get complaints that it’s too ’out there,’
but to me, it’s all such beautiful music."
Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers performs
Dec. 11-13 at 7:30 pm and Dec. 14 at 4 pm at Bargemusic (Fulton
Ferry Landing at the end of Old Fulton Street on the East River).
Tickets are $35, $20 for full-time students. For more information,
call (718) 624-2083 or visit www.bargemusic.org.
