This is a fascinating program in which violinist Anne Akiko Meyers–herself Japanese-American–creates a dynamic dialogue between East and West. Bringing together works by Somei Satoh, Takemitsu, Debussy, Ravel, and Messiaen, Meyers and Chinese pianist Li Jian play off the friction that each composer’s aesthetics (and cultural assumptions) generate. While it’s fantastic to have such a thought-provoking repertoire selection (with bright, sharp, you-are-there sound), Meyers’ performances are not up to snuff.
The album begins very well with Satoh’s Birds in warped time II, in which a delicate and mesmerizing repeating piano figure murmurs underneath a sighing, arching, gently moving violin line. It’s a work that simultaneously points to traditional Japanese music and responds to American minimalism’s admiration of Asian sounds. Here, Meyers’ plainspoken delivery works beautifully. Takemitsu’s Distance de fée also fares well. As in the Satoh, Meyers is careful not to make her tone too sweet; it’s a nicely pungent counterbalance that keeps the Takemitsu from being one-dimensionally pretty (which often happens, even when the most accomplished and well-intended musicians attempt his work).
However, it’s in the works of the three French composers that Meyers really disappoints. In the Debussy sonata the emotional climax of the first-movement Allegro vivo occurs when the violinist does a series of arcing string crossings. Here, they come out as a series of angry squawks rather than an expression of ecstasy. Similarly, Meyers’ version of both the Intermède and the finale is strident, heavy, and aggressive, though the pianist does draw out the color and whimsy that his partner misses.
Messiaen’s Thème et Variations likewise suffers from a lack of subtlety or nuance. Again, Li Jian proves the better interpreter, whereas Meyers opts for a sluggish, unphrased reading reminiscent of a student churning through a page of chromatic exercises–technically correct, but flat and unemotive. In the Ravel sonata Li Jian opens the Allegretto with a string of opalescent delicate notes, whose gentility is tarnished with Meyers’ flat-footedness. The violinist slithers through the Blues, but it isn’t quite wry enough, nor does it ever really swing. The brief Perpetuum mobile that concludes the Ravel dazzles with Meyers’ energy, but it’s just not enough to make her overall performance worthwhile.
