Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers' Koch release Smile continues, to some extent, from her previous Avie issue Birds in Warped Time in that she is attempting to expand beyond the constraints of typical classical CD programming -- combining a couple of big works, or collecting a bunch of little ones, "encores" -- into something more imaginative and in more keeping with her own taste and personality. With that, Meyers has invested some measure of muscle into developing repertoire that fits her generous, yet transparent tone with the ...
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Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers' Koch release Smile continues, to some extent, from her previous Avie issue Birds in Warped Time in that she is attempting to expand beyond the constraints of typical classical CD programming -- combining a couple of big works, or collecting a bunch of little ones, "encores" -- into something more imaginative and in more keeping with her own taste and personality. With that, Meyers has invested some measure of muscle into developing repertoire that fits her generous, yet transparent tone with the same degree of comfort as one of her designer-made concert gowns. Here we have an arrangement of the Japanese melody "Kojo No Tsuki," made by Meyers herself in collaboration with Shigeaki Saegusa, for solo violin. With all apologies due to accompanist Akira Eguchi, this solo violin track is one of the loveliest things that Meyers has ever done. Not that Eguchi does not get to shine, which he does in Meyers' performance of Franz Schubert's C major Violin Fantasy, a work dating from a...
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