I was introduced to Anne Akiko Meyers back in 2012 when Air the Bach album released. I remember being pierced through by the first note and mesmerized by the entire album. This is a very different album, but equally mesmerizing. It is contemporary music (except for Maurice Ravel, who is still a 20th-century composer). While the music certainly challenges our typical listening habits, especially Wreck of the Umbria, this is some of the most accessible contemporary orchestral music around. It’s also some of the most beautiful.
You know going into one of Ms. Myers albums, you are going to get technically accurate and passionately played music; while it’s a serious effort on her part (as well as all those involved in the recording), it’s a given on our part that is going to be good. Her playing is lyrical, abrupt, stark, light, quiet, ethereal and lending itself to tell a story. In other words, she is the perfect interpretive vessel for these composers on Mirror in Mirror. So I thought I would place a more personal take on this review focusing more on how the journey through the album impacted me as I listened to it. While your reaction will likely be different, I hope this approach gives you a sense of the album.
The first piece, Metamorphosis II, is composed by Philip Glass. While I confess I’m not a huge Philip Glass fan, he may have won me over with this piece. While this doesn’t have a hauntingly piercing note from the start, it does have hauntingly piercing phrasing throughout. When I first started listening to it, I just rolled my eyes because it was so good. It simply took hold of me and swept me through the entire movement. The simplicity of the piano undertone highlights the violin’s runs. This, like most of the pieces on this album, has a narrative quality to it. It would be unsurprising to see it incorporated as part of a soundtrack. Some might think I’m dissin’ it as “background‘ music; rather I’m simply highlighting the almost story-like arc we ride through as we listen.
Arvo Part’s Frates strikes with intensity, coming at you a little off kilter in the beginning. The notes seem just outside of what’s expected even as it builds its edgy dissonance; it leads to a pool of serenity. We’re left in quiet and stately reflections and period, lyrical release.
Spiegel im Spiegel (translate – Mirror in Mirror) is simply lovely. Whereas Frates resolves to a driven, focused, quiet reflection, Speigel im Spiegel provides a wandering serene river of sound to guide us into a moment of reflection. The simple piano notes providing the constant undercurrent to the violin’s melody keeps this piece moving and avoids becoming lost in a phrase of string here and there. Of course to present such a pure and unadorned sound take maturity and practice as much as the fancy finger work of a complicated Bach rondo (CPE or JS).
Tzigane contrasts once again in an intense, directed focus using the solo violin for the first half to provide a stark simplicity to the sound. In the second half of the piece, the music of the luthéal provides a jarring contrast to the violin, then the roles reverse. The intensity reminds me of diamonds on a black velvet cloth under intense light. It’s stark but not barren.
We now return to a more lyrical and light piece. Ms. Meyers first album release for Lullaby for Natalie was The American Masters (see review). As I indicated then, don’t be fooled by the clean, lush and light performance of this piece. Listen carefully to the story as she walks us sonically through each phase of nestling in, settling in and drifting off to sleep. The very simplicity and progression could so easily come off sloppy and dull. Instead, each part of the progression is beautifully portrayed. Sometimes I think we’ve come to associate anything that is pleasant to listen as lacking depth. At least for me, sonic beauty is OK.
Edo Lullaby is a completely different story. I almost feel I’ve walked into the opening soundtrack of a dystopian SciFi thriller and, yet, this is an arrangement of a traditional Japanese lullaby. It draws you in with an ethereal air of light, electronic bells and plucked strings and has a haunting allure to my Western ears, and would induce little sleep.
Now we come to Wreck of Umbria. What a marvelous story this piece presents. One moment you’re sailing along fine, albeit in somewhat dangerous, mirky and foggy waters and the next you’re dashed upon rocks and sinking. Seriously, when you finally come to the grating sound of bow upon string of the creaking timbers of the ship going down, the song has already taken you on a journey. At first blush, this seems the least accessible piece on the album, however as you listen to its story, it is, in many ways, the most impactful.
Finally, the lush and reflective O Magnum Mysterium ending the album with the most readily accessible piece that brings classical lush beauty with a contemporary sound. All of these pieces seem to tell a story; this one takes us on a contemplative journey into a sacred mystery.
Works on This Recording (courtesy of Arkivmusic.com)
- Metamorphoses (5): no 2 by Philip Glass
Performer: Anne Akiko Meyers (Violin), Akira Eguchi (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1988; USA - Fratres by Arvo Pärt
Performer: Anne Akiko Meyers (Violin), Akira Eguchi (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1977-1980; Estonia - Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt
Performer: Anne Akiko Meyers (Violin), Akira Eguchi (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1978; USSR - Tzigane for Violin and Orchestra by Maurice Ravel
Performer: Elizabeth Pridgen (Piano), Anne Akiko Meyers (Violin), Jakub Ciupiński (Lutheal)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1924; France - Lullaby for Natalie by John Corigliano
Performer: Anne Akiko Meyers (Violin), Akira Eguchi (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: United States - Edo Lullaby by Jakub Ciupiński
Performer: Anne Akiko Meyers (Violin), Jakub Ciupiński (Electronics)
Period: Contemporary
Written: United States - Wreck of the Umbria by Jakub Ciupiński
Performer: Anne Akiko Meyers (Violin), Jakub Ciupiński (Lutheal)
Period: Contemporary
Written: United States - O magnum mysterium by Morten Lauridsen
Performer: Anne Akiko Meyers (Violin)
Conductor: Kristjan Järvi
Orchestra/Ensemble: Philharmonia Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1994; USA
Chris Felcyn’s (WRCJ) interview Anne Akiko Meyers on Mirror in Mirror: https://soundcloud.com/wrcj909fmhd1/anne-akiko-meyers-august-30-2018