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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2011 > February > 21 > Entry
Review: Anne Akiko Meyers with the Austin Symphony Orchestra
The Austin Symphony’s season has been laced with soloists, but no other performance approached the technical and emotional caliber of violinist Anne Akiko Meyers Friday night at the Long Center.
From the opening notes of Prokofiev’s “Violin Concerto No.1 in D Major” Meyers’ tone pierced the hall like a laser beam. Her initial slide on the violin’s fingerboard was literally astonishing. It more closely resembled an electric guitar than the Molitor, her $3.6 million Stradivarius.
The Molitor sounds fierce: rich in the lower register, but liquid smooth up higher, so it stands to reason that the rest of her performance would be electrified. But the truth is that Meyers possesses a tone so pure that it emerges just a few times in a generation.
Meyers’ iridescent blue and black dress mimicked her playing: shifting instantaneously from Prokofiev’s delicate muted passages, to wildly demanding pizzicato and roughness near the instrument’s bridge.
Perhaps it’s simply the adversarial nature of the piece, but the symphony felt tentative at time, as it jostled with Meyers for the rhythmic center. Then again, it was a little hard to argue with Meyers’ audibly stomping foot, as it seemed (truthfully or not) to urge the symphony forward.
Stravinsky’s “Petrushka,” though, was the surprise of the evening. Originally scored for the ballet by the same name, the work is a reminder that Stravinsky is music’s James Joyce. Some melodies flow like honey, only to have the rug suddenly pulled out from under them with a low rumble or a circus theme.
But the symphony had this work under its thumb. Maestro Peter Bay, with perfect pacing, set the tone. The orchestra took a piece that feels a little grating on recordings, and made it gorgeous; soft and sweet, but also eliciting chills with abrasive chords when the time came.
The Haydn that began the evening (“Symphony 93 in D Major”) was light and breezy, like a pleasant aperitif. It’s not Beethoven, but the work may have benefited from a quicker pace and more dynamic contrast.
Certainly its finest concert of the season, the ASO hit the sweet spot of a thought provoking Stravinsky interpretation alongside a fiery soloist whose power and grace dominated the stage as only the most gifted artists can.
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
Photo by Ricardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman.
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