By the time she was 12 years old, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers performed on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and made her New York Philharmonic debut with Zubin Mehta. She has enjoyed a glorious career and has premiered music by Olivier Messiaen, John Corigliano, Wynton Marsalis, Joseph Schwantner and many others. Meyers also collaborated with artists as diverse as Michael Bolton, Chris Botti, Il Divo and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Anne Akiko Meyers is not your typical virtuoso.
Meyers makes news by doing the impossible on AIR: The Bach Album, her new recording where she is the first violinist to play both solo parts of the famous Concerto for Two Violins on two different violins. She plays the first violin part on the 1697 “Molitor” Stradivarius (which she bought at auction for $3.6 million), an instrument once thought to be owned by Napoleon. Meyers plays the second violin part on the 1730 “Royal Spanish” Stradivarius which was once owned by the King of Spain.
To achieve the feat Meyers recorded the first part in London on the “Molitor” and a few months later recorded the second part on the “Royal Spanish” while wearing headphones. “When I recorded in New York I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I have to work to keep up with the first violinist,’” says Meyers. She keeps up quite well.
Meyers and Meyers=Bach2
Do the two solo parts sound like different violinists playing? Tell us what you think.
by Craig Zeichner, Ariama Editor
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