Month: February 2012

This is too good not to share with everybody, so here is a condensed version of a previous post to my music blogs …

A new album has been added to the collection: Air – The Bach Album by Anne Akiko Meyers. Unique to this album is Meyers’ rendering of the D Minor Double Concerto in which she plays BOTH parts, using both (yes, she owns two of the things) of her Stradivariuses, one from 1697 and the other from 1730. Purportedly, the former was once owned by Napoleon and the latter by the King of Spain. I have several examples of the Bach violin concerti in my musical archives (my favorite up to now being the 1980s Academy of Ancient Music version, with the Double Concerto played by Jaap Schroder and Christopher Hirons), but this is my go-to recording now. I also downloaded from HDTracks a high-resolution 24-bit/96mHz edition — you can get conventional 16-bit versions from Amazon and other sources — and the sound quality is stunning.

For more of Meyers, visit her site and her blog. Now check out this pre-release performance of the Bach title piece on the album:

Also, you can read/hear NPR’s interview of Meyers here, which has a video clip of her appearance on Johnny Carson’s TV show at age eleven.

Finally, I will also share with you a violinist.com interview of a few years ago, where I first came upon this terrific artist, when I was actually trying to track another of my violin favorites, Hilary Hahn. And here is that site’s latest on Meyers and her new album. Whew!

Right after my previous post, I jumped over to Laura Gibson’s website to see what was new, and discovered an announcement that she would be performing at the Old Library in La Grande on March 1. Next stop was to visit the Old Library’s site, which turns out to still be under construction, but I immediately called Charlie, the exec director of what is formally known as the Art Center: At The Old Library to ask him for details. Charlie confirms that it is happening on Friday, March 1 but will call me back soon with ticket pricing, etc. So stay tuned.

P.S. If you visit the Old Library site, see if you recognize the header image photo.  As snapped by yours truly.

Just picked up Laura Gibson’s new album, La Grande, and heard it last night.  You might be interested in the backstory — yes, it does have to do with the very La Grande we all know — and watch this music video:

Read the story behind La Grande here

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And you can learn more about Laura Gibson here and elsewhere, such as here.  This album is a bit of departure from her earlier stuff, which have been among my favorites, btw.