Anne Akiko Meyers: Mysterium
Avie Records

On Mysterium, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers is joined by the Los Angeles Master Chorale and conductor Grant Gershon for performances of four works by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) and Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943). The recording might be a mere nineteen minutes, but the music rises to the sublime when the EP couples her magnificent playing with the stirring vocalizing of the choir. All four pieces are recast in new arrangements: Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring by Samuel Adler; Sheep May Safely Graze and Wachet auf, Sleepers Wake by Len Rhodes; and Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium by the composer and Gershon. As the recording was laid down at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the setting allowed Jaebon Hwang, who appears on the three Bach settings, to make full use of the hall's 6,100-pipe organ.

Gershon, a 2022 Grammy winner for his rendering of Mahler's eighth symphony with the LA Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, shares a long history with Meyers, their first encounter dating to when she was only eleven years old. Today she's held in the highest esteem and has issued in the vicinity of forty albums. On this release, she performs on what some consider to be the finest sounding violin in existence, the 1741-dated Ex-Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù. It sings rapturously on the opening Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, whose lilt grows ever more alluring when the choir's silken voices join the violin and organ. As bewitching, the stately Sheep May Safely Graze is striking for the way Meyers partners with the other elements, sometimes in unison and other times in counterpoint. Her trills are but one beguiling aspect of Wachet auf, Sleepers Wake, whose timeless melodies never fail to charm.

Premiered in 1994, Lauridsen's majestic O Magnum Mysterium was the first piece he wrote as the Los Angeles Master chorale's composer-in-residence. With the voices intoning at a hush in this new treatment, the groundwork's laid for Meyers, who delivers her part magnificently and with an almost overwhelming degree of emotion. Her unerring intonation and gorgeous tone prove totally captivating for the full measure of the release. Nineteen minutes ain't much, but the pleasures afforded by this recording are plentiful.

June 2023