Anne Akiko Meyers: Daugherty

The Strad Issue: May 2025

Description: An irresistible reading of a new violin concerto from its dedicatee

Musicians: Anne Akiko Meyers (violin) Albany Symphony Orchestra/David Alan Miller

Works: Daugherty: Blue Electra; Last Dance at the Surf; To the New World

Catalogue number: NAXOS 8.559955

From the composer who created a larger-than-life, Liberace-inspired piano concerto and an Elvis-inspired bassoon concerto for a soloist in a 1970s jumpsuit, a violin concerto inspired by aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart might seem somewhat understated. But Michael Daugherty’s Blue Electra – named after the plane being piloted by Earhart when she disappeared over the Pacific in 1937, nearing the end of her attempt to fly around the world – is nonetheless a big, bold piece that’s vivid in its storytelling.

This ranges from the all-American nobility of its opening depiction of Earhart’s bravery, ‘Courage’, to its raucous, jazzy, occasionally syrupy portrait of 1920s Paris. It’s one of the many concertos commissioned by US violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, and Daugherty’s writing fits her like a glove. She’s chiselled and somewhat detached in the soaring figures of ‘Courage’, while she injects a particularly Bluegrass earthiness into the Parisian high jinks, and there’s a touching rawness to her alarm-like signals in the closing movement, ‘Last Flight’. Meyers is fully committed, too, to Daugherty’s narrative, especially in the concerto’s two substantial cadenzas, which sound convincingly like glimpses into Earhart’s ambitious but troubled mind.

The Albany Symphony under David Alan Miller provides brightly coloured, energetic support, playing with similar enthusiasm on the two purely orchestral works: the vibrant, Iowa nightclub-inspired Last Dance at the Surf, and the exotic To the New World. Recorded sound is immediate and warmly balanced.

DAVID KETTLE