Anne Akiko Meyers - Serenade: The Love Album
Leonard Bernstein's Serenade paired with ten world premieres from seven living composers
London Symphony Orchestra
Keith Lockhart, Conductor
Violin virtuoso Anne Akiko Meyers explores and celebrates the facets of love with a stunning new album of works for violin and orchestra.
eOne has released Anne Akiko Meyers' 31st album: Serenade: The Love Album, an exploration of love in all its dimensions, featuring Leonard Bernstein's "Serenade" and ten world premieres from seven living composer-arrangers. "Serenade" is one of Leonard Bernstein's masterpieces, and was recorded in anticipation of the composer's upcoming 100th birthday celebration. It is based on a reading of Plato's Symposium, in which seven ancient Greek philosophers debate the meaning of love. Anne Akiko Meyers, a champion of living composers, commissioned seven renowned composer-arrangers to create ten works for violin and orchestra from love-inspired music from stage and film to pair with the Serenade. The London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Keith Lockhart join Anne in this recording, which will be released on the celebration of Anne's own parents' 50th wedding anniversary, produced by Susan Napodano DelGiorno and engineered by GRAMMY-award winner Silas Brown.
Leonard Bernstein's Serenade, originally titled Symposium, is a five movement tour de force for violin, strings, harp, and percussion. It was premiered by Isaac Stern in Venice on September 12, 1954, with the composer conducting and is Bernstein's most popular piece for solo instrumentalist and orchestra. New works include orchestrated arrangements of modern classics such as Brad Dechter's versions of "Laura," Gershwin's "Someone to Watch Over Me," and a bluesy, honky-tonk iteration of "Summertime." "Gabriel's Oboe," arranged by J.A.C. Redford, with its acrobatic, high notes, is juxtaposed poignantly with the solemn beauty of Steven Mercurio's take on "Emmanuel." Matthew Naughtin's tongue-in-cheek "Jalousie," bookended by elements of the Tchaikovsky Violin concerto, energetically flows into Astor Piazzolla's soul-busting "Oblivion," arranged by Peter von Weinhardt, and to the magical luster of Leigh Harline's "When You Wish Upon a Star," arranged by father-son composing duo Steven and Adam Schoenberg. Dechter's soaring reworking of "I'll Be Seeing You" and Bernstein's "Somewhere" from West Side Story close out the album. Complete tracklisting is below.
Serenade: The Love Album was recorded on the 'Ex-Vieuxtemps' Guarneri del Gesu violin, dated 1741, which is considered by many to be the finest sounding violins in existence. Anne Akiko Meyers has been awarded exclusive lifetime use of this instrument. This year, she was featured in a story with the violin on CBS Sunday Morning.
Anne Akiko Meyers was the top-selling classical instrumentalist on Billboard in 2014, a year in which she released two critically-heralded and popular albums. The Four Seasons: The Vivaldi Album, released in February 2014, debuted at #1 on the classical Billboard charts, and American Masters, released in September, was named one of the Best of 2014 by Google Play and called "the most noteworthy new music encounter" of the year by the Chicago Tribune.