Violinist: Anne Akiko Meyers in Recital with Pianist Fabio Bidini

Violinist
By Laurie Niles

I am not often moved to tears at a violin recital. 

However on Saturday night, through a combination of fine playing, sincere music-making and thoughtful programming, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and pianist Fabio Bidini had audience members dabbing their eyes and sighing "ah," during their recital at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif.

For me tears came from a feeling of connection, after all the isolation of the last two years. This wasn't the first concert I'd seen since the pandemic - though it was the first indoor concert back at the Wallis and the first for many in the audience.

But somehow this was the first where I felt connected to everything they played - connected as a violinist, as teacher, as a person living in Los Angeles, as a mother, as a human. Let's say it put me in a state of COVID catharsis that I'd probably been avoiding. Sometimes you don't want to cry, don't want to think about it all. For the first few concerts after things started opening up again, I just wanted to hear some music, to feel assured that live music still existed and would continue. I didn't necessarily want to "go there" and think about the sadness of the last few years.

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