For many young, eclectic composers and performers whose work deals in amplification, electronics and pop-music borrowings, a chatty crowd and the clink of beer bottles is familiar territory. But those same ambient noises can play havoc with a more conventional performance, especially in music reliant on a delicate balance of acoustic instruments.
The violinist Anne Akiko Meyers could hardly have done a better job of adapting her usual working mode to fit the brief, casual concert she presented on Tuesday night at Le Poisson Rouge, a fashionable Bleecker Street club that regularly includes classical performers among its offerings. True, this was as much a social event as a recital: Ms. Meyers has just issued an appealing new CD, Smile, on the Koch International Classics label, and Tuesdays audience was packed with friends, family members and record company executives.
The bulk of Ms. Meyerss program consisted of works from the disc, an eclectic collection of mostly short, tuneful pieces: Charlie Chaplins nostalgic “Smile," Astor Piazzollas seductive Milonga en Re and Introduccin al ngel, Michio Miyagis wistful Haru no Umi (Sea in Spring). She played with an unfailingly sweet tone, molding her phrases like a singer. The pianist Akira Eguchi, Ms. Meyerss partner here and on the CD, played with his customary clarity and taste.
From Schuberts Fantasy in C (D. 934), the most substantial and challenging work on the disc, she offered only the closing section. If anyone needed reminding that Ms. Meyers is a performer of substance and skill, here was the proof. Her feathery lines wafted upward on Mr. Eguchis tremulous zephyrs during the opening bars, then the two emphatically drove through a fleet, clean finale.
