By ANDREW PATNER

Midori's mastery on full view here - Violinist plays like a dream

As hard as it might seem to envision, the former child violin phenomenon Midori has become in many ways an even more phenomenal adult...

Even as she delves deep into classic, modern, contemporary and neglected repertoire, she devotes the bulk of her life to education and service....

And ...she still plays like a dream -- a serious dream, no doubt. But she is both totally focused and otherworldly onstage. Monday night before a large Martin Theatre audience at Ravinia, with the fine young Turkish-American collaborative pianist Ozgur Aydin, she bracketed the 19th century with masterworks of the young Beethoven and the mature Brahms and played mystical pieces from the early 20th century by Ernest Bloch and Karol Szymanowski.

The Bloch Second Sonata, "Poeme mystique" (1924), and the Szymanowski "Myths" (1916) were surely new to most listeners. ...The Brahms D Minor Third Sonata, Op. 108, was on fire and intriguingly informed by the ethereal pieces that preceded it. An encore of a Henryk Wieniawski "Souvenir of Moscow" showed how Midori, at 38, can fill even a showpiece with human warmth and intelligence.