The Evening Standard, 29 April 2003

An object lesson in total greatness
By BRYAN HUNT

...this was one of the finest concerts I shall ever witness.

The outer movements [of Mozart's Third Violin Concerto] exuded a sense of complete trust between orchestra and conductor, enabling Midori to respond with rhapsodic playfulness. But it was the delicate rapture of the slow movement that truly took the breath away.

Then came an overwhelmingly passionate but utterly sincere performance of the Elgar Concerto. Phrasing and rubato were ripe, and though every member of the LSO seemed swept up by the music, control was absolute, balance immaculate. Midori's entry, a cry of pain interrupting the horn's dying fall, was heart-stopping.

For all her eloquent command of nuance, her tone - noble, without false glamour - remained unsullied. This was an interpretation of complete dedication to the score from every musician on the platform. To call any performance definitive is to deny the miracle of classical music, by which the familiar is made ever new. I know, for example, that I will spend a lifetime pondering the precise emotional nature of the concerto's close, where Elgar lifts his head from soul-searching and faces the world again. I also know that I will never hear a greater performance of this greatest of violin concertos.