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Globe and Mail, October 14, 2003 A Former Prodigy Grows
Up SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- On a fine September evening, a near-capacity audience has turned out for the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra's season-opening program. This is no ordinary concert -- the guest artist is none other than Midori, and this city in upstate New York has been plastered with posters advertising her appearance. She's a small woman, but she fills the hall with her broad smile as she enters from the wings in a pale blue and silver dress, clutching her 1734 Guarnerius violin. Yet as soon as she puts bow to string, the smile vanishes, and she no longer seems to notice her audience at all. Rather, her performance becomes an intense dance, as she sways, crouches and swerves on stage, pouring forth Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor (the same piece she'll perform at Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall tomorrow and Friday with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra). Her interpretation is subtle, and her tone is sweet -- quite unlike some of the aggressive whiz kids playing these days. But Midori is no longer a kid: She's 31 -- a fact that may astonish fans who think of her as permanently 11 years old. That was her age when the world first came to know her, 20 years ago: a cute, chipmunk-cheeked slip of a girl who could play like a seasoned virtuoso. So powerful was the impression she made that her name was absorbed into the lexicon of classical music. For the past two decades, every prodigious violinist to come along -- especially if female and Asian -- has been touted as "the next Midori." The day after the Syracuse concert, Midori is again all smiles, in an interview at her sparsely furnished flat on New York City's West Side. These days, the events of her life are fresh in her mind: She's just finished writing her memoirs (to be published in Germany next year). Sitting on a small Japanese stool, she pets one of her two dogs and talks easily about her personal history and goals. "I don't want to just simply play," she asserts. "I like to think of ways that will make the experience of the listeners more substantial. And I like to think of different ways of doing this." ... |
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