Newsday, December 10, 2004

By JUSTIN DAVIDSON

For her Carnegie Hall recital Tuesday, the 33-year-old prodigy-turned-stateswoman of the violin commissioned a new work from Michael Hersch, an American composer her own age. ... Midori and pianist Robert McDonald played "wreckage (of flowers)" with all the intimate, oil-lamp warmth with which they illuminated the masterpieces on the program: the lone violin sonatas of Debussy and Janáček and Brahms`s third in D-minor. Midori plays without showmanship or flamboyance, as if she were practicing a private ritual and the audience had its ear pressed to the keyhold. Let`s hope she adored her first foray into new music and has been inspired to ask others for more.