The New York Sun, December 9, 2004

The Decorous Romanticism of a Master
By JAY NORDLINGER

Midori and Mr. McDonald began their recital at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday night with the Debussy sonata. It was tasteful and musical. Midori gave us a sonata in watercolor, truly impressionistic, and not quite of this world. Her sensitivity is extreme. She sang where she should have, she insinuated where she should have. Interestingly, she imparted to this work a sense of play - even when the music was relatively somber. ...

Throughout the sonata, Midori kept her focus, and Mr. McDonald proved, as usual, a superb partner: His was a mature Debussy, not too timid, but clean, straightforward, and aware. It is comforting, as well as satisfying, to be in the presence of two real musicians.

Midori followed with a work she commissioned, from Michael Hersch [...], "the wreckage of flowers: 21 Pieces After Poems and Prose of Czeslaw Milosz." [...] Mr. Hersch has written a work of severity and bleakness, containing elements common in music today, especially American music: Sounds jump out at you, as in a haunted house; a grim landscape is traversed, or simply beheld, or quaked at. [...] Mr. Hersch's commissioner did well by him, displaying maximum control and sympathy. The same is true of her pianist, Mr. McDonald.

After intermission, Midori turned to Janáček, [whose] violin sonata is one of the most beautiful things he ever wrote, and Midori allowed it its full glory. In the opening movement, she was rather dark and gypsy-like - also a little decorous. One can play this music more freely, but then, one would not be Midori. The second movement - Ballada - was really beautiful, songful and simple. Indeed, it was angelic (with Mr. McDonald providing some fluttering of wings). The third movement was rightly rough and rambunctious, and the final movement - an Adagio - built to a satisfying conclusion.

The program concluded with the Brahms D-minor sonata, and here Midori was, again, Midori: You can imagine bigger, bolder Brahms. More Brahmsian Brahms, if you will. But Midori was not un-Brahmsian: She was clean and correct, yet sufficiently Romantic. That great slow movement was noble and affecting. The closing movement - Presto agitato - was, yes, agitated, and also sweeping and masterly. To say it once more: Midori and Robert McDonald are two real musicians, and if you can't endorse every measure they play, you can appreciate it.

For an encore, we had Efrem Zimbalist's transcription of Carl Engel's "Sea-Shell." So lovely. And Midori ended it with a superbly executed long, rapid trill. The hall was rapt.