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The New York Sun,
27 April 2006 By JAY NORDLINGER [In Judith Weir's 247 Strings] Midori and Mr. McDonald breathed as one. ... Mr. McDonald can be counted on to play with diamond-like clarity and intelligence. ... [Isang Yun's Sonata for Violin and Piano is] a dark, dark work, full of storms and sorrow. Midori executed it powerfully. She showed no little technique, having fingers as well as brains. Passagework aside, she sent clear streams of sound through the hall, and her intonation was dead-center. ... The final section of the Yun sonata features soft wailing, almost unbearable in its sadness. Midori handles this with true sympathy. And she and Mr. McDonald ended the piece unassumingly, as if the music would continue, somewhere, once they ceased to play. ... [In Gyoörgy Kurtaág's Tre pezzi per violino e pianoforte] Midori presented a beautiful spareness all through, and she exhibited a first-rate pianissimo. She was barely audible without lapsing into inaudibility. Mr. Kurtaág's third piece in this little set is disembodied, almost not on this planet. Midori played it like a ghost. She and Mr. McDonald ended with an important work of Witold Lutosławski ... His Partita is in five movements, all strung together, and Midori gave it full commitment. She was clear, nimble, cat-like - and she often had occasion to pounce. The final movement, Presto, was taken at a surprisingly deliberate tempo. But that was the correct choice: It was terrible in its momentum. ... Although this was not an eat-your-peas evening, it was an interesting and musical recital, from a very interesting, very musical violinist. |
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