Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 6, 2004

Another memorable evening of Midori's grace and artistry
By R.M. CAMPBELL

Midori's return to Seattle Wednesday night will be remembered as one of the genuine pleasures of the second half of the 2003-04 music season. ... Midori has long possessed taste and discretion. Her music-making is uncommonly graceful, her tone liquid gold, her bow arm steady and strong, her legato handsomely molded. ...

The "Spring" Sonata of Beethoven is famous for its felicitous, springlike tunes, thus the name. Midori gave it buoyant life and cool beauty.

Janáček's Sonata, written more than 100 years later, is restless, edgy, mercurial in mood. Midori captured that by virtue of her method of attack and dramatic shifts in dynamics. The performance was riveting.

Danielpour's "As Night Falls" is so beautiful -- but never saccharin -- it is hard to imagine it was written only two years ago. Midori provided long-limbed phrases, the most gorgeous timbre and the kind of simplicity only the greatest artists possess. With its French sense of bravura, Saint-Saëns' D Minor Sonata brought the program to an end. Midori did not disappoint, and the audience leapt to its feet. ...

[Midori] does not rely on the bread-and-butter repertory of some of her colleagues: She commissions new work to stimulate what she knows and remind her admiring audiences that they too live in the modern age. Midori was joined by Robert McDonald, a pianist of great skill and refinement, who was introduced to the violinist by Isaac Stern about 14 years ago. They have been musical partners ever since, each enriching the other. ...