Suddeutsche Zeitung, January 8, 2003

Virtuoso Violinist at the Konzerthaus
By ANKE DEMIRSOV*

In Dortmund, Midori is playing Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor. With suppleness and intensity, she shapes the cantabile opening theme of the concerto, her body writhing as though the music had to be wrung out of it. With self-assurance, she takes the liberties granted to a soloist, hesitating to an extreme degree in particular in transitions from one tempo to another. Surprises are never far away. Where others might luxuriate in the resonant sound of the G-string, she exercises a marked reticence, while at the same time not shying away from hard attacks with the bow. There is nothing honey-tongued about the andante: Midori's violin sound is not sweet, but clear as glass, and yet often painfully moving. The final notes she plays without a hint of vibrato, and yet she has a perfect understanding of the charm of the final movement. Pure pleasure is provided above all by the pyrotechnic passages into which she veritably storms on her Guarneri instrument...

For Midori, the two highest virtues are authenticity and receptivity. This is what keeps her music alive, protecting her from mind-numbing repetition. Every concert stage, every audience, comes across as new.

*Translated from the German by Michael Scuff