REVIEW: Masterful Midori at 92NY

Mar 13

Mar 13 REVIEW: Masterful Midori at 92NY

Above photo courtesy of 92NY.

March 9, 2025

A patron of the arts once said of his daughter, a mezzo-soprano whom I accompanied, that he thought her singing voice was “unfinished.” I wasn’t quite sure what he meant until I heard Midori play the violin. The celebrated violinist — child prodigy mentioned on the front page of the New York Times, and thirty years later, a 2021 Kennedy Center Honoree and UN Messenger of Peace — gave a recital at 92NY so artistically complete, so convincing, it transcended criticism.

Özgür Aydin partnered with Midori at the piano with sturdy, substantial playing — big and assertive, yet exceedingly pliable. Just the foundational framework from which the Japanese-American virtuoso could inhabit and project a rich, yet balanced selection of German and French music. This was playing — technically and interpretively — that was truly “finished.” Consummate musicianship.

The program began with Robert Schumann’s Fünf Stücke im Volkston (Five Pieces in Folk Style), Op. 102. This 1849 work for cello and piano (also published in an edition for violin), five rustic movements characteristic of, but not based on actual folk tunes, is tricky to make sense of. With grace and hearty investment, Midori and Aydin drew rhythm and rhetoric from Schumann’s oddball asymmetrical phrasing and herky-jerky motivic exclamations, making them feel earthy and natural.

The duo’s confident, knowing rendition of Johannes Brahms’s Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78, “Regensonate,” from thirty years later, exemplified their sheer mastery. Indeed, this flawless performance was a master class in the art of chamber music. Pianist and violinist took turns bringing the melody to the fore, prancing cheek to cheek, dialoguing in counterpoint, and allowing Brahms’s spinning lyricism to speak, flow, and resonate. And Midori’s sound was voluptuous or vanishing, delicate or dancing, long-arced or winking — always with enviable precision of intonation.

Francis Poulenc wrote in his memoir Journal de mes mélodies that his Sonate pour violon et piano (Violin Sonata), FP 119, composed in memory of the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, was “alas not the best Poulenc.”

It’s too bad the composer was not in attendance to hear Midori and Aydin play the sonata. Completed in 1943, Poulenc’s sour-sweet three movement essay in irony proved to be a thrill ride, with an ardent slow movement that soared in this pair’s hands.

In the year of Maurice Ravel’s 150th anniversary, Midori played his Kaddish, originally a setting of the Jewish chant of remembrance for voice and piano, in a transcription by Lucien Garban. Midori, whose energy was spunky and extroverted in the Poulenc, shifted gears and delivered the haunting, guttural prayer with a purity of sound that pierced your soul. Aydin’s harp-like arpeggiations weeped with pointillism.

Midori’s finale, Ravel’s Romani-infused showpiece for the fiddle, Tzigane, appeared effortless, yet felt soulful. Midori’s pristine accuracy — not a double- or triple-stop even slightly out-of-tune — was mere footnote. This was full-throated, detailed drama.

A warm, understated encore of "Haï Luli!," an art song from 1880 by French singer, pianist and composer Pauline García Viardot, was a simple and direct plea for peace if there ever was one. Thankfully, Midori is not yet finished.