{"id":4501,"date":"2010-04-25T12:44:54","date_gmt":"2010-04-25T19:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=4501"},"modified":"2013-02-07T20:21:31","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T04:21:31","slug":"the-midori-paradox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/25\/the-midori-paradox\/","title":{"rendered":"whither midori?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Midori Goto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last night we played our first of four concerts with the violinist Midori, who is performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto with us this weekend.\u00a0 Her visit here has been a puzzling one for me and perhaps for others in the orchestra as well.<\/p>\n

Midori has been on the forefront of the concert violinist ‘scene’ since the age of 14 when she made the worldwide news playing three violins in rapid succession (due to broken E-strings) in her performance of Bernstein’s Serenade<\/em> with the Boston Symphony and Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood in 1987:
\n<\/object><\/p>\n

She last played with the Oregon Symphony in a performance of the Elgar Violin Concerto (under conductor James Paul), and she was an engaging presence then, smiling and interacting with the orchestra and conductor.\u00a0 This time, a cloud seemed to enter the hall with her – gone were the smiles.\u00a0 Intensity and concentration were present, but not spontaneity and joy in music making.\u00a0 While from a distance she appears youthful, up close on the platform she seemed older, more worn than one would expect.\u00a0 She seemed more to be battling her instrument than at one with it – taking some extremes of interpretation in the Sibelius that seemed more a test of her internal fortitude than expressions of the beauty of the music.<\/p>\n

I wonder what has happened in Midori’s life since her last appearance here.\u00a0 Clearly, there has been a marked change (at least outwardly) in her since the last time she was here.<\/p>\n

This aside, she has something to say in her performance of the Sibelius concerto, but what exactly that is, I do not know.\u00a0 There could not be a more marked difference between her and Pinchas Zukerman, who was here two weeks ago.\u00a0 Where his playing is magisterial, extrovert, and effortless, hers is taut, introvert, and tortured.\u00a0 One has to wonder how long playing of this sort can be sustained over the course of a long career.\u00a0 Only time will tell.<\/p>\n

NOTE: By the way – Yo-yo Ma’s performance next season has officially sold out, only 227 days ahead of the concert!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night we played our first of four concerts with the violinist Midori, who is performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto with us this weekend.\u00a0 Her visit here has been a puzzling one for me and perhaps for others in the orchestra as well. Midori has been on the forefront of the concert violinist ‘scene’ since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[135,2,21],"tags":[3668],"class_list":["post-4501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-soloists-recitals","category-the-orchestra-world","category-violin","tag-oregon-symphony"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1aB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4451,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/16\/whats-next-at-the-oregon-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":4501,"position":0},"title":"what’s next at the oregon symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The 2009-2010 season has about six weeks left before it ends, and we're just about to enter the home stretch.\u00a0 May is a super-busy month, but April still has some compelling concerts to see and hear. 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The San Francisco Symphony w\/ Michael Tilson Thomas - they're making two concert stop:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4513,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/26\/random-musings-for-monday\/","url_meta":{"origin":4501,"position":2},"title":"random musings for monday","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm halfway through this week's Classical series run (if you include the runout on Tuesday evening to Willamette University in Salem), and my thoughts are starting to turn back to what's happened thus far in the performances and rehearsals, and looking forward to the two remaining performances. First, the Tchaikovsky\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "soloists & recitals"","block_context":{"text":"soloists & recitals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/soloists-recitals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/tchaikovsky_young-250x333.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4532,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/27\/phoning-it-in\/","url_meta":{"origin":4501,"position":3},"title":"phoning it in","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Just got back from Salem tonight after our final concert of this weekend's classical series with the violin soloist Midori, and the Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony.\u00a0 Every so often in the life of a professional musician, there comes a time when one simply \"phones it in\".\u00a0 What exactly does this mean,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7294,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/02\/08\/season-announcements-soloists\/","url_meta":{"origin":4501,"position":4},"title":"season announcements – soloists","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm revisiting my previous post, in which I somewhat lazily dissected the season announcements\u00a0 of three orchestras (Chicago, Seattle, and Nashville) for 2012-2013, to a look at the soloists that they've engaged for the season (plus those slated for the LA Philharmonic as well, to add some more (?) into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "soloists & recitals"","block_context":{"text":"soloists & recitals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/soloists-recitals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6699,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/07\/21\/local-violinist-solos-in-colorado\/","url_meta":{"origin":4501,"position":5},"title":"local violinist solos in colorado","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Violinist Andy Liang, who has performed several times with the Oregon Symphony over the past decade, is spending this summer at one of the more prestigious summer music festivals, the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado. He's also been tapped to perform a solo in front of the orchestra this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "soloists & recitals"","block_context":{"text":"soloists & recitals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/soloists-recitals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/liang.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}