Midori Fails to Tap Heart of the Matter

A former wunderkind, 27-year-old violinist Midori is a bit of a puzzle. She encounters no technical obstacles. She spins out fine, golden tone. She plays some of the softest passages imaginable, but she can easily expand the sound to a vibrant, pulsing wave that reaches the back of a hall.

But what the wave carries is the problem. It is emotionally restrained, it rarely connects to the heart of the composer and it leaves dissatisfaction in the heart of the listener, though admittedly this is a minority opinion.

The approach was established with Mozart’s Sonata in A, K. 526, with which Midori and pianist Robert McDonald opened a five-part program Sunday at Royce Hall, UCLA.

If everything Mozart wrote can be considered an opera--and almost everything can--Midori and McDonald played it as if it were an unvarying monologue, without change of character, without distinction in mood, without variety in light and shade.

Brahms’ Sonata No. 1 in G minor similarly emerged with emotional reticence. Their performance ranged from the gentle to the big and strong. But there never seemed to be the composer’s emotional causation to explain the events. So there were plenty of dead spots.

Curiously, Midori communicated more in the more modern pieces. She played John Corigliano’s cosmopolitan 1963 Sonata with depth and fervor, and Stravinsky’s “Pastorale” with delicate charm.

And to leave no doubt about her exemplary technique, she brought the concert to a close with a blazing account of Ravel’s showpiece, Tzigane. She played Tchaikovsky’s Melodie in E-flat as the sole encore.

* Midori and pianist Robert McDonald will play the same program Thursday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 8 p.m. $15-$60. (714) 556-2787.