Midori French Violin Sonatas - Debussy / Poulenc / Saint - Saens

This beautiful recording displays Midori at her radiant best. Her virtuosity is entirely at the service of the music; her tone is lovely, pure, intense, and expressive, and she adapts it to style, mood, and atmosphere with bow and vibrato. The Poulenc Sonata, written in 1942-43 and dedicated to the memory of Federico Garcia Lorca, is unsettled and unsettling. Irresolute, unpredictable, it veers between stormy turbulence and pleading lyricism. The slow movement is dreamy, tender, improvisatory, with echoes of Debussy; the Finale, called "Presto tragico," is aggressive and almost cheerful, becoming truly tragic only in the last pages. Midori captures its mood swings, from passion to serenity, with unerring poise.

The Debussy Sonata, written in 1917 and his final work, is a unique masterpiece. Free yet coherent in form, infinitely imaginative, it combines languid sensuousness, assertive vitality, and sardonic grotesquerie. One would never guess that he was battling illness and the ravages of war at the time. Clearing its formidable technical hurdles with consummate ease, Midori brings out the work's color, character, and expression, taking great liberties with tempo and rhythm, but carefully avoiding exaggeration.

The Saint-Saëns Sonata, written in 1885, is a bravura piece for both instruments, but its rapturous melodies, original rhythms, and expressive contrast give it weight and substance. Its four movements are linked in pairs; the first alternates menacing drama with soaring lyricism, the second is a songful Aria, the third a charming Scherzo. In the Finale, the players chase each other in a marathon "perpetual motion," broken by an occasional melodic outburst in the violin. Naturally, the performance is dazzling, but even here, Midori succeeds in making the brilliance subservient to the music. The record's only flaw is the balance: the piano consistently overpowers the violin. --Edith Eisler