Published: November 1, 2011. Here are some quotes:
A celebrity instrumentalist (Midori) invariably headlines the event, but talents of the pianist are equally important, especially in a work like Mozart’s Sonata for Piano and Violin in E flat (K.380), which opened the program. It’s publisher advertised the piece in 1781 as one of “six sonatas for piano with the accompaniment of a violin by the moderately well-known and famous Wolfgang Amadee Mozart”
Mr. Aydin’s lithe, sparkling touch brought out the sunny qualities of the outer movements, his poised reading of the Andante con moto beautifully complemented Midori’s penetrating playing.
That these two musicians are regular collaborators was evident in each of their finely wrought but free spirited interpretations. The eerie musings of the first movement of Shostakovich’s Sonata for Violin and Piano (op. 134) unfolded here with plaintive intensity. The no-holds-barred ferocity of Midori and Mr.Aydin’s playing vividly illuminated the manic, almost deranged moods of the second moment Allegretto and the solo cadenzas in the finale.
A more subdued agitation permeates Schumann’s Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1 in A minor, written a few years before the composer was admitted to a mental asylum. The musicians offered an intimate interpretation that conveyed the work’s restless energy and plumbed the searching dialogue between the two instruments.
The program concluded with a passionate rendition of Schubert’s Fantasy for Violin and Piano in C (D.934), composed shortly before he died at 31.