Joseph Previte writes about a recent recital featuring Midori and Robert McDonald. The duo played the same program (Mozart K. 526, Corigliano Sonata, Brahms Op. 78, Stravinsky-Dushkin Pastorale and Ravel Tzigane) this past Tuesday night to close this season's Artist Series at Wheaton College. On the whole, I have to agree with Joseph's admiring and perceptive comments. Although I did quite a bit of work as an accompanist of Juilliard Pre-College violinists at a time when Midori was the 9-year-old rumored to be playing the Bartok Concerto, this was my first encounter with her in live performance. She is most emphatically not a has-been child prodigy with standard conservatory ideas about how to play a constricted repertoire. (Do the players of any other instrument stick so resolutely to programming such a small number of the same old recital pieces? When I compare violinists' programs to pianists' programs on brochures from the Ravinia Rising Stars series, I seriously wonder.) She and Robert McDonald chose an interesting program, and played it with conviction and thoughtfulness. The Mozart truly set the tone for the evening; modern-instrument Mozart playing though it was, it was still Mozart playing colored by current concerns about style and performance practice. It was lively, articulate, and thoroughly enjoyable collaboration between the two artists. Though I have known of it for a while, I had never before heard the Corigliano Sonata. Very simply, it's a dazzler, and was dazzlingly played. Joseph referred to Midori's relatively small sound, which was challenged by McDonald's robust, deeply intelligent pianism on a Steinway with lid fully raised. Bob, who I know slightly from Juilliard days, is no wallflower of an acoompanist, but I never had the feeling that he was willfully or ignorantly getting in Midori's way. (I'll admit that I wanted him to be a bit more in the background for some of the more pyrotechnic moments of "Tzigane.") On the contrary, I sensed that she was deliberately playing with as wide a dynamic range as possible, often going for color more than audibility. (Her bow control, particularly at the end of the second movement of the Corigliano, was nothing short of stunning.) As a piece, the Corigliano speaks strongly and vividly, making me respect the composer's individual voice more than I have in encounters with fascinating though cameleonesque works like "The Ghosts of Versailles." The Brahms was lovely, though to my ears not as convincing as the first half of the program. (Speaking personally, I find the Op. 78 to be a terribly slippery piece, both technically and interpretively.) Perhaps because it was a Tuesday night, there were no encores. As in Little Rock, both Midori and Bob were gracious to well-wishers backstage. I spent my time catching up with Bob, and didn't get to meet Midori, who told my violinist colleague that she's in the process of finishing a degree in psychology -- yet another sign that she's no mere aging prodigy. All in all, a refreshing and heartening evening. DPHorn, fiddling around on his Mac.