Today's installment of our "Live from Carnegie Hall" series looks at the Carnegie Hall recital debut in 1991 of 19-year-old Japanese violinist Midori.
Fun Fact: Midori made her first recording at the age of 14, playing Bach and Vivaldi, with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
Born in Osaka, Japan, in 1971, Midori would not turn 20 until four days after she made her Carnegie Hall recital debut, accompanied by pianist Robert McDonald, in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage on October 21, 1991.
Part of Carnegie Hall's 100th anniversary season, the program for her debut, which Sony Classical recorded for audio and video release, consisted of pieces by Beethoven, Strauss, Chopin, Ernst, Debussy, Mozart, Sarasate, and Ravel.
The commercially released version of the recording omitted her performance of Sarasate's Zapateado and Mozart's Sonata for Violin in G Major. The encores from that afternoon—Scriabin's Etude in D-Flat Major and Fibich's Poem for Violin and Piano—were also left off the CD.
Midori returns to Carnegie Hall for three very different concerts during the 2010–2011 season. On November 12, she joins Music Director and Conductor Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic as soloist for Beethoven's Violin Concerto. As part of JapanNYC, she performs a recital with pianist Charles Abramovic on March 23, followed on April 5 by a concert with violist Nobuko Imai, cellist Antoine Lederlin, and pianist Jonathan Biss.