Midori
performing Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, part 2
St. Mark's Lutheran Church
1111 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, CA
7:00 PM, Sunday, March 24, 2013

[7:07 PM, lights down, Introduction by Ruth Felt]

• Grave
• Fuga
• Andante
• Allegro

[work ends 7:35 PM]

[7:36 PM ready]

• Allemande
• Double: Presto
• Corrente
• Double
• Sarabande
• Double
• Bourrée: Tempo di Borea
• Double

[work ends 8:05 PM]

[8:06 PM ready]

• Preludio
• Loure
• Gavotte en Rondeau
• Menuet I
• Menuet II
• Bourrée
• Gigue

[show ends 8:25 PM]

• Midori Goto: violin.

Program Notes courtesy of SFPerformances.

Wikipedia article about the program

The final show in SFPerformance's Violin Virtuosi series for this year; as with all the others, I attended with my mom, sitting in the same great center seats as last night. Between the slight change in the weather (a bit cooler today than yesterday) and a change of clothes (I opted for much lighter weight clothing tonight) there was no chance of drifting off to sleep mid concert tonight despite attending on a belly full of roast beef and a stiff pint of Speakeasy's Big Daddy IPA courtesy of Tommy's Joynt.

I thought that the most striking contrast in tonight's presentation compared with the previous show was the starkly slower pacing of the initial Sonata and following Partita. Not that the double sections of the latter work were too slow – au contraire, mon frère – but that last night's entire show seemed to come off at an unrelentingly blistering pace that left my ears just a bit tired by the end. Such was not the case tonight; the slower beginning only served to prime my attention for the arpeggio runs of the closing Partita.

Stephen Smoliar offered up another grumpy review for the Examiner. Noticing him dash out before Midori took her final bows both nights leads me to think he should hardly be one to criticize her for issues of pacing!