in Cologne - Großer Sendesaal of the WDR Radio 2012 - film by Hanne Kaisik

Interview

Hanne Kaisik: I was watching you – you had a very hard day today. Are you satisfied with what you were doing – with the result? You were listening to a piece you produced.

Midori: Whenever there is a recording we have to, at one point, come and listen to the first edits. And this is always a very exciting part of making a recording. But it is also probably rather stressful because of all the psychological stress that happens beforehand. You know, what if it actually didn’t quite work out or all kind of things. It is always nice to know that the technology works and the recording is there and the pieces are there, and that you know there is something there we can work with. So it was a long day but I am very happy that now, at the end of the day, it seems like it was worth the day.

Hanne Kaisik: So it was worth all the travelling … you arrived from where today?

Midori: Today I flew out of Rome, last night was the last performance on the ‘fall European recital tour’. And so that´s where we played last night – and prior to Rome we were often in London. This fall has been very interesting with performing in different places and different cities. And many of them were I have come back to in the last 30 years at least twice or three four times – but of course it is the anniversary season, there seems to be somehow an extra sort of excitement on the part of both the presenters and the performers. And of course anniversary season concerts will continue and in a way, you know, giving concerts and preparing for the concerts and teaching and practicing, these things seem to be really such a normal part of my season, but somehow it is being connected with the 30th anniversary. There is something I feel that makes it different and exciting, and of course in Munich in early spring, I will be working with Zubin Mehta. Of course you know that back in 1982 when I made my debut, he was the conductor and he was the one who gave me the opportunity to play with this orchestra in New York back then. Then there will be recitals, very often in Germany of course, recitals in Stuttgart, Berlin and so forth. But in other European cities as well, London again, Vienna … yeah just always …

Transciption of the Interview