Audiences and critics in Ansbach, Stuttgart, Munich, Halle and London warmly welcomed Midori, pianist Jonathan Biss and cellist Antoine Lederlin in a program featuring Beethoven’s Piano Trio in G major, Op.1 No.2, Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, Op.88, and Dvořák’s Piano Trio in F minor, Op.65.
Early in the tour, the German radio station BR-KLASSIK posted an interview with Midori titled “Practicing is Like Meditation”.
The Stuttgarter Nachrichten review said, “All three musicians are proven soloists, who came together here as a trio, which was characterized by concentration, style awareness and the perceptive will to expressivity. Great, as they corresponded to each work with a decided sonority: structurally clearly marked by Beethoven, atmospherically finely worked by Schumann and with almost symphonic fullness by Dvorák.”
Following their performance at London’s Wigmore Hall, one reviewer wrote, “in many ways they seem to be ‘perfect’ musical partners, the playing of each characterised by meticulousness, refinement and beauty of sound: exquisite, shared artistry. During this recital, the lucidity and coherence of the musical ‘thinking’, expression and execution was almost tangible. The musicians combined humility with absolute commitment and concentration…”
In the words of Michael Church, also reviewing the Wigmore Hall concert for The Independent, “It was a pleasure to … be reminded of [Midori’s] artistry…  typically – she had set up this Wigmore concert to showcase other talents as much as her own. Enter cellist Antoine Lederlin, member of the Belcea Quartet, and pianist Jonathan Biss, the leading Beethovenist of his thirty-something generation. The repertoire too was designed for equality: trios by Beethoven, Schumann, and Dvorak in which Lederlin’s warm sound and Biss’s forceful muscularity came to the fore. Midori’s tone was, as ever, sweet and pure; an evergreen talent.”