With her recording, in partnership with Jean-Yves Thibaudet, of Beethoven’s 10 sonatas for piano and violin, Midori celebrates the 40th anniversary of her professional debut. That landmark event took place on New Year’s Eve 1982: at the age of just 11, she performed Paganini with the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta. The origins of this new Beethoven set lie in 2020, the composer’s 250th birthday year. Fortunately, Midori and Thibaudet were able to tour his sonatas before the pandemic locked the world down.

2020 also brought the release of Midori’s Warner Classics recording of Beethoven’s violin concerto. She views the composer’s music in very personal terms: "Beethoven speaks to me as a companion, reminding me to always strive and stretch, through the good times and bad. Though he lived a life of struggles, he was never deterred, writing music of incredible beauty and hopefulness.” Jean-Yves Thibaudet expands on the theme: “Playing these 10 sonatas is like taking a journey through Beethoven's life. When you focus on just one composer, you begin to develop a very special bond not only with the music, but with that composer … It is a very fulfilling and very enriching experience, and I feel closer to Beethoven and his world than I ever did before.”