Queen Of Intensity

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg got an early reputation for being impetuous, and maybe undisciplined. “Did the world have her wrong? Or, at age 45, has Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg cooled down? In the 25th year since her debut, the latter scenario isn’t true. Last week, before sciatica forced her to cancel her Lincoln Center Brahms recital, she was still trying to rehearse while loaded up on Vicodin, and her recital partner, pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, barely noticed a difference.”