Martha Argerich at 80
Jessica Duchen assembles ten personal choices that show Martha at her most magical
If asked to name the greatest pianist alive today, few pianophiles, I suspect, would hesitate to choose Martha Argerich. Her playing seems to contain a type of magic fire: a mesmerising intensity of focus, edge-of-seat excitement and a striking, almost childlike sense of wonder. Her panther-like attack is light and powerful, the rhythmic sense high-sprung and unshakeable, while the spacious, clear textures she creates and the depth of her sonority are second to none. Perhaps above all, though she is 80 this June, she still plays with the enchantedsounding freshness you might associate with a 21-year-old in love. Her sound is hers alone and has been consistent throughout her career, almost as if it is part of her DNA.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1941, Argerich started out as a child prodigy; her family moved to Vienna when she was in her teens so that she might study with Friedrich Gulda. She won the International Chopin Competition in 1965 (the bottom photo on this page is taken after the victory), but this was the culmination of a long struggle. Prior to that, she had stopped giving concerts for a couple of years, battling performance anxiety, self-criticism and more. She has often cancelled concerts at short notice and many years ago she gave up solo recitals, preferring to share a stage with close musical friends in chamber music, concertos and piano duos – most of the time, anyway.
Argerich’s discography is gigantic; add to that a conglomeration of rare live performances on YouTube and it’s a mind-boggling prospect. I’ve assembled ten personal choices to help get you started.
1 Chopin B minor Sonata in Lockdown
During lockdown last summer, Argerich took to the stage of the empty Laeiszhalle in Hamburg for a live-streamed concert with violinist Renaud Capuçon. Between violin sonatas by Beethoven and Franck, though, she performs the Chopin B minor Sonata for the first time in, reputedly, 25 years. The spontaneity of her rubato, the free-flying expression, the luminous tone and the imperious, triumphant virtuosity make Chopin’s largest solo masterpiece sound as fresh as if we were hearing its world premiere. The quizzical gaze the pianist turns upon her silent surroundings at the end is also unforgettable. bit.ly/chopinsonata
2 Bloody Daughter
Stéphanie Argerich’s 2012 documentary about her mother, Bloody Daughter, offers a powerful personal insight into the great musician’s life and work, including footage that goes back to when the filmmaker, then aged eleven, first turned a new Betamax video camera towards her mum. It explores the challenges and legacy of being a ‘wunderkind’, conflicting loyalties to art and to family, the fraught yet loving relationships within the latter and the sheer mystery that attends her musicianship. In an interview for Pianist when the film came out, Stéphanie commented: ‘My mother is still a mystery after the film… I really think she is a mystery to herself.’ (She is pictured centre, and overleaf top left, with her mother.) bit.ly/bloodydaughter
3 Martha Argerich & Claudio Abbado: The Complete Concerto Recordings
OK, this is cheating, since it’s not one performance, but ten: works by Mozart, Beethoven, Prokofiev, Ravel, Tchaikovsky and Liszt, tracing the lengthy musical partnership of Argerich and the conductor Claudio Abbado – almost as much of a legend as she is – from 1967 up to 2013. Argerich brings to this range of repertoire the full panoply of musical insights: wit, sparkle, drive and an elemental storminess permeate her playing. Abbado’s attentive, minutely detailed conducting complements her to perfection, whether in the rhetorical grandeur of Liszt or the delicate phrasing of Mozart. The photo on the front is worth framing, too (as is the main picture for this article, opposite). Deutsche Grammophon 4794155
4 Martha Argerich & Stephen Kovacevich: Bartók Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
If Argerich has a musical soulmate, it is probably Stephen Kovacevich. The two pianists were life-partners for a while (Stéphanie, the filmmaker, is their daughter), but though they went their separate ways in the 1970s, they still make a formidable duo (see them pictured overleaf, bottom left). Kovacevich shares something of Argerich’s cut-to-the-chase musical attitude, even if their styles are extremely different. Listen to this 1977 recording of the Bartók Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, full of smouldering mystery, with percussionists Will Goudswaard and Michael De Roo. bit.ly/bartoksonata
5 Live at Carnegie Hall, 2000
Pianophiles have many good reasons to be grateful to YouTube. This hidden gem is the solo half of a concert that Argerich gave at Carnegie Hall in 2000 to benefit the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, where she had recently been successfully treated for melanoma. After well-trodden repertoire including the Bach Partita No 2 and Chopin’s Barcarolle and C sharp minor Scherzo, she offers a hair-raising account of Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No 7 in which hearing would be believing, were it not simply unbelievable. Stand by for the roar of the crowd at the end. bit.ly/carnegiehall2000
6 Martha Argerich & Daniel Barenboim: Piano Duos
Argerich and Barenboim have known each other since their childhoods in Buenos Aires. Their first collaboration in a decade and a half was this astounding two-piano recital at the Berlin Philharmonie in 2014. Mozart’s life-affirming Sonata for Two Pianos is followed by intimate Schubert, the Variations in A flat for duet. But it’s The Rite of Spring that proves the revelation: Barenboim’s uncanny ability to evoke quasi-orchestral timbres at the piano blends ideally with Argerich’s rhythmic vitality in Stravinsky’s ground-breaking masterpiece. This version for two pianos having once been performed by the composer and Claude Debussy.
Deutsche Grammophon 4793922
7 Triumph at the International Chopin Competition
Film of the 24-year-old Argerich at the competition in Warsaw in 1965 captures the indomitable glory in her musicianship which propelled her to the first prize. The Chopin C sharp minor Scherzo from her second-round performance is operatically spacious and dramatic, resonant as a cathedral organ in the chorale episodes. Her E minor Piano Concerto in the final is heavily cut in the initial tutti, but we’re there for the raw poetic heights of her playing. You can’t help feeling a bit sorry for the other contestants.
Concerto: bit.ly/chopinconcerto1965
Scherzo: bit.ly/chopinscherzo1965
8 Debussy Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra
Debussy’s early Fantaisie dates from 1889 and is the nearest thing he wrote to a piano concerto. Though not his greatest piece, it’s appealing, Art Nouveau stuff, the piano interweaving with the subtle orchestration like the twining décor in an Alphonse Mucha painting. Argerich, recording the work for the first time, brings this challenging score her characteristically brilliant touch, split-second timing and supersensitive collegiality. It proves, as if that were necessary, that Argerich, Barenboim and Debussy himself can still surprise us even now. (Argerich and Barenboim are pictured bottom right.) Deutsche Grammophon 4837537 (New)
9 Martha Argerich & Nelson Freire: Rachmaninov Suite No 2
No Argerich collection would be complete without a good dose of Rachmaninov. This two-piano recital in Tokyo in 2003 brings her together with another of her friends, the Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire, who proves a heaven-sent duo partner in the fairy-tale gorgeousness of the composer’s Suite No 2. Both pianists seem cool as the proverbial cucumber, delivering scintillating fingerwork in the waltz, and breathing as one in the ebb and flow of the ‘big tune’ rubatos. If it’s possible for this duo to be more than the sum of such extraordinary parts, they’ve managed it. bit.ly/rachmaninovsuite2
10 Martha Argerich plays Bach
Argerich’s playing is like silver dip for Bach, whose contrapuntal writing emerges with shining clarity and unquenchable rhythmic spring. There’s a glitter, glamour and sheer attitude here that makes the music shine like new, while coalescing around a shrewd understanding of structure and style. Her classic Bach album includes the C minor Partita No 2, the C minor Toccata and the English Suite No 2 in A minor. Look out, too, for filmed performances including a stunning rendition of the same Partita at the 2008 Verbier Festival.
Deutsche Grammophon 4798230 bit.ly/verbier2008
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