On stage at the Royal Festival Hall, London © Belinda Lawley

 

If asked to name the greatest pianist alive today, few pianophiles, we 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 will be 84 in June next year, she still plays with the enchanted-sounding 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, 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. We've assembled some 'must listen' clips to help get you started.

 

1 Chopin B minor Sonata in Lockdown

During lockdown, 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.

 

 

 

2 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 (Stephanie, the filmmaker, is their daughter), but though they went their separate ways in the 1970s, they still make a formidable duo. 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.
 

 

 

 

3 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.
 

 

 

4 Triumph at the International Chopin Competition

Film of the 25-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.
 

 

 

 

 

5 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 the late 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.
 

 

 

© Belinda Lawley