After the tremendously successful first Rendez-Vous with Martha Argerich, this second volume will certainly thrill music lovers from all around the world again. For this new edition, Martha Argerich partners with high-profile musical friends such as Sylvain Cambreling, Renaud Capuçon, Charles Dutoit, Gabriela Montero, Edgar Moreau, Akane Sakai and many others in new repertoire like Mendelssohn’ Second Piano Trio, or in stalwarts of her repertoire such as Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata or Schumann’s Kinderszenen. In total: 6 CDs that will allow you to marvel at the art of Martha Argerich and her friends in state-of-the-art new recordings.
EMI Classics is pleased to release the 10th annual 3CD set of highlights from the Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano, “the delightful festival where youth meets experience and both benefit” (Gramophone). The Times described Argerich’s Lugano Festival as “community music-making on a deluxe scale, with performers and listeners mutually uplifted by music’s wonders”. The set is being released in anticipation of the Festival’s 2013 season. Reviewing the 2011 Live from Lugano release, Nicholas Kenyon wrote in The Observer, “There are not many reliable annual treats among classical CDs these days, but the series of live recordings from Martha Argerich's Lugano festival are now a highlight of each year.”
In our era, when large record companies parade good-looking mediocrities before us as major artists, it is good to be reminded of the real thing. Martha Argerich, as this CD demonstrates, had everything: the looks, the temperament, and the technique. By her mid 20s, she already was a phenomenal artist.
In the early 1960s, Martha Argerich was only twenty years old, but an already busy career. So full that the miracle from Argentina feels the need to take a break and recharge (rebuild) after such a whirlwind. "The young Argerich" that we invite you to find here is the one before this first silence, before her resounding victory at the Concours Chopin 1965.
Fortunately, the microphones accompanied him for a long time already. Our journey begins in 1955: shortly before flying to Vienna to follow the teaching of Friedrich Gulda, a thirteen-year-old Argerich descends the arpeggios of Etude op. 10 No.1 by Chopin with crazy insolence and aplomb. A few years later, it is with this same introduction that she will scotch the Warsaw jury.
The duo of cellist Mischa Maisky and pianist Martha Argerich is known for the virtuoso flair they bring to their performances. This album was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance. The ensemble succeeds at matching each other in every way, lending a unified and organic feeling that make it hard to believe at times that this is a *live* recording. The acoustic quality is also outstanding, although you may wish it were not so good when Maisky's loud breathing and foot-tapping get out of hand (particularly in the Debussy).
It's filled with some of the most important and representative recordings made by this "virtuose" pianist. My favorite ones are the sessions with Nelson Freire. Sessions with Mischa Mayski are great also! Very recommended to everyone that appreciate calssical piano albums, performed by one of the greatest names of the last 50 years.
Martha Argerich and Friends Live from the Lugano Festival 2009 features a lot of friends but not a lot of Martha Argerich. Although the friends are very good (though not very well known), they are nowhere nearly as good as Argerich, but how many performers could reasonably be expected to be as good as the insanely talented Argentinean pianist? This three-CD set contains 12 pieces, and Argerich plays on just five of them. Inevitably, these are the strongest performances, leading off with a stirring Fantasiestücke for piano trio by Schumann, with Argerich and Renaud and Gautier Capuçon.