Schumann Argerich

Violinist Gidon Kremer and pianist Martha Argerich are two of the greatest living virtuosos on their instruments and, though they are wholly individualistic players, they get along extremely well together. German Romantic Robert Schumann and Hungarian modernist Béla Bartók don't have much in common at first blush: one is dreamy and poetic, the other brutal and cerebral.

Martha Argerich's involvement with chamber music has dominated the later part of her career, so it's easy to think of her name with the words "and friends" tacked on, and to visualize the large and diverse retinue of famous musicians who have recorded with her. This triple-disc box set from EMI Classics presents live recordings from the 2010 Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano, several of them collaborations with Argerich, notably in works by Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, and Béla Bartók, as well as a performance of Frédéric Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, where she is the featured soloist with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana.

Martha Argerich´s associations with violinist Gidon Kremer and cellist Mischa Maisky are surely among the pianist’s most substantial and musically rewarding collaborations.

Dora Schwartzberg is a well-known teacher, soloist and orchestral musician, originally from Russia, but now living in Vienna. She is best known to disc-buyers as a chamber music colleague of Martha Argerich and others of the Martha Argerich Project, part of the Lugano Festival. With members of the Project she has recorded the Schumann Piano Quartet and Quintet for EMI and the Schumann violin sonatas for the present label avanticlassics, of which more later. She is heard again in Schumann’s Fantasiestücke on this disc and in two of the most famous French violin sonatas.

William Kreindler

All too often, chamber music collaborations between established, accomplished soloists do not yield favorable results. Merely putting together virtuosic musicians does not mean they will play well together. Such is not the case with this recording of Martha Argerich's 2006 festival in Lugano. This album represents an amazing synthesis of well-known artists, musicians just coming into their own fame, as well as compositions ranging from standard repertoire to rarely heard works. Argerich's decision to include violinist Renaud Capuçon and brother Gautier Capuçon was wise indeed, as their energetic and fiendishly virtuosic playing is nearly enough to carry the CD on its own.

Martha Argerich & Itzhak Perlman - Schumann, Bach & Brahms (2016) {Warner Classics 0190295937898}
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© 2016 Parlophone / Warner Classics | 0190295937898
Classical / Piano / Violin

The performances heard on this recording by the superstar duo of violinist Itzhak Perlman and pianist Martha Argerich do not exactly form a discrete group: the first work, Schumann's Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105, was recorded live in 1998, while the rest consists of 2016 studio recordings. The 1998 performance, however, was part of a concert in Saratoga Springs, New York, that provided the stimulus for the joint recording. The Schumann sonata performance was not released at that time, and the rest of the program expands on the music it presents. It's nice to have the Schumann, which has a good deal of tension and energy. As for the rest, it's hard to point to a clear decline in the skills of either of the septuagenarian performers.

On the cover of this latest Red Seal twofer – I don’t much like using that word but I can’t really call this a double album any more – Martha Argerich takes top billing, rightly, to Ivry Gitlis, whose name is in smaller type underneath hers. Hence I’ve reproduced the two in the header of this review. But violinist manqué though I may be, how I wish I hadn’t had to.

The 2007 festival certainly ran true to form - with composers as diverse as Mozart, Glinka, Messiaen, Schumann, Lutosławski, Ravel, Bartók and Beethoven - variety and discovery were as abundant as ever. No other pianist in the musical world nurtures and promotes emerging talent with the same level of personal commitment and belief as Martha Argerich. The results of the chamber music partnerships displayed on this release demonstrate the magic that is made when these professional friends are brought together by her unique artistic personality. This year’s recording also boasts a substantial solo spot from Martha herself, playing Schumann's Kinderszenen Op. 15. Amongst many other artists, this year’s set features EMI Classics-signed pianists Gabriela Montero and Sergio Tiempo and Virgin Classics inimitable cellist Renaud Capuçon.