Martha Argerich - Solo Piano & Chamber Music [LP]

Format: LP
ICPN: 5021732583857
Release Date: 06 Jun 2025
Genre: Classical

Warner Classics will release in May and June 2025 two separate LPs devoted to the legendary Martha Argerich, the first being a best of her Concertos recordings, the second a best of her Solo piano & Chamber music albums (a day after her 84th anniversary).

The term ‘living legend’ is genuinely apt to Martha Argerich, whose dazzling amalgam of virtuosity, insight, eclecticism, generosity and mystery makes her a pianist of unrivalled fascination. Argentinian-born, Viennese-trained, and winner of the 1965 Chopin Competition, she became a sometimes elusive figure whose every appearance and recording aroused eager anticipation.

Martha Argerich was born on 5th June 1941 in Buenos Aires. Her interest in the piano showed itself when she was three. Vincenzo Scaramuzza, her teacher, impressed on her the importance of feeling and the singing lyrical line – a facet of her playing which remains immediately recognisable. At the age of eight she made her debut concert playing Beethoven’s first concerto and the following year she gave Mozart’s Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466 and Bach’s French Suite in G, BWV 816.
In 1955 her family moved to Europe so that Martha could study with Friedrich Gulda in Austria; in this she was supported by the Argentine government who gave her parents diplomatic posts in their Embassy in Vienna. She won both the Geneva Music and Ferruccio Busoni International Competitions in 1957, but it was her winning the seventh Chopin Piano competition in Warsaw that confirmed her as a major talent at the age of 24, which was followed by the legendary 1965 Chopin Recital to be released on EMI Classics (now Warner Classics).

Her formidable technique has often been compared to that of Horowitz. She is reputed to have learnt Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit in three days having been told it was extremely difficult. Her solo career lasted for a quarter of a century during which her talent for interpreting the romantic classics, notably Chopin and Liszt, were matched by her brilliance in the 20th century masters Ravel, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Messiaen. Her decision to limit her performances to chamber music and concerto was taken, as she admitted in interviews, to her feeling of loneliness on stage alone.  This has been her career path for the last decades, and she retains the aura of one of the most brilliant of all pianists of modern generations.

TRACKLIST

THE LEGEND – SOLO PIANO & CHAMBER MUSIC

SIDE A    
ROBERT SCHUMANN 1810-1856
Kinderszenen, Op. 15: No. 1 Von fremden Ländern und Menschen · No. 7 Träumerei 

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART 1756-1791
Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545 “Semplice”: I. Allegro (arr. Grieg for two pianos) 
with Piotr Anderszewski piano

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN 1810-1849
Mazurka No. 38 in F-sharp minor, Op. 59 No. 3

Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58: IV. Finale. Presto non tanto

Mazurka No. 36 in A minor, Op. 59 No. 1

ROBERT SCHUMANN 
Fantasiestücke, Op. 88: No. 3 Duett
with Renaud Capuçon violin · Gautier Capuçon cello

SIDE B     
MAURICE RAVEL 1875-1937
Gaspard de la nuit: I. Ondine 

FELIX MENDELSSOHN 1809-1847
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61: II. Scherzo (arr. for 2 pianos)
with Cristina Marton piano

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY 1840-1893
Suite from the Nutcracker, Op. 71°: I. Miniature Overture · IV. Russian Dance
(arr. Economu for two pianos)
with Mirabela Dina piano

SERGEI PROKOFIEV 1891-1953
Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 25 “Classical”: IV. Finale (Molto vivace) 
(arr. Terashima for 2 pianos)
with Yefim Bronfman piano

Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major, Op. 83: III. Precipitato

MARTHA ARGERICH piano

Total timing: 47 minutes
Live recordings, except Chopin
(p) 1999/2021 (A 4-6), 2005 (B 3-5), 2006 (A 3), 2008 (A 1-2), 2010 (A 7, B 2) Parlophone Records Limited. | (p) 2017 RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera under exclusive licence to Parlophone Records Limited (B 1). | (p) 2000 NPS/NAA under exclusive licence to Parlophone Records Limited (B 6)