(Are we allowed to express joy about music and stuff still? What with our dystopic state of the planet today?
If so, I beg your indulgence in this enthusiastic fan posting…)
Some longer-term readers might be familiar with her, as I’ve waxed lyrical about her in my previous Substack life.
Who?
Martha Argerich, Argentinian pianist extraordinaire.
Still legendary.
Here she is in her much-awaited Singapore debut from 4 years ago.
Martha was 79 years old at the time of this concert in 2020, playing a formidable piano concerto that seems like child’s play in her hands. Her power and intensity show not the slightest signs of decline, and belie her age.
Watch a genius at work.
What I really love about Martha is not just her astonishing skill and artistry unmatched by most; it’s also her utter humility and lack of pretentiousness. No flashy theatrics at the keyboard nor anywhere else; no come-hither performance gowns (even in her youth); just some tremendous piano playing of the highest caliber, infused with a large and warm spirit that can only be given to her by God.
This excerpt from a 2001 New Yorker article is an accurate summing-up of Martha.
Her fans all know this, but for those unaware, Martha is also going remarkably strong today — 20 years after undergoing treatment for a metastatic malignancy that is one of the most deadly in the world. She underwent surgery to remove a lung to which the cancer had spread: beforehand, she had asked the surgeon not to touch important rib muscles during the operation as those were needed for proper playing (something my pianist mom understood very well), as well as immune therapy.
Her return to the stage after that treatment was a much-celebrated event. It was why, a year later, I made sure to secure tickets for her performance at Carnegie Hall, and was so glad my pianist mom was there, too. Many renowned pianists make it a point to catch her live, having been dubbed “the pianists’ pianist.” (She played this piece that memorable concert, and had her cellist friend, Mischa Maisky on for a solo and duet, too. Author’s edit: I’d forgotten about violinist Gidon Kremer, who graced the evening as well!)
We even met her and got her autograph on some personal Martha discs I’d brought along for just the occasion when we decided to meet her “backstage” — which was, literally, the unlit pavement on W. 56th Street just behind Carnegie Hall. We even became friends with a couple of Japanese Argerich fans, too.
The only thing Martha might be faulted for is her once-notorious wont to cancel a performance, or even a series of concerts, at the last minute. Seems that propensity is now a distant memory. Until the moment she walks onstage, one was never sure if she would show up or not.
(Some have criticized her lack of truly new major repertoire for many years now. And it is a shame for someone of such talent as she. Yet, she has played a few newish pieces with smaller ensembles. It’s a choice she has made, and her workhorses continue to draw hordes to her concerts. One might also argue that “new pieces” are not why people come to hear her at all. )
Read the New York Times article heralding her return to the performance circuit (click on screencap or link to read):
https://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/25/arts/an-enigmatic-pianist-reclaims-her-stardom.html
Read the 2001 New Yorker profile on Martha: Madame X.
EXCERPT:
As for Martha and the Prokofiev 3rd Piano Concerto (the work played in the video above), I’d read in a CD booklet that she played the piece as a piano “exercise”.
(Yes, I think she might have some facility in that tremendously challenging concerto, don’t you think?)
Yet, she breathes such fresh life into it—as if it were written expressly for her.
You bet that I’m not going to be ever forgetting that special evening at Carnegie Hall.
The Singaporeans in the orchestra and audience will always remember this night, too.
Here she is in 1966, at age 25: Love her spirited interpretation here.
(This was one of my late mom’s fav pieces, too, thus brings nostalgic memories.)
Oh! So, she has her own idols, too — like that other legend of the 20th c., the Russian émigré, Vladimir Horowitz.
Listen to her sparse but pithy comments on his artistry, while in the company of some younger pianists:
Will just leave you with this live recording of little Martha playing Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto in Buenos Aires — at the ripe old age of 8!
(I bought this disc the week it was released, from someone in Argentina or Europe, as it was not being sold by US vendors yet. Taped in 1949, the recording has not been restored to a high quality here [to put it mildly], but it’s enough to show the precocious facility and speed that has marked her playing ever since.)
"Are we allowed to express joy about music and stuff still? What with our dystopic state of the planet today?"
I would suggest, especially given our current dystopia, it's mandatory. Thank you for sharing. She's amazing.