Piano Eve With Martha Argerich [DVD] [2005]

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2007-05-22 rating:
Another Outstanding Argerich Performance
While I agree with the a reviewer (M.G.) at amazon.com that this is a marvelous DVD, I had some trouble getting past all his hagiographic gushing about Martha Argerich, larded as it is with superlatives. Admittedly she is an amazingly talented pianist, certainly among the greatest of our age, but his claims for her abilities -- 'perhaps (the greatest) of all time' -- seems over the top. Has he heard ever Liszt, Alkan, Thalberg, Busoni, or Godowsky, or whoever play? One notices also that in his review he doesn't mention either the conductor, Argerich's long-time collaborator both as conductor and duo-pianist, Alexandre Rabinovitch (or Rabinovitch-Barakovsky as he's called here), or the young and enthusiastic Flanders Sympnony Orchestra. He is so focused on Argerich that he doesn't mention the one piece not involving the piano, the concert's opening work, the invigorating Classical Symphony of Prokofiev. Nor does he mention that this is an outdoor concert, although it must be said that from an audio point of view, one would never have known it; the audio is just fine, as is the camera work. br / br /But he is right in saying this is clearly Argerich's show. Following the Prokofiev symphony is his all-too-rarely-played First Piano Concerto in D Flat which, when I hear it, always makes me feel all's right with the world. That long vaulting first melody in the first movement is a creation of genius. Argerich plays the whole thing with panache and grace as well as surpassing virtuosity. br / br /And since this is a 'Piano Night with Martha Argerich' the pattern of most orchestral concerts is broken by the appearance next on the bill of Schumann's First Violin Sonata with Renaud Capuçon and Argerich. Schumann wrote reams of chamber music and most of it gets played a lot, but one rarely hears the violin sonatas for some reason. It's certainly not because the First Sonata is a weak work; indeed, it is a quintessentially Romantic piece which, if one allows it, can sweep one away in a storm of emotion. I particularly liked Capuçon's tender approach to the delectable middle movement and his scampering lightness in the finale. Capuçon is a rising violinist star in the international music world and his playing here makes it clear why. But he is as much as anything else a chamber music player, often with his equally talented brother Gautier, a cellist. So this is not a virtuoso violinist star turn, but a truly collaborative effort and it is not surprising that Argerich is no shrinking violet as an accompanist; this is as it should be. Indeed, the piano is an equal partner to the violin in this sonata. br / br /The concert concludes with Beethoven's Triple Concerto with Argerich, Capuçon and the latter's brother, Gautier, cello. It is often said that the triple concerto has an 'easy' piano part, especially when it is compared with the violin and cello parts. I've never quite understood this notion, as there are some pianistic fireworks that only very good pianists can bring off. Further, the pianist provides much of musical glue for the work just as the piano often does in piano trios. This is fairly typical mid-period Beethoven (1804) coming as it did just before the Fourth Piano Concerto. The performance here is exalted. The frères Capuçon are marvelously matched tonally and musically and Argerich is clearly of one mind with them; her experience as a chamber music player is, of course, well known and that comes in particularly helpful here. The orchestra, for all its enthusiasm, is perhaps a notch or two below world-class. This didn't bother me particularly but it does bear mentioning. Rabinovitch conducts with sensitivity and a freedom of pulse that allows the soloists to breathe. br / br /One notes that Argerich plays from score in the Triple Concerto and I say huzzah to that. I've never quite understood while soloists must play from memory. But a discussion of that is, I suppose, for another day. br / br /A hearty recommendation, and especially for Argerich's legion of fans. br / br /Scott Morrison

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