Gramophone
1/2005 (Bryce Morrison)
Lightning strikes as Argerich’s Beethoven 3 is finally heard on disc
Martha Argerich’s two most recent discs have coupled works central to her repertoire with first performances on record. Here her long-awaited recording of Beethoven’s Third Concerto appears with the Second, music she has relished over the years. But whether novel or familiar, both performances are of a quality rarely encontered at any time or from any arist.
Charactersistically nervous before playing a concerto she had not performed for 20 years, Argerich erased all trepidation with a performance in which every note and phrase seems to spring new-minted from the page. Magisterial, insouciant, scintillating and acute, this greatest of all living pianists resolves every thought and consideration in playing of an enthralling spontaneity. What open-hearted delight in Beethoven’s proud Prospero-like assertion of his beloved C minor powers: the arpeggios at the heart of the cadenza flash like summer lightning, and the recitatives at the close of the slow movements of both Concertos seem to stretch into infinity. Famed for her unique virtuoso prowess, Argerich is no less eloquent in simplicity.
Of course, such unimpeded vitality and indifference to convention may prompt raised eyebrows among die-hards and conservatives; but if such spine-tingling brilliance takes you close to the edge, it is also a reminder that, in the words of Muriel Spark’s Jean Brodie, beauty rather than safety comes first. Claudio Abbado, a long-term musical partner, and his youthful Mahler orchestra are entirely at one with their mercurial soloist and the recordings admirably capture both ultra-live occasions.
And so, making no apology for greed, may I make a plea for recordings of the Fourth and Fifth Concertos?
The New York Times 20 March 2005 (Anthony Tommasini)
Boisterous Beethoven
INDISPUTABLY one of the most formidable and exciting pianists of the last 50 years, Martha Argerich also has a wild side. So she is often at her best in concertos and chamber music when she is reined in by partners she respects. In this release of Beethoven concertos, taken from concert performances, she has ideal partners in the conductor Claudio Abbado and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the touring ensemble for young musicians he founded in 1997.
The musicianly and elegant Mr. Abbado might seem an unlikely collaborator for the impetuous and unpredictable Ms. Argerich. But they met as students in Salzburg in the early 1950's and have often performed together since.
Ms. Argerich evidently made the preparations for these performances an adventure. There were three rehearsals for the Third Concerto, recorded last year in Ferrara, Italy, and from all reports, she gave distinctly different accounts each time, with different phrasings, pedalings and interpretive ideas. The resourceful Mr. Abbado made the necessary adjustments.
The performance captured here is dynamic and engrossing. Ms. Argerich plays with uncanny clarity, rhythmic vigor, wondrous colorings and engaging spontaneity. The rondo goes at a brisk but never reckless pace. The orchestra is admirably responsive. Only in the first movement cadenza does Ms. Argerich's wild streak get the better of her. But it's certainly exciting.
The ebullient Second Concerto, recorded in Ferrara in 2000, receives an aptly mischievous performance. After the orchestral exposition in the first movement, when the piano enters somewhat quizzically, Ms. Argerich's playing is so slyly witty that you would think she were making up each phrase on the spot. The finale is a joyous romp, though in every scurrying piano passage you sense intensity lurking just below the surface.