Undoubtedly dominant among the great pianists of the 20th century and one of the most shocking performers of recent...
50 years, η Μάρθα Άργκεριχ, she has the world at her feet and the piano at her command: turns it into an eerie cascade of colors, she has a disarmingly carnal and tender relationship with him and her sound combines mysterious clarity,  rhythmic intensity and spontaneity that is riveting.

Martha Argerich comes to Athens with the musical "family" she has created for years, with members of the great star soloists, accomplished performers, but also young musicians who have stood out. Misha Maisky (cello), Steven Kovacevic (piano), Yuri Basmet (viola and conducting), Reno Capyson and Lia Petrova (violin), Dora Bakopoulou, Akane Sakai, Lily Maisky, Alexander Mogilevsky, Julia Zaikina (piano), Alexandros Kapelis (piano), Takis Kapogiannis (contrabass), Sergey Nakariakov (trumpet), Dimitris Desyllas and Andreas Farmakis(crust), participate and collaborate with Argerich in three concerts with music from the 18th century, in the 19th and 20th centuries. The camera, Orchestra of the Friends of Music conducted by Yuri Basmet on the first day and Gerard Corsten on the following two.

The three-day program includes:

works of Saint-Saëns (Septet for piano, trumpet, two violins, viola, cello and double bass, work 65), Schumann(Quintet for piano and strings, work 44), Mozart (Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra in E flat major K364) and Shostakovich (Concerto no. 1 for piano and trumpet, work 35) on Saturday 10/3, Mozart(Andante & Variations for piano four hands, K501 and Piano Concerto in B flat major, KV 456)), Ravel ('My mother the goose' for four hands), Shostakovich(Concertino for two pianos, work 94), Schumann(Fantasy pieces, work 73), Kabalevsky(Concerto for piano and orchestra no.4, work 99(of Prague) and Haydn(Cello Concerto No.1 in C major Hob.VIIb.1) on Sunday 11/3 and Stravinsky (The Rite of Spring for four pianos and two percussion instruments) and Bach(Concerto for two pianos and orchestra BWV 1060, Concerto for three pianos and orchestra, BWV 1064 and Concerto for Four Pianos and Orchestra BWV1065 on Monday 12/3.

Great sponsor of Camerata, Orchestra of Friends of Music for the period 2011-2013 is the Alexandros S. Charitable Foundation. Onassis.

Argerich resides on the high peaks of the world of virtuosos. Her fans are running out of superlatives to talk about her, her competitors turn into fanatical fans and wait patiently outside her dressing rooms. In her concerts, one sees scenes from other places and times: respectable gentlemen running down the aisles with bouquets in hand, famous musicians to applaud wildly from their stands, choleric critics to surrender with awkward smiles.

Argerich has qualities that are rarely combined in one person: pianist with unimaginable technical agility, charismatic woman with an enigmatic life, unassuming performer whose mother tongue is music and that's what makes her stand out. There are many great pianists who do wonders, but few have mastered that uninhibited naturalness in expression that allows them to inhabit the music rather than perform it.

Born in Buenos Aires, made her first appearance in 5 of years and up to 16 it had won her first prizes in major European competitions. At first he followed the usual international career, but as it matured it turned into a universe, to a model and "legislator", unpredictable, generous, indomitable, with a volcanic temperament and surprising attitudes by the conventional standards of the world of great performers. "A wonderful painting without a frame", as Daniel Barenboim says about her.

Martha Argerich's mature identity emerged from a paradoxical combination: indifference to reputation, money and career and an excruciating loneliness she feels when she is alone on stage. On this ground she created institutions to collaborate with her distinguished colleagues, to support and highlight young musicians and build musical "families".

With her signature it is made by 2002 το Martha Argerich Project, which lasts 3 weeks, as part of the Lugano Festival, where the "family" gathers every year with its permanent and new members and in Buenos Aires, from 1999, the Martha Argerich International Competition with herself as the president of the jury. From the same year, the Martha Argerich Music Festival takes place in southern Japan and in Lucerne, Switzerland, in collaboration with Claudio Abado, the piano days and workshops for the promotion of new pianists.

Like other legendary performers – Pablo Casals, Vladimir Horowitz- Argerich never got over stage fright. "There are times when I have terrible panic attacks, the most incredible things pass through my mind, a full hall, it's scary. My knees are shaking, i have chills, I feel like I'm going to collapse", she confessed in the excellent portrait made of her by the French director Georges Casot, the 2002 and is released on DVD by the Medici Arts company.

That is why her solo recitals are rare,  that's why she often hides behind her rich and thick hair on stage and that's why she "converses" with the composers when she plays and isolates herself in the dialogue between them: “I prefer not to joke with Schumann, but i think he likes me. With Chopin it is not always easy, he's probably a little jealous of me. Prokofiev loves me very much, he never sets traps for me".

With a shock began her relationship with the piano: it was 6 years old and her mother took her to the Colon Theater in Buenos Aires, in the piano concerto no. 4 by Beethoven with Claudio Arau, "I had fallen asleep and suddenly I heard the trills in the second part, I shuddered, an electric shock went through me, I refuse to play this concerto, I'm afraid what will happen, it's so important to me".

In 9 of, before playing a Mozart concerto, he knelt down and thought: “if I'm wrong on a note, i will die". Perfectionism has followed her ever since. "I always doubt it, I'm always unsure, i'm looking. If one is too satisfied or abandoned to the routine, it's a disaster".

Misha Maisky, who has been working with her since 2002 in Lugano he says that “working with Martha Argerich is like life: it is not easy, she can be very unpredictable and very irritating. But it is what,what more wonderful thing can happen to you. She is unbelievably gifted, to an almost desperate extent".

And the American critic, Alex Ross notes that in Argerich's performances one gets the feeling, "how the pianist abandons the idea of ​​a grand performance and is as if playing for herself and slowly emerges a rare performance. It saves many composers from the usual excesses of virtuosos and restores their essence, makes them sound new, contemporaries, with bold tones. The way the piano responds to Argerich's touch is a natural phenomenon that defies interpretation, it is like the surface, a revelation".

Source : culturenow.gr