NYT: Hear the Martha Argerich Recordings That Inspired 8 Young Pianists

[Frank Forman]

I don't care much for most of the works she is best-known for playing. but
the Bach is a real winner.

Hear the Martha Argerich Recordings That Inspired 8 Young Pianists
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/18/arts/music/martha-argerich-recordings-that-inspired-pianists-carnegie-hall.html

By Joshua Barone
Oct. 18, 2017

Martha Argerich, one of the greatest pianists in the world, rarely
plays in New York. But on Oct. 20, she will return to Carnegie Hall
after a decade away to perform Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3. For
her younger fans, this may be the first opportunity to hear her in
person.

Being a devotee of the elusive Ms. Argerich, 76, most often means
being a follower of her diverse and much-adored catalog of
recordings. Her albums, which have been in circulation since the
1960s, have been formative for many musicians who have come after
her.

"A young pianist has to know her work," Vikingur Olafsson, 33, said
in an interview. "She has influenced my generation in ways that
cannot be overestimated."

We asked some of the most talented younger pianists (and one
harpsichordist) to share and discuss their favorite Argerich
recordings. Their answers--and the music--are below.
---
Khatia Buniatishvili

Brahms: Rhapsody No. 2 in G minor

IFRAME: https://www.youtube.com/embed/d8-5GFetCTw

As a child in Georgia, Khatia Buniatishvili, 30, was told that music
like this Brahms rhapsody was for men, not women. "I had this
feeling of rebel instinct," she said. "I wanted to tackle it."

Then she listened to Ms. Argerich's recording. "I remember being
shocked and fascinated by the fact that she was a woman and it was a
very strong performance and interpretation," Ms. Buniatishvili said.
"It's wild and spicy. She's authentic and natural and free and
strong without trying. This is the way to do it."
---
Daniil Trifonov

Liszt: Sonata in B minor

IFRAME: https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z7cJpysCCns

Ms. Argerich has said of the Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov, 26:
"He has tenderness and also the demonic element. I never heard
anything like that."

Seeing Ms. Argerich perform Schumann in Moscow was one of Mr.
Trifonov's profound childhood experiences. He has since heard her in
Poland and Japan, where he was in awe of "the effortlessness and
organic fluidity of both the technique and the emotional aspect," he
said. "Those were very whole experiences in that sense."

Somehow, he added, she even once managed to milk a full and
acoustically rich sound from a 19th-century piano while performing a
Beethoven concerto.

His favorite of her recordings is of Lizst's mighty sonata. In
addition to playing with her trademark virtuosity, he said, she
"captures the bewildered and visceral side of the piece with utmost
dramatic strength."
---
Vikingur Olafsson

Bach: Capriccio from Partita No. 2 in C minor

IFRAME: https://www.youtube.com/embed/kYMk0M6MU0k

Ms. Argerich was something of a legend in Mr. Olafsson's childhood
home in Iceland: His father repeatedly told a story about the first
time he had heard her live, in Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1.

"He left at intermission because he didn't want to hear anything
after that," Mr. Olafsson said. "So he went to this Indian
restaurant and asked for the strongest dish they had."

Mr. Olafsson collected her albums, including her only recording of
Bach solo works. "It was like Bach with attitude," he said.

He added that she plays with "this extraordinary precision and
clarity while having four or five things going at the same time."
And yet, somehow, "it sounds so easy when she does it."
---
Timo Andres

Bartok: Allegretto from Piano Concerto No. 3 in E major

IFRAME: https://www.youtube.com/embed/j9KxkN5wJBY

Timo Andres was 14 when he saw Ms. Argerich perform at Carnegie
Hall.

"Everything about the performance made an indelible impression on
me," Mr. Andres, now 32, said. "Her unexpected physical smallness;
her simple, almost monastic black dress; and the way she quickly
shuffled across the stage to the piano, sitting down and beginning
to play in a single elided movement, like a pitcher's windup. During
that concert I learned that physical gesture and musical phrase were
the same thing."

Listening to her recording of Bartok's concerto, he said, he hears
"a quality that she shares with great improvisers--call it élan,
or sprezzatura." Her interpretation is delivered with the casual
charm of "a passer-by whistling something strange and ear-catching.
You don't notice the art of it, because it sounds so natural."
---
Mahan Esfahani

Prokofiev: Allegro ma non troppo from Piano Concerto No. 3

IFRAME: https://www.youtube.com/embed/RVJz7VO0gA8

When the Iranian harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, 34, heard Ms.
Argerich's recording of Prokofiev's concerto, he was thrilled by the
rushing tempo of the finale, which has a "fearlessness that gives a
white-hot impression to the piece from the first chords and an
incandescent wash of colors in what must be the most hair-raising
coda to the third movement on record."

"She obviously practiced like hell in those early years," he added.
"She's a great artist because she eats the piano for breakfast in
this recording."
---
Benjamin Grosvenor

Schumann: 'Kreisleriana'

IFRAME: https://www.youtube.com/embed/xaRVbz0t4pM

The "abrupt changes in pace and wide emotional swings" of Schumann's
"Kreisleriana" make it seem to be written for Ms. Argerich, said the
British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, 25. This recording "sounds as if
Martha was entirely 'in the zone,' daring to allow her fantasy free
rein, and with the means to bring off every poetic flight."

Mr. Grosvenor has seen Ms. Argerich live once, in a performance of
Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in Warsaw, and he remembers her
being "so entirely within the music that she could play as if
improvising on the spot."
---
Yekwon Sunwoo

Ravel: 'Scarbo' from 'Gaspard de la Nuit'

IFRAME: https://www.youtube.com/embed/zx_Fj2u57Rk

Yekwon Sunwoo, the 28-year-old South Korean pianist who won this
year's Cliburn Competition, loved Ms. Argerich's recording of
"Gaspard de la Nuit," but then he found a video of her playing the
piece.

The first movement, "Ondine," had a "wonderful sense of singing
melody while the waves never stopped with such grace--effortless,"
he said. And the finale, "Scarbo," both "evaporated into the
atmosphere" and "sparkled with so many different layers of sounds."

Mr. Sunwoo looked to Ms. Argerich's "Scarbo" for inspiration when he
learned the piece. "I particularly admired her incredible velocity
over the keyboard, but with musical intentions," he said. "I tried
to create more drama and sweeping gestures like she does."
---
Simone Dinnerstein

Schumann: 'Von fremden Ländern und Menschen' from 'Kinderszenen'

IFRAME: https://www.youtube.com/embed/GRSVsLHp9W4

Simone Dinnerstein was around 12 when she heard this recording. "The
thing that has drawn me to her is this complete unity between her
musical intentions and her approach to the keyboard," Ms.
Dinnerstein, now 45, said.

Though she's performed "Kinderszenen" many times, Ms. Dinnerstein
hadn't listened to the album in at least 20 years when she recently
revisited it. "It was interesting to hear how much her recording had
influenced me without even thinking about it," she said.