Robert schumann kinderszenen martha argerich biography

CD Review

These are live recordings coming very early in Martha Argerich's career. She was only sixteen(!) when she delivered this scorching version of the Liszt Sixth Hungarian Rhapsody before an astonished audience in Geneva in 1957, the year she won both the Busoni Competition and Geneva International Competition.

The Beethoven sonata and Schumann Toccata came three years later in Cologne, and the Prokofiev Third was done also in Cologne, in December, 1965, the same year she won the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, which helped to elevate her to international superstar status.

All the performances here are remarkable in some way, but let me say this: yes, Argerich is always an interesting and exciting performer – even when she is a bit off the mark.

Robert chen

Here she is "off the mark" in the Beethoven sonata and the Liszt Sixth Hungarian Rhapsody. That said, she is dazzling and quite thrilling at the same time in both those works. In the Beethoven Seventh Sonata,