Progetto Martha Argerich June 2012

Photo: A. Heitmann

The Progetto Martha Argerich is 10 years old! For the 11th edition of the Swiss festival, the programming yet again an eclectic mix of the familiar with the unusual.

A Romantic Offering in Japan

Martha Argerich is taking the double concerto - entitled "Romantic Offering" - dedicated to her and cellist Mischa Maisky on tour, starting from this month. Further performances are expected in Lugano, at her Progetto, as well as Verbier in July.

But before that, her loyal fans in Japan will get to hear the concerto first, and it will mark the first performance of the work outside of Europe. Mischa Maisky will naturally perform the cello part alongside Argerich, and the Toho Gakuen Orchestra will be conducted by Ken Takaseki.

19 May 2012

5pm

Shchedrin: Double Concerto for piano, violoncello and orchestra (Japanese premiere)

Debussy: Cello Sonata
Martha Argerich, piano

Mischa Maisky, cello

Toho Gakuen Orchestra/Ken Takaseki

Ichiko Sogo Bunka Center, Oita, Japan

Concerts March 2012

Two of Martha Argerich's favourite musical partners join her for concerts in March. For two concerts in Italy, Claudio Abbado will conduct the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Yuri Temirkanov will join her in London for a concert with his St. Petersburg Philharmonic.

Same music, different angles

The past couple of months, Argerich has been playing quite a lot of Shostakovich. Just a few days before she started her tour with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, she played the same Shostakovich concerto with the CHAARTS Chamber Aartists Orchestra in two concerts in Boswil, Switzerland.
The encore of the last movement was recorded by a member of the orchestra (likely to be a cellist), presumably with the knowledge and consent of Argerich. They put their iPhone on the piano, and posted the resulting edited clip on Youtube.
A few days later, someone in the audience of the VFCO concert filmed the encore of the last movement as well, and that clip also appeared on Youtube.

Take a look.

Boswil, Switzerland, 30 November 2011                  

Firenze, Italy, 12 December 2011

Concerts February 2012

Continuing her tour with the Kremerata Baltica, and following Brussels and Paris in January, Martha Argerich is off to Munich and Freiburg in February with the Shostakovich first piano concerto.

Concerts January 2012

                                                 © Klaus Rudolph/EMI Classics

                                                                        © Thierry Cohen

Happy new year! Martha Argerich is scheduled to appear in three concerts in January. On 23 January she will partner Evgeny Kissin in four-hand piano repertoire by Mozart and Lutoslawski in Paris.

Afterwards, performing the Shostakovich concerto No. 1 with the Kremerata Baltica and its founder Gidon Kremer, she will take the piece on tour with the same group to various cities in Europe. The tour begins in Brussels on 25 January, then Paris will get to see the K-team two days later. Sergei Nakariakov joins Argerich on trumpet.

Argerich à la japonaise

Many classical music connoisseurs know that Japan is a treasure-trove for extremely-hard-to-find recordings of great artists. With Argerich it is no exception, as the Japanese simply adore her, and can't get enough of her. Her recordings from her main labels (DG, Philips and EMI) are often remastered, repackaged and released in various formats.

Concerts December 2011

The month of December is a particularly Verbier-related affair. Martha Argerich goes on a tour of Europe with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra and its Music Director Gábor Takács-Nagy, reprising their very successful collaboration in at the Verbier Festival in 2010, performing the first piano concerto of Dmitri Shostakovich

Concerts November 2011

After a summer's break, Martha Argerich (as well as this blog!) resumes activity for the 2011-2012 season.

She starts her season with 3 subscription performances at the Semperoper in Dresden. Performing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1, Argerich will be partnered by the Staatskapelle Dresden under the direction of Charles Dutoit.

UPDATE: Yuja Wang will replace Argerich for the Dresden concerts.

Verbier Cancellation... or not!

According to the Verbier Festival, Martha Argerich has decided to withdraw from the concert on July 26. Her chamber music concert on July 22 will however go ahead as planned.


Well, she actually decided to play in the concert after all! Argerich performed a couple of Kreisler pieces with Ivry Gitlis and Lutoslawski's Paganini Variations with Evgeny Kissin. That really was a surprise!

You can see the concert online for free until 30 October 2011.