Customer Reviews

Argerich Talks and Plays - By: J Scott Morrison, 04 Aug 2008
Martha Argerich, for many of us, has long been an enigma. She has always been a private person, one who does not seek the spotlight, who even cancels performances because, it is said, of nervousness, shyness. Filmmaker Georges Gachot, after years of entreaties, gets her to agree, to speak with him on camera. She comes across as a soft-spoken, shy, immensely intelligent but often cryptic person, one who has idiosyncratic but attractive ideas about her relationships with composers & various pieces of music. For instance, she will not play the Beethoven Fourth Concerto because she is afraid of 'what might happen', this after talking about the galvanic emotional effect it has had on her ever since she heard Claudio Arrau play it when she was six.

Interleaved with Gachot's & Argerich's low-key but very revealing conversations are many clips of Argerich rehearsing & playing, primarily with orchestra or with other pianists. There are seventeen clips of her playing music ranging from an incandescent Capriccio from Bach's Fifth Partita to a two-piano & percussion arrangement of Piazzolla's Libertango. She is shown,in a long clip, rehearsing the Schumann Concerto with Jörg Faerber & the Wurttemburg Chamber Orchestra. There is a blistering finale of the Ravel G Major Concerto (with Charles Dutoit conducting). There are clips from her 1965 Chopin Competition win & a marvelous performance of Lutoslawski's two-piano Paganini Variations with Mauricio Vallina. And a short bit from the Teatro Colón with fellow-Argentine Nelson Freirein the piano four-hand 'Laideronette' from the Mother Goose Suite of Ravel. Riches, indeed.

Although most of the music containedin the documentary is excerpted, there is a bonus that includes full performances of the Bach Capriccio, Schumann Concerto, two Piazzolla pieces, a sensational Scarlatti sonata (D Minor, K141) & a Chopin Mazurka (F Minor, Op. 63, No. 2).

Argerich's fabled technique isin plentiful supply throughout, but even more is her highly personal way with all the works she plays. She is clearly one of a kind & it is no wonder she has fanatical admirers the world over. I suspect they are snapping this DVD up. And if you know or want to know Argerich's playing, you will, too.

Highest recommendation.

Total Time: Documentary - 63 mins; Bonus - 38 mins; Sound: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1; Format: NTSC 16:9; Spoken languages: French, English, German; Subtitles: French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese; Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

Scott Morrison