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In concertos, Martha
Argerich has usually preferred collaborating with personal acquaintances,
such as Claudio Abbado and Charles Dutoit, or with conductors with
which she has had a long professional relationship, such as Kazimierz
Kord. Argerich has known Kord since the 1965 Chopin Competition,
when he accompanied her in a blistering interpretation of the Chopin
E minor concerto (available on Laserlight 14061 - budget-price -
with her competition performance of the C sharp minor Scherzo and
an equally commendable F minor concerto played by Adam
Harasiewitz).
 By
the same token, Argerich's concerto performances fall into two categories.
The first comprises of those appearances in which she either accedes
to the conductor's wishes for slower tempi than is her preference
(her recordings with Dutoit), or toning down her approach in keeping
with the period of music she is playing (her Concertgebouw performance
of Mozart's B flat Concerto, K. 503). In either case, Argerich usually
compensates by exploring many other facets of the music, playing
with a combination of grace, charm and spontaneity that is as refreshing
as it is occasionally unexpected.
The second, more common
category is that body of performances in which Argerich is allowed
full rein. In these performances, the huntress strides forth, hair
swept back in the wind, ready for hand-to-hand combat with her prey.
In faster passages she charges in a deliriously mad adrenaline-pumping
assault, but is gentler, playful and even loving in quieter moments.
Those performances include her many recordings with Abbado and her
recent appearances with Michael Tilson-Thomas and the San Francisco
Symphony.
This recording, recorded
live in 1979 and 1980, clearly falls into the second, more extroverted
sphere of Argerich playing. Originally issued by Polskie Nagrania
and occasionally appearing on pirate labels since then, the sound
on these transfers is extremely good - cleaner and fuller-bodied
than the recent 'live' Concertgebouw releases on EMI, and nearly
as good as Deutsche Grammophon's studio recordings of the same period.
From the opening of
the Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1, we are served notice that
La Martha is in take-no-prisoners mode. Even so, no one has alternated
power, lightness, lyricism and mounting passion so deftly - and
this is just in the introduction! Kord and the orchestra give equally
passionate support, but Argerich is already speeding ahead at the
end of the introduction. This may not be the most unified performance
of this concerto, but it certainly will not be a dull one.
Details and points
of interest abound - little highlighted notes and turns of phrase
that breathe life and rhythm into otherwise four-square passages;
micro-pauses and shadings of tone color that add tension and mystery;
quicksilver passages that, even in mezzo forte, are more compellingly
weighed and paced than most pianists' thunderings. For all the excitement
in the more dramatic moments - and no artist delivers thrills more
consistently than Argerich - the most compelling episodes in her
performance are the quieter ones, where she explores aspects of
the music where few, if any, others have gone.
Of course, any conductor
with such a soloist is in grave risk of being overshadowed, if not
upstaged altogether, but Kord more than holds his own. He is as
searching in orchestral detail as Argerich is in the solo part,
and can be equally yearning and dramatic. Few maestros make the
central orchestral interlude in the first movement as weighty or
compelling, even with the soloist's dramatic re-entry in double
octaves at twice his tempo. Kord gets left behind from time to time,
but not to worry; he lets Argerich go her way and catches up, totally
unfazed, letting the orchestra play as arrestingly as she does without
a hint of strain, and with power and finesse to match.
Soloist and conductor
are infinitely more together in the Schumann Concerto. Argerich
has played this piece more frequently in recent years - it was this
concerto that she played with the San Francisco Symphony, first
in Davies Hall, then on the orchestra's European tour in the summer
of 2000 (including a London Proms concert that was, thankfully for
many of her fans, broadcast live over the Internet). It is also
not a composition of which I have thought highly over the years,
especially the final two movements (written four years after the
first), which have never seemed on the same level of inspiration
as the opening Allegro affectuoso. But once in a while you come
across a performance that changes your mind about such a piece of
music, and this performance is one of them.
This performance is
very similar to the London Proms concert in overall shape - by turns
brilliant, mysterious, fervent and good-humored - without the occasional
harried quality of the latter. In other words, it conveys the elusive
and mercurial essence of Schumann's music perfectly, with fresh
insights softly illuminated at every turn, and with the music given
ample time to take wing and soar without losing shape or impetus.
 At
the same time, Kord's greater attention to cadenced and interpretive
detail makes him a much more satisfying partner than Tilson-Thomas.
While Tilson-Thomas underlines the romantic mystery of this concerto,
his accompaniment sounds overly refined, the rough edges smoothed
away a little too much to give more than a general outline of the
piece. Kord concentrates on passion, finding greater depth and more
gradations of expressiveness while exposing the musical fine points
that hold this work together. In that sense, Kord (right) and Argerich
are a perfect match.
As in the Tchaikovsky,
Argerich and Kord's attention to particulars unearths a plethora
of half-lights, delicate hues and fragile shadows that accentuate
the varying moods of this piece as though looking through a slowly
turning kaleidoscope. There is an added freshness and child-like
innocence in Argerich's playing, particularly in the Intermezzo,
that conveys itself most purely in Schumann (the same qualities
that make her Kinderszenen one of the best recordings she has made
to date), which makes the concerto an added joy to hear.
Argerich also highlights
subtle rhythmic and motivic details, which in Schumann's case further
tightens the overall structure and makes the music seem more than
the sum of its parts than usual. I had honestly not before realized
how closely Schumann patterned his concerto after Beethoven's Waldstein
and Appassionata, nor how magically the few bars of transition
between the Intermezzo and Finale actually work, again
like Beethoven's sonatas, until this recording. Then again, it sometimes
takes a performance as special as this one to bring you face to
face with facts like those.
The four encores are
old friends - performances of three of them appear on Argerich's
solo Concertgebouw CD  -
but are most welcome here. Her Bourees I and II from
Bach's Second English are more tightly wound and relentless here,
which does not work to their benefit, but they still fascinate in
their own way. The Chopin Mazurka in F minor is much more
aptly paced, with a melancholy charm framing an infectious middle
section. The Scarlatti Sonata in D minor is the best Argerich performance
of this piece that I have yet heard. The notes still fly in a blizzard-like
flurry, but slowed enough to lend the piece a great deal more charm,
weight and intrigue. And the Danza de la Moza donosa, the
third of Ginastera's Danzas argentines, is given an added
touch of ardor and fragility, making it all the more winsome, as
well as the perfect ending to a wonderful program.
JONATHAN
YUNGKANS
is not an undivided Martha-phile - so far. But there's hope for
him yet.
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776: 20.8.2000 ©Jonathan
Yungkans
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