If I Could Choose Only One Recording By...MARTHA ARGERICH

It Would Have To Be...Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 (with Abbado/Berlin Philharmonic on DG)
Because it's simply the best. Period.

[JC]

Martha is the most wonderful pianist of my 94 year life. Her worst performance trumps most other's best.

[chengyang]

Totally agree. When I first listened to this recording, my jaw dropped. She was on fire!

[neiltheblaze]

I heard Argerich play an unforgettable Prokofiev Third Concerto with Ozawa and Boston on a radio broadcast - I can't tell you how many years ago. It was like a steeplechase. It felt like it could careen out of control at any moment, but it never did.

[MichaelCattermole]

Some years ago Argerich and Abbado appeared at the BBC Proms in a concert that featured Ravel's G Major concerto - Argerich astonished the spell-bound audience, especially in the sublime slow movement, where her exquisite playing induced a period of sustained acute quietude amongst the ever-so appreciative Royal Albert Hall audience - and remember, this venue is huge, and not a seat was vacant. You really did get the impression that Ravel's masterpiece couldn't be better interpreted. It was a marvellous concert and I remember that after a glorious concluding performance of The Firebird, Abbado conducted Wagner's Good Friday sequence from Parsifal as an encore! Oh I wish he had recorded Parsifal in its entirety.

[BeammeupSpotty]

you're right again!!!! fabulous recording!!! thanks for sharing!!!!

[WesSmith-mi]

Fabulous! Thanks to another of your chats I had already listened to the Argerich/Abbado Tchaikovsky #1, and youzzers is it exciting! Thanks for your insights and also for promoting wonderful performances.

[thibomeurkens]

I can’t agree more, one of the best recordings of literally anything by anyone ever made. Still every single time I hear it I’m filled with emotion and I chills over my entire body, even from the very first chord. If it wasn’t for that recording, which I’ve listened to for years, I probably wouldn’t even love classical music as much as I do now!

[MichaelGilman]

Confess, David. YOU'RE the evil god Cancrizans, aren't you? You seem to have such a singular connection with him and his nefarious plans. Very 'sus', as my 10 year old would say. :)

[HD-susq]

I have that recording with Kondrashin and the Bavarian Symphony, and I quite like it. But now I'll look for the Abbado/Berlin performance. Thank you!!

[Warp]

Martha my dear is great & yeah this is the one ☝🏻 Abbado checking her legs out

[trevorguy]

Yayyy I got mentioned 🎉🎉 But thanks for this pick! I'm not familiar with this particular recording of hers but I'll listen to it now!

[AvalonAir]

Wow! Your several accounts of your struggles with Brahms’s German Requiem have riveted me every time I have found one, but never more than with your recent Klemperer-inspired epiphany. I had always greatly admired the piece, but I had had the advantage, I now see, of having first heard it via Klemperer. And now, you have granted me my own such epiphany in my struggles with Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, which came to my attention in my earliest days of classical music enthusiasm at the dawning of Van Cliburn’s triumph long years back. Huh, I remember saying to myself. What is wrong with me here? At that point, when everything was new to me, that was one of very few pieces that did not kind of sweep me off my fledgling feet, but what WAS all the shouting about? And, maybe for the sake of self-preservation, I blamed Tchaikovsky for appealing to dullards and ignored him as much as possible, only marveling every now and then when I encountered obvious non-dullards raving about him and his. I was clearly right, and so there just was no accounting for tastes. But now, inspired by your promise that I could not fail to be thrilled by this one of dear Martha Argerich’s versions of the thing, I gave it a try, and not immediately but only just past what struck me as all the usual opening bombast, BANG. And, well, good golly! Once again you [and she, of course] have jolted me out of my codger’s complacency and quite rejuvenated me, for which I thank you most sincerely.

[stevemcclue]

Hmmm, very difficult this. Do you go with her early solo recitals, her concerto work or her later chamber works (arguably more representative of her art these days). As has been mentioned by others I'd probably go with her Prokofiev 3 + Ravel disc with Abbado. Both of these could be considered her party pieces (Prokofiev 3 a party piece??)

I remember hearing her play the Ravel with Dutoit in Edinburgh. There's always some jerk who has to cough during the quietest part of the slow movement, but to add to the whole multi-sensory experience, the old lady in front of me also farted very loudly. Martha did not look amused...😄

[GG-cupg]

A vote for Maxim Vengerov’s Prokofiev violin concerto 1 with Rostropovich. A sentimental favourite that also happens to be one of the greatest recordings in a great catalogue.

[mouisehay]

I'd save her Deutsche Grammophon Beethoven violin sonatas 9 & 10 with Gidon Kremer

[franciscochaves]

Thank you very much for your channel.
Would you recommend this recording over the one with Emil Gilels and Eugen Joachum?

[HoraceInExile]

I would like to make a request that might drive you a little crazy, but it's important for me (and perhaps others) since I am not in a financial position to purchase physical products. I have to rely on streaming, and streaming services are clogged with the recording company nonsense like catalog dumping. It helps to locate a particular performance if we know the recording date (which is almost always in the physical booklet). I know you hate extraneous details (I mean: who cares what mics were used or what speakers were used to monitor the recording?), but that date would really, really help. Thank you as always for all you do.

[Madjed]

Hello Dave
Do you know if Martha recorded the 5 concertos of Beethoven and how to find them

[collinziegler]

I'm picking the Prokofiev/Bartok/Prokofiev concertos with Dutoit, though admittedly it's an agonizing vote 😩

[tkengathegrateful]

There is no bottom, there is also no top - words to live by. Just like that movement in PDQ Bach's Preachers of Crimetheus: "Bottomless Sorrow; Topless Gaiety".