Martha Argerich and Charles Dutoit in 1972
Martha Argerich married to her second husband
Charles Dutoit from
1969 to
1973. Dutoit was the conductor of
Bern Symphony at that time. They have a daughter
Annie Dutoit. The video clip was filmed at their home at
Jutan near
Lausanne,
1972.
Martha Argerich played the following pieces in the video at the time mark as indicated:
00:00
Mozart: Rondò in a-minor K.511
01:30
Liszt: Sonata b-minor
02:50
Mozart: Sonata in C-major
K.545
03:05
Chopin:
Waltz Op.64/1
04:12 Chopin:
Piano Concerto #1, mvt#1 Op.11
The following biography was provided by Martha Argerich herself or her representative.
****
Martha Argerich was born in
Buenos Aires. From the age of five, she took piano lessons with Vicenzo Scaramuzza. In
1955 she went to
Europe with her family, and received tuition from
Friedrich Gulda in
Vienna; her teachers also included
Nikita Magaloff and
Stefan Askenase.
Following her first prizes in the piano competitions in
Bolzano and
Geneva in
1957, she embarked on an intensive programme of concerts. Her victory in the
Chopin Competition in
Warsaw in
1965 was a decisive step on her path to worldwide recognition.
Martha Argerich rose to fame with her interpretations of the virtuoso piano literature of the 19th and
20th centuries. But she does not regard herself as a specialist in "virtuoso" works - her repertoire ranges from
Bach through
Beethoven, Schumann,
Liszt,
Debussy and
Ravel, to
Bartók.
Martha Argerich has worked as a concert pianist with many famous conductors. She has also attached great importance to chamber music ever since, at the age of 17, she accompanied the violinist
Joseph Szigeti - two generations older than herself. She has toured Europe,
America and
Japan with
Gidon Kremer and
Mischa Maisky and has also recorded much of the repertory for four hands and for two pianos with the pianists
Nelson Freire,
Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich,
Nicolas Economou and
Alexandre Rabinovitch. Martha Argerich has performed at Gidon Kremer's festival in Lockenhaus, at the
Munich Piano Summer, the
Lucerne Festival and at the
Salzburg Festival, where she gave, for instance, a recital with Mischa Maisky in
1993.
She appeared with
Claudio Abbado and the
Berlin Philharmonic at the
1992 New Year's Eve Concert with Strauss's Burleske and also at the Salzburg Festival at
Easter 1993. May
1998 saw the long-awaited musical "summit meeting" between Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky and Gidon Kremer. On the occasion of a memorial concert for the impresario Reinhard Paulsen, the three artists came together in Japan, where they performed piano trios by
Shostakovich and
Tchaikovsky (recorded live by DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON). In
March 2000 Martha Argerich gave her first great solo appearance in almost 20 years in
New York's Carnegie Hall.
Martha Argerich has close ties with DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON, dating back to 1967. She has recorded prolifically during this period: solo works by Bach,
Brahms, Chopin, Liszt and Schumann; concerto recordings of works by Chopin, Liszt, Ravel and
Prokofiev with Claudio Abbado, Beethoven with
Giuseppe Sinopoli, and
Stravinsky's Les Noces with
Leonard Bernstein. Her recording of Shostakovich's
First and
Haydn's
Eleventh Piano Concertos with the
Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn conducted by Jörg Färber was crowned with the
Tokyo RECORD ACADEMY
AWARD in
1995 and that of Tchaikovsky's
Piano Concerto No. 1 with Claudio Abbado and the
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra was awarded the CD COMPACT AWARD in
1997.
She has also dedicated herself to chamber music, and has recorded works by Schumann and Chopin with
Mstislav Rostropovich, and cello sonatas by both Bach and Beethoven with Mischa Maisky. She has made numerous successful recordings with Gidon Kremer, such as violin sonatas by Schumann and works by Bartók,
Janácek and
Messiaen (PRIX CAECILIA
1991), and
Mendelssohn's concerto for violin and piano with the
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Their recording of Prokofiev sonatas and melodies received the 1992 Tokyo RECORD ACADEMY AWARD, the DIAPASON D'OR 1992 and the EDISON AWARD 1993. One of their most outstanding recording achievements was that of the complete
Beethoven violin sonatas (Nos.
1-3: RECORD ACADEMY AWARD
1985), which was concluded with the release of the Sonatas op. 47 "Kreutzer" and op. 96 in 1995. Among her more recent releases is the above-mentioned live recording of piano trios by Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky with Mischa Maisky and Gidon Kremer.
Martha Argerich takes a great supportive interest in young artists.
In September 1999 the first
International "Martha Argerich"
Piano Competition took place in Buenos Aires - a competition which does not only carry her name but in which she is president of the jury. In
November 1999 the second "Martha Argerich
Music Festival" took place in southern Japan, with concerts and masterclasses being given not only by Martha Argerich but also by Mischa Maisky and Nelson Freire among others.