Martha Argerich’s Beethoven teaser sets seal on long-awaited debut Down Under

ARGENTINIAN pianist Martha Argerich is one of the modern day greats of classical music and she makes her long-awaited Australian debut this month.

Pianist Martha Argerich will make her long-awaited Australian debut later this month.

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ARGENTINIAN pianist Martha Argerich is one of the acknowledged modern day greats of classical music and she makes her long-awaited Australian debut with Sydney Symphony Orchestra and former husband, Swiss maestro Charles Dutoit, at the end of this month.

She’ll be playing Beethoven’s first piano concerto (although his second was started earlier) and to mark her appearance here Deutsche Grammophon has re-released on the Eloquence label her one-off recording of these two works with Giuseppe Sinopoli and the Philharmonia Orchestra, recorded in 1986.

Album artwork for pianist Martha Argerich's Beethoven concerto recordings.

Noted for her technical perfectionism these recordings show that there is much more to this notoriously temperamental artist than mere technique. There’s a passion and intensity there but also a naturalness — the sense when you listen that this is Beethoven as Beethoven would have wanted it.

Argerich, a childhood friend of that other great pianist Daniel Barenboim, sprang to prominence after winning the International Chopin Piano Competition in 1965 at the age of 24. Over four decades she has racked up a massive discography with several of her recordings considered classics, including the 1985 pairing of Tchaikovsky’s first and Prokofiev’s third concertos which she made with Dutoit when they were still married.

Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit will appear with Martha Argerich.

Argerich is notorious for cancelling — she was due to make her Australian debut with Dutoit in 2003 but pulled out at short notice — but she argues that she’s not truly cancelling as she doesn’t sign any contracts.

Let’s hope that she does turn up for the SSO concerts — on Thursday, June 29; Friday, June 30, and Saturday, July 1, all at 8pm — when Dutoit is scheduled to conduct the Australian premiere of Stravinsky’s Funeral Song, de Falla’s Three Cornered Hat suites and Ravel’s La Valse.

If not, this glorious performance on record might offer some small consolation. It’s a mere snip at $9.99 from Fish Fine Music and is a joy from start to finish.

■ Dutoit is a recognised interpreter of French music and he will conduct three rare concert performances of Debussy’s opera Pelleas et Melisande on Friday, June 23, Saturday, June 24, and Wednesday, June 28, all at 7pm, in the Sydney House concert hall. Sydney Symphony Orchestra will be joined by Austrian mezzo Michaela Selinger, a late replacement for French soprano Sandrine Piau, and Canadian baritone Elliot Madore in the title roles.