Op. 12; RAVEL: Gaspard de la Nuit; GINASTERA: Danzas argentines, Op. 2
– Martha Argerich, piano/ Orchestra della Svizzera italiana/ Alexandre
Rabinovitch-Barakovsky
EMI Classics Great Artists of the Century 4 76850 2 78:18****:
This disc celebrates the keyboard wizardry of Martha Argerich (b. 1941)
in historic sessions, in-concert, taken from Amsterdam (Schumann,
Ravel, Ginastera) 7 May 1978 and more recently, the Schumann Piano
Concerto from Lugano, 6 June 2002. The passionate Argentinian pianist
makes her fiery presence known early, with an explosive entry for the
Piano Concerto, but then pulling back to bask in the piano’s more
dreamy mode, the Eusebius Schumann persona, until the last movement’s
firecrackers begin exploding again. Sudden urgings at Schumann’s agogic
accents hurry the filigree along, often achieving whirling, vertiginous
effects. Complemented by Rabinovitch-Barakovsky’s fluent, adaptive
conducting, we have the Piano Concerto in the form of the more
kaleidoscopic Kreisleriana, especially when Argerich propels the music
non-legato. A pity there is no document of Argerich and Mitropoulos in
this arch-romantic score.
Diaphanous introspection opens the series of eight pieces for the Op.
12 Fantasiestucke. While I prefer Moiseiwitsch in Des Abends, the
security and stylistic elgance Argerich bestows on Schumann’s
two-and-three-part writing is lucid and thoroughly polished. Her pedal
effects warrant some note, as does the softness of her dimuendi. Power,
of course, is the Argerich trump card, and of that we enjoy some real
ferocity in Aufschwung, the febile, Dionysiac temperament in In der
Nacht, and their crystalline distillation in Traumes Wirren. Schumann’s
fairy-marches or maerchen have their advocate in Argerich’s plastic
Grillen and the bittersweet Ende von Lied. Ravel’s virtuoso treatment
of poet Aloysius Bertrand’s triptych (recall John Gielgud’s wonderful
rendering for the Mercury recording with Gina Bachauer) calls upon her
capacities for both control and synthesis of her multifarious palette.
The pearly play she invokes for her evanescent Ondine harkens back to
Gieseking, but more aggressive and sonically splendid. Some of the
sonorities in Le Gibet are palpably delicious – a grotesque effect,
given the morbid subject matter. Like a repressed, predatory cat
relishing its new freedom, Argerich has been waiting to pounce on
Scarbo, whose hurtles prove only sauce for her Latin, sensuous
execution; then moving on to the idiomatic and elastic Ginastera
dances, all of which give the audience ecstatic fits. Very impressive
fingers from a modern master of her trade.
–Gary Lemco
