Customer Reviews

Martha Argerich: Live at Verbier Festival - Bach/Mozart/Grieg/Bartok/Lutoslawski/Shostakovich

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The Verbier Festival, in Switzerland, is an annual gathering of some of the biggest names in classical music. There is a good deal of chamber music featuring these musicians who come together to make music with each other. The 2010 Verbier Festival will take place from 16 July to 1 August and will once again reunite the biggest names in classical music. It is webcast on www.medici.tv and is something to make a note of in your calendar for next year.

This DVD features one of the leading lights at Verbier, the luminous pianist Martha Argerich in appearances recorded live at the 2007 and 2008 Festivals. As Amazon has not yet printed the program on this DVD, I shall do so:

Bach: Partita No. 2 (Argerich)
Mozart: Andante and Five Variations in G Major, K.501 (Argerich and Stephen Kovacevich, piano four hands)
Grieg: Cello Sonata, Op. 36 (Argerich and Mischa Maisky)
Bartók: Violin Sonata No. 1, Sz75 (Argerich and Renaud Capuçon)
Lutoslawski: Variations on a Theme of Paganini (Argerich and Gabriela Montero, two pianos)
Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 57 (Argerich, Joshua Bell and Henning Kraggerud, violins, Yuri Bashmet, viola, and Mischa Maisky, cello)

Starry line-up, no?

I'd never heard the Mozart four-hand piece and was utterly charmed by it. It's no masterpiece, but Argerich and Kovacevich very nearly make one think it is. Nor was I all that familiar with the Grieg Cello Sonata. I tend to think of Grieg as a composer mostly of intimate pieces, but this cello sonata, especially as played by the intense cellist Maisky and even hotter pianist Argerich, comes across as an extrovert romantic masterpiece. Its outer movements are hell-bent-for-leather, its middle movement a lyrical island of beautiful serenity. No one could accuse Bartók's First Violin Sonata of being serene, but it's a beauty nonetheless and Capuçon and Argerich play it magnificently. Capuçon, perhaps not as well known as some virtuoso violinists, is a young musician on the rise internationally. Lutoslawski's well-known Paganini Variations for two pianos team Argerich with another rising musician, the Venezuelan Gabriela Montero, another of the products of that country's program for developing young musicians, El Sistema. She is perhaps best-known for asking her recital audiences to provide a theme on which she then improvises. She and Argerich (playing secundo) make a blockbuster team.

The finale of this DVD is a masterful performance of Shostakovich's Piano Quintet. Again, the musicians are all-stars. The Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud is perhaps not as well known as his colleagues but he's the real deal. This is a performance that is intense yet lyrical and melodic.

Running time: 125mins; Format: 16:9; Sound: PCM Stereo; Region code: 0 (worldwide)

Scott Morrison

This is a wonderful performance with pianist Martha Argerich and friends from two Verbier Festivals with 125 minutes of music from six composers. You can't go wrong with this one.
I refer you to J. Scott Morrison's excellent review for more details of this DVD, mastered in 1080 HD.