I must have been the first person to order second category tickets for the Concert de gala of the international Concours de Genève on December 5th. Front row left.
Fine musicians (winners of the competition) and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in fine fettle, with the young Argentine conductor Alejo Perez. A water theme for the first half, with Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes of Benjamine Britten, three percussionists performing a Water Concerto for Water Percussion by Tan Dun. Advised by ushers to move out of the front row for this piece, we watched water splashed theatrically into the seats as Aiyun Huang and two other percussionists plunged various vessels into shimmering blue tubs of water and used newly invented instruments making sounds we'd never heard before. Rather '60s -- doing weird things to instruments or doing things to weird instruments or both.
In the second half, Polina Pasztirczak sang a haunting Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss.
And we were back in the front row for the Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra of Francis Poulenc, composed in 1932. Two concert grands emerged from the basement on platforms for Martha Argerich and Nelson Goerner and then wow....! (I'm not known for hero worship).
I have a deep appreciation for Argerich, whom I've followed for decades. She combines profound musicianship with impeccable technique. Stunning. For me she's the greatest pianist of her generation.
Argerich concertizes rarely, and when she does, it's mostly with fellow musicians.
Here she is, live in Geneva, performing in our garish, over-the-top, beloved Victoria Hall with Nelson Goerner. There are my unauthorized, flashless shots. I was sorely tempted to photograph her strong, fine, compact hands as she played, but didn't, out of respect for her performance.
She moves swiftly, turns, bows, turns again to acknowledge the conductor and Goerner and other musicians, spins around again and is very hard to catch. Brilliant smile and a huge mane of silver hair.
Sigh. Yes, hero(ine)-worship.
In a 2001
article about Martha Argerich for The New Yorker,
critic Alex Ross wrote:
"Argerich brings to bear qualities that are seldom contained in one
person: she is a pianist of brain-teasing technical agility; she is a
charismatic woman with an enigmatic reputation; she is an unaffected
interpreter whose native language is music. This last may be the quality that
sets her apart. A lot of pianists play huge double octaves; a lot of pianists
photograph well. But few have the unerring naturalness of phrasing that allows
them to embody the music rather than interpret it."
Live in Berlin in 1967
and recently with Lang Lang
