"Martha Argerich's summers at the Lugano Festival are reaping a rich harvest of live recordings for admirers of this supreme pianist... This is live music music-making of the most exhilarating order, benefiting from the intimacy of the setting as much as the skills of these peerless musicians." The Guardian
To celebrate one of the greatest pianists of our time, and after a five-year collaboration with the Progetto Martha Argerich, EMI Classics proudly presents a showcase of the very best music for two pianos from the Lugano Festival. This 2-CD set is the first EMI Classics release featuring Martha Argerich in her celebrated duet collaborations with other pianists, some of the most talented musicians of their generation. The repertoire includes well-established and unfamiliar works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Brahms, Prokofiev and Lutos³awski. The recordings have been selected from previous Lugano Festival releases.
Rachmaninov's Suite No. 2 for Two Pianos in C Major, Op. 17, performed by Martha Argerich with Gabriela Montero, unusual for Rachmaninov in being in a major key. The composer wrote this most ebullient of his large-scale works in 1900-1901, at the same time as his popular Second Piano concerto. He performed the premiere in Moscow together with his cousin and teacher Alexander Siloti.
Martha Argerich and Mirabela Dina perform Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite in a brilliant transcription by Nicolas Economu. Shortly after the first production of The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky composed both an orchestral suite and a solo piano reduction. In the CD booklet note, Jeremy Siepmann writes that, "while he was a highly gifted orchestrator, Tchaikovsky lacked the insider's ear necessary for a truly idiomatic exploitation of the piano. Not so Nicolas Economou, a very fine pianist indeed, whose own Nutcracker suite uses the instrument to wonderful advantage, splendidly evoking the nature and character of Tchaikovsky's orchestral original."
Brahms's great F Minor Quintet was preceded by a two-piano version performed here by Martha Argerich and Lilya Zilberstein. The Sonata in F Minor Opus 34b has a vibrant life of its own and has become a standard, often-performed work in the two piano repertoire. Although designated Op. 56b, the 'St. Anthony' Variations, performed by Martha Argerich and Polina Leschenko, actually preceded its far-better-known orchestral brother, Op. 56a. It is a wonderful work in its own right.
Prokofiev composed his popular First Symphony ('Classical') in 1917, at the height of the first World War and the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution. For his inspiration, the composer, still living in Russia at the time, looked to the great Viennese Classical tradition, and particularly to the works of Haydn. The symphony, transcribed for two pianos by Rikuya Terashima, is performed here by Martha Argerich and Yefim Bronfman.
Witold Lutoslawski is one of many composers who have taken Paganini's 24th caprice for unaccompanied violin as inspiration for a set of variations. Of the 200 transcriptions and compositions that Lutoslawski wrote for two-piano concerts that he performed with his fellow composer Andrzej Panufnik in Warsaw cafes during the Nazi occupation of Poland, the Paganini Variations has achieved the greatest popular success. Martha Argerich performs it with Giorgia Tomassi.
Rachmaninov wrote his Six Morceaux for Piano Four Hands in 1894, when he was only 21. Although they are not mature Rachmaninov, they are highly enjoyable and are performed here with considerable élan by Martha Argerich and Lilya Zilberstein.
Martha Argerich is one of the most exciting artists of our day, unmistakable for her musical impulse, her virtuosity and her powers of inspiration experienced by fellow musicians and audiences alike. Throughout her life, she has dedicated herself to working with younger artists, both pianists and chamber musicians, and is at the centre of three annual workshop/festivals, the Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano (Switzerland), the Beppu Festival (Japan) and the Festival Martha Argerich in Buenos Aires (Argentina).
Argerich's award-winning, best-selling recordings for EMI Classics date back to 1965, the year she won the International Chopin Competition. Her most recent releases include Martha Argerich: Live from Lugano 2007 and a Shostakovich disc featuring the Piano Concerto No. 1, Concertino for Two Pianos and Quintet for Piano and Strings, Op. 57. For the last three years Argerich's "Live from the Lugano Festival" collections have been nominated for Grammy Awards – most recently for Best Classical Album and Best Chamber Music Performance in the 2007 awards.