Martha Argerich: Piano Legend
Argentine pianist Martha Argerich has been a musical force of nature and a giant among international pianists ever since winning the International Chopin Piano Competition in 1965 – over 60 years ago. Her return to the BBC Proms this year – only her ninth appearance at the festival – is one of the hottest tickets of the season. What makes her so special?
Listen to Martha Argerich's performance of the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Munich Philharmonic on BBC Sounds or watch on BBC iPlayer now.
Colossal technique
Whether it’s tackling delicate fast runs or fistfuls of chords, Argerich has precision, velocity and reserves of power at her fingertips. In rapid leaps her hands are a blur and her subtle use of the pedal (so that sounds never get too blurred) are also key qualities in her technical armoury. She has said that ‘speaking is more difficult than playing’. To most people – even musicians who have spent thousands of hours honing their craft – that’s an astounding thought. Watching her on stage, it all seems so effortless, adding to the intrigue. ‘When I start working on something, for me, it’s difficult,’ Argerich said in a 1972 interview with her then husband, the conductor Charles Dutoit, ‘but it gets better with a little work. It’s also very psychological – it’s not always about being glued to the piano – that doesn’t mean it will get better. It depends on many things – whether you’re working calmly or hysterically …’
Commitment
A young musician in China who worked with Argerich reported that the pianist practised for four hours straight, immediately after giving a concert – this changed their entire mindset, from ‘practice until you can do it’ to ‘practice even after you can do it’. A former Proms controller noted how, after a morning orchestral rehearsal in the Royal Albert Hall, Argerich practised through the afternoon ahead of the evening performance. One of the pianist’s daughters, Annie, recalled in a recent interview for The Times: ‘She would practise the piano all night. I used to wake up in the morning just as she went to bed.’ If playing really does come to Argerich more naturally than speaking, then she doesn’t take this for granted. Pianist, presenter and author Zsolt Bognár recently observed Argerich working with her longtime colleague Sergei Babayan at the Lugano Festival, and wrote of 12-hour rehearsals running from 9pm to 9am, including an occasion when Argerich took herself off to practise on her own for two hours, from 2am. Bognar described her as a ‘relentless musical labourer’.
Artistic personality
Early in her career Argerich had a reputation for being a tempestuous, spontaneous artist – with a reputation for cancelling appearances at short notice. This may have been an overstatement, and a myth might have falsely been created equating her musical personality with real life. Certainly, Argerich has been headstrong, led by her own beliefs and principles. At the age of 14 she left her native Argentina – whose President she had met aged 12 – to study with the maverick, jazz-loving Austrian pianist and composer Friedrich Gulda. She then moved to New York in the hope of studying with the great Vladimir Horowitz but, when that didn’t materialise, she all but gave up playing for three years. Instances of her changing programmes close to the event may seem flighty but they speak of an artist wanting to play what she feels engaged with at the time. In any case, for most of her followers, the repertoire she chooses is less important than the thrill of her performances. A famous demonstration of her sense of conviction came in 1980, when she resigned from the jury of the International Chopin Piano Competition after the firebrand young Ivo Pogorelich, whom she believed to be a ‘genius’, was not sent through to the final. She has always voted with her feet.
Mentor
Argerich has long been a generous supporter and mentor to younger pianists, her name and seal of approval instantly opening many doors. In 2004 she presented four pianists as part of a major-label recording project, launching their recording careers. She has also used a number of music festivals with which she is closely associated – especially those in Beppu (Japan) and Lugano (Switzerland), to offer exposure to protégés. Often she will perform alongside her mentees, who have included Sergio Tiempo, Gabrieli Montero and Dong-Hyek Lim. In 2021, in collaboration with the Argentine Ministry of Culture, she founded the Martha Argerich Scholarship programme, designed ‘to help young musicians from the youth and children’s orchestras in the popular neighbourhoods to be able to receive intensive training with their musical instruments’.
Proms presence
With a Proms history that spans 60 years, Martha Argerich made her debut at the festival in the Last Night of the 1966 Proms, performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 – a notoriously demanding piece that is one of Argerich’s calling cards. Treacherous concertos by Liszt and Tchaikovsky (their First Concertos) have featured once each – the latter in 2019, when she was conducted by her childhood friend, fellow-Argentine Daniel Barenboim. The Guardian wrote, ‘As always with Argerich it was a mesmerising performance … [that] bristled with intensity and intent from the first bar, so often propelled by the crystal-clear precision that still comes so naturally to her.’ Ravel’s Piano Concerto – jazzy, sparkling, and with a gorgeously lyrical slow movement – has had two Proms performances, with Schumann’s concerto appearing once. These are among a handful of concertos that, for decades now, have been close to Argerich’s heart. As is Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2, which she plays this season, joined by the Munich Philharmonic and Lahav Shani, a conductor who has called her ‘one of the strongest musical personalities I know’, with a musical voice speaks ‘in an entirely fresh, spontaneous and crystal-clear way’.
Argerich Now
At 85, Martha Argerich’s performances are rarer – but no less riveting – than before, and her appearances awaited with heightened anticipation. They now tend to take place in the more shaded arena of chamber music rather than in the glare of the solo recital or concerto (which makes her Proms appearance all the more special). What has underlined her music-making more recently is a fondness for and personal connection with the key people (and festivals) that are now central to her performing life – it’s about longstanding friendships and musical relationships. She has spoken in the past of feeling alone when performing. ‘She likes people to be with her on stage – she even likes talking while she’s playing,’ a former husband, the pianist Stephen Kovacevich has said. Martha Argerich has now been performing in public for more than 75 years, and a 2026 BBC Magazine feature ranks her in the Top 10 ‘greatest pianists of all time’ – Rachmaninov being No. 1. Giving up concert life is apparently not an option and, though her performances are now relatively scarce, she remains a revered musical dynamo.
