A couple of days ago, I started a new series of reviews I’m calling Off The Shelf, where I pull a disc (CD or LP) somewhat randomly from the shelves in my music room, and revisit the album in light of today’s “all-access” streaming world. The first installment was Martha Argerich’s 1987 DG recording of two Beethoven violin sonatas with Gidon Kremer. See the full review here:
Part of the purpose of the Off The Shelf series is to suggest new listening experiences suggested by the old discs… maybe with a view to replacing it and clear some shelf space, or even better to find some new great listens the follow the same thread. With that in mind, here are some recordings that follow Argerich’s further adventures in musical collaboration.
Daniel Barenboim has been a regular in Argerich’s orbit for decades now, both as conductor in concerto repertoire, and as a partner in four-hand piano music. This 2014 concert at the Philharmonie in Berlin offered a full program of both two-piano and duet pieces: Mozart, Schubert, and the seldom-heard Stravinsky two-piano version of The Rite of Spring. It’s a terrific program and performance, you can see and/or hear the whole set on:
Another perennial chamber collaborator, since the 1980’s, is cellist Mischa Maisky. He and Argerich still perform frequently together at festivals to this day. This impassioned performance is from the 2008 Verbier Festival in Switzerland.
For something a little lighter to end today’s list, here is Argerich with her long-time partner dating back to the Beethoven Violin Sonatas complete cycle for Deutsche Grammaphon that started me down this particular rabbit hole: Gidon Kremer, on tour with Argerich in 2006. Their familiar encore bon-bon.
