Editorial Review:

Amazon.com's Best of 1999:
Record-label politics prevented this awesome recording of Argentinean pianist Martha Argerich from being released for 34 years. The spitfire musician delivers a powerful set of Chopin's best-loved works that still sounds riveting today. Intense and gorgeous. --Jason Verlinde

Amazon.com essential recording:
How can it be that a recording by one of today's indisputably unequaled pianists performing some of her prime repertory--made fresh within months of her triumph in the 1965 Warsaw International Chopin Competition--could languish for decades in the vaults before its official release? Chalk it up to the exclusivity clauses of rival recording companies and legal constraints from which not even Wotan with the help of Loge could extricate himself. Thankfully this belated EMI release--recorded in a few sessions at the Abbey Road studios--is finally available.

It's a significant complement to Argerich's other accounts of Chopin on disc. From the white-hot intensity of Argerich's way with the composer, you can easily extrapolate a sense of what had recently wowed the jury in Warsaw. The Argentinean pianist undertakes the Third Sonata as a vast, big-voiced, far-reaching statement that encompasses both molten power and moments of almost unbearably intimate lyricism (listen closely to her gestures of illumination in the Largo). With a characteristically unforced spontaneity, Argerich sounds the shattering chords that launch the finale (recorded in one take); her sense of flow in the Nocturne No. 4 is a perfect mesh for the illusion of improvising that is so central to Chopin. She commands the logic--both emotional and musical--of the composer's skittish turns in the Scherzo No. 3 and crafts three of the mazurkas into perfectly chiseled character pieces. The sheer force of Argerich's personality might seem overwhelming to those accustomed to a tamer Chopin--listen to how she dives into the A-flat Polonaise--but it's always at work dusting off tired clichés and uncovering the music's expressive wealth. For those who know about Argerich's artistry, this disc is indispensable; anyone who has yet to make that enviable discovery will find it (together with the Argerich anthology in Philips' Great Pianists series) a great place to begin. --Thomas May









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• Debut Recital / Martha Argerich
• Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 / Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23
• J.S. Bach: Toccata, Partita, English Suite 2/ Martha Argerich
• Chopin, Liszt: Piano Concertos / Martha Argerich, London Symphony Orchestra
• Prokofiev, Ravel: Piano Concertos, etc / Martha Argerich
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Disc 1:

1. Piano Sonata No.3 In B Minor, Op.58: I. Allegro maetoso
2. Piano Sonata No.3 In B Minor, Op.58: II. Scherzo: Molto vivace
3. Piano Sonata No.3 In B Minor, Op.58: III. Largo
4. Piano Sonata No.3 In B Minor, Op.58: IV. Finale: Presto, non tanto
5. Mazurka No.36 In A Minor, Op.59 No.1
6. Mazurka No.37 In A-flat, Op.59 No.2
7. Mazurka No.38 In F-sharp Minor, Op.59 No.3
8. Nocturne No.4 In F, Op.15 No.1
9. Scherzo No.3 In C-sharp Minor, Op.39
10. Polonaise No.6 In A-flat, Op.53

Rating: - * Good but not superior ... I'm a seeker of the ideal Chopin. This performance is very good but if you have the Chopin recordings of Pollini,Perahia,Zimerman and Rubinstein then you probably don't need this one. But if you do decide to buy it you wont be disappointed. Rating: - * world class first recital ... this is a taste of things to come. impeccable playing rich in tone and dynamics all played with the flawless technique which has become the standard to aspire to for all pianists Rating: - * Stunning, simply stunning ... Martha Argerich's reading of Chopin's Third Sonata is superlative. By turns majestic and athletic in its pacing, this my favorite Third. The disc is worth the opening bars of the final movement alone: there is a drama here in Argerich's playing that is conspicuously absent from most other performances. Brilliant. The Scherzo No. 3 is similarly outstanding, as are the Mazurkas. Alas, the Polonaise in A-flat is lacking in the same flair and command as the Sonata, which is a disappointment. The definitive Sonata No. 3, worth the attention of any music lover. (Top notch sonics from a 40+ year old recording also make the recording a gem.) Rating: - * Undeniably the best, incomporable, no one compares ... Chopin himself would have gone into ecstasy listening to Martha Argerich play his music. It is impossible to find anyone else with such incredible, awesome, impossible ability to impart such emotional energy to a piano. There is no comparison between this recording and any recording, or any piano playing, that you have ever heard before or will ever hear again. Rating: - * Staggering virtuosity ... These Chopin recordings of Martha Argerich from 1965 are an example of staggering virtuosity of the highest order. She is one of the few pianists I've heard that could rival Michelangeli for technical ability(though both could be erractic at times, with the Italian being the more so of the two.) This cd is one of the crowning achievements of Argerich's career. It is, indeed, a shame that it took so long for these performances to be made available to the public. Given that they were made at Abbey Road in 1965, one wonders if the powers that be didn't want to embarass some other well known residents of that venerable recording studio in those days. While the quartet from Liverpool could produce some great pop songs, none of them, or just about anyone else from any other genre of music, could produce musicianship of the caliber that Martha Argerich displays here. Another must have in any classical cd collection.