happy birthday, martha!

Martha Argerich turns 84 today. 16 years ago, she became the reason I devoted myself to the piano, which otherwise would have been but a bivouac in my fantasy of becoming an organist. Her performance of Chopin's C-sharp Minor Scherzo from the 1965 International Chopin Competition, which she won, continues to excite, all these years later. Between her age, her propensity to cancel concerts, and the fact that she seldom performs in the US, it is unlikely I'll ever get to see her live, which is a real shame. Her stature during my lifetime was as great as Horowitz's and Rubinstein's were a generation before or Hofmann's and Rachmaninoff's a generation before even that. Happy Birthday, Martha! 💐💐💐

 

EDIT (6/22): I looked up Martha Argerich's concert schedule a week or two ago and genuinely considered buying a ticket to her concert in Hamburg this weekend. It would have been the most spontaneous thing I'd ever done. The cost of flying to Germany for a weekend and back on short notice would likely have been obscene, but I'd be treating myself. Anyway, reason kicked in at the last minute to pop my balloon, and of course I didn't end up going. Today someone uploaded a bootleg recording of her playing a solo piece (Chopin's B-flat Minor Scherzo) from that concert – a phenomenon so rare that you'd be better off burning your money on lotto tickets than trying to catch her playing one in concert. The universe certainly has a wicked sense of humor.