Search - Robert Schumann, Martha Argerich :: Robert Schumann: Kinderszenen/Kreisleriana

Argerich According to Taste

MrPoetry | Massachusetts | 06/19/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Last Summer I finally had the opportunity to hear Argerich live in concert (Prokoviev, not Schumann -- but it hardly mattered). I felt my musical appreciation life was complete. As recent New York Times articles have said, Argerich in concert inspires something very like the 'Lisztomania' phenomenon in the 19th century. Live, sitting at the piano, fingers often moving so fast they can't be followed with the eye, yet always poised like doing this were the most natural thing in the world, Argerich seems more an elemental force or goddess than a human pianist...at least to people who become involved in her music making. (At the concert I attended she received a 15-20 minute nonstop standing ovation -- no exaggeration -- so it seemed everyone was involved.)This is all by way of saying that Argerich's recordings don't in my experience -- possibly can't -- live up to her live performances. And so what some people hear as 'virtuosity for its own sake' (quoted from above review), may be the most thrilling music ever heard by the people in the studio at the time she recorded it. Or maybe she needs a concert hall audience, and the studio technicians heard brilliant virtuosity.As to this recording, I find it to be for the most part vintage Argerich. There are passages that are either too briskly stormed through or that didn't translate onto record and needed to be heard live (microphones are not ears and do change the sound -- that's why there's no perfect stereo system). But if you are able to get into Argerich's sound world -- one of profound emotional intelligence and dynamism -- then what could sound like caprice begins to thrill. The Gramophone reviewer noted Argerich's identification with the child's point of view in Kinderszenen, and I hear that as well. That performance is full of wonder and impulse and 'seeing what's on the other side of that door.' The Kriesleriana is a wild, passionate ride, but with great concentration and intensity in the slow movements. Her tempi, as always, are fast -- almost like the rest of the world is moving in slow motion to her. The sound on the LP was crystal clear, a little light in the bass, neither rich and warm nor cold nor brittle -- just raindrop clear: a typically good DG recording.If you like Argerich, this is a marvellous disc. If you often have reservations about her playing, you will almost certainly have them again here; though I heartily recommend attending at least one of her concerts at the earliest opportunity."

I hate this CD!

Todd R. Peckarsky | Reston, VA United States | 12/12/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I hate this CD! I choose to listen to it primarily for the Kreisleriana, one of my favorite pieces of Schumann -- and then, to my chagrin, I get sidetracked by Kinderscenen, the first piece on this disc. Once I hear the lovely opening strains of "From foreign lands and peoples," I am "hooked" and must finish listening to this piece in its entirety before I get to hear the Kreisleriana. What a horrible predicament . . . to have two stunning performances of two entirely different works by the same composer and same artist on a single CD!! Seriously, though, while Martha Argerich needs no endorsement -- certainly not from a mere mortal like me -- the interpretations on this disc are nothing short of extraordinary. The alternately gentle ease, whimsical jerkiness, and general loveliness with which she plays the Kinderscenen truly presents this as a piece not for children, but for adults about children with all of their profound yet innocent thoughts and delights. One loses oneself in this musical panorama of childhood brought forth by Ms. Argerich. Regarding Kreisleriana, it is best that I say nothing and simply insist that everyone who loves music owes himself or herself the hearing of this romantic, mysterious, yet subtle masterpiece of Schumann brought forth through the mind and fingers of Ms. Argerich. (I truly feel indebted to her, knowing her aversion to solo playing, that she has graced us with these recordings, of which the purchase price is as nothing when compared with the inestimable value of the production.) This is a performance that is at once intensely passionate and caressingly beautiful. Thunderously powerful and quietly mysterious -- all as Schumann intended . . . but almost never realized in the concert hall, so difficult is the performance of this work both technically and interpretively. In closing, while I still adore the (justly) legendary Kreislerianas of Kempff and Horowitz, there's just something about Argerich here that makes the heart beat a bit faster."

One phenomenal artist!

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 09/25/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For those fortunate enough to have heard Martha Argerich in concert are well aware of her innate musicality and brilliance of execution. Though she is usually associated with the "barn-burner" repertoire she has always been equally at home in the gentler tenderness of such works as in this recordings Kinderszenen by Robert Schumann (paired with an equally successful reading of the Kreisleriana). Yes, she does have her own ideas about tempi and dynamics, but this music is, after all, form the Romantic Era when just such personality traits were de rigueur with performers (and composers performing their own works!). Argerich never gets in the way of the composer's markings, she just leans into the inner voices and there finds interpretations that sing. Her nonchalant (read 'unfussy') opening of 'Von fremden Landern und Menschen' is childlike innocence itself, and when she approaches 'Ritter con Steckenpferd' we are on a wild ride of technical finesse. The balance of the recording (made in 1984) is up to the old standards set by DGG. This is an enormously satisfying CD of two wonderful cycles from Schumann's repertoire for the piano alone."