AIBU to be in awe of Martha Argerich?

[Tchocun]

Ripping through high level piano repertoire at age 84 like she's doing a crossword lol. There is something superhuman about this woman. She plays in London on 5 September at the proms. I already have my tickets.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/s/0msr7dF1WS

https://www.discogs.com/release/7910253-Martha-Argerich-Rachmaninoff-Tchaikovsky-Riccardo-Chailly-Kirill-Kondrashin-Rachmaninoff-3-Tchaikovs

Omg that Chailly recording of the Rach 3 is right up there as one of humanity's most sublime moments. There used to be footage of it on YouTube, don't know if there still is.

What I don't understand is how she's still so technically brilliant. I get that she'll continue playing until she drops; most musicians do. And they'll have an audience, because their musicianship and interpretation deepens so it's worth going to see them. But usually, that's all that an audience will get from them. Eg Horowitz in his later years played fistfuls of wrong notes at every turn, but it didn't matter, because he was still giving us the gift of his interpretation skills built over decades. But with Argerich she's doing that as well as being completely virtuosic, as though she was forty years younger. It's astonishing.

You should post a link to this on the thread about Gill Pharoah where the OP seems to think life isn't worth living once someone gets to the elderly age of 75.

This is a wonderful example of age not being a barrier to brilliant achievement.

That’s not what she meant. Some 80yo’s run marathons or play the piano beautifully. Some are riddled with arthritis, cancer, live with chronic pain or need carers to help with all daily tasks.
Which ones do you think she was taking about.

Sorry to derail your thread, OP.

She's amazing. Already excited to seeing her perform Ravel in February.

I don't understand your point.

I just meant it's wonderful to see on this threadsomeone proving that age isn't a barrier to great achievements. Unlike on the other thread where apparently we should all kill ourselves when we reach the " very elderly" age of 75 because apparently our lives arent worth living.

Yes that will be awesome.

She's doing Prokofiev III shortly after in Berlin. No chance of tickets now of course, although I would love to. There is one part of that concerto which most people just cannot play, most even very good concert pianists just glissando the runs. And it sounds fine, but it's not what's written. And she has always played it exactly as scored, even now she always plays it exactly. She plays what people half her age cannot play! It is like she is a marvel, there should be studies done on her. Especially as afaik she doesn't take particular care to keep herself ok - she stays up late, she practices erratically, she doesn't have a regular healthful schedule and she tours heavily.

She is an absolute rock star.

True. And she has preserved her rock star insouciance into her 80s!

That’s not at all what people are saying and you know it.

She is a one-off. I wish I could be here for her Proms concert but unfortunately I am going to be abroad. Will try and watch it on iPlayer if I can.

I reassure her collaborations with Daniel Barenboim who, sadly, is in poor health. I miss his annual Proms appearances with the West Eastern Divan Orchestra.

Well I think she's a once in a generation musical talent but she is legendary for cancelling tours and or withdrawing from concerts last minute from ill health or needing to rest. I know she's 85 now, but she's not been well for years - I was supposed to see her back in 2012 and she cancelled and of course Yujia Wang got her big break in 2007 when Argerich dropped out last minute of a 4 concert engagement.

She may not take great care of herself as you say, but I would so much rather she did have a regular healthful schedule and not overextend and put so much pressure on herself and then have to cancel so frequently.

Wow, just watched that, amazing!

I especially enjoy her playing Chopin, she’s completely amazing.

@Xiaoxiong that must have been so frustrating. I don't think her propensity to cancel is to do with age though. As I understand it she's been doing it all her life. If she doesn't think she'll play well she cancels, or if the conductor agrees she'll play a different concerto. She's got away with it because when she does play she's incredible so people take the gamble. Also I guess she's in the mould of the old prima donnas from a time when that behaviour was acceptable so she's tolerated as having an old school approach.

That said, didn't Yuja Wang (who I also adore) cancel a whole bunch of concerts, pretty much an entire tour, when she broke up with that conductor a couple of years ago?

Me too, I love listening to her playing the Chopin piano concerti.

She's sold out in Birmingham too 😭.

She sells out everywhere. I got our proms tickets by logging on as soon as they went on sale and I was in a virtual queue for 70 minutes. There were very few seats left by that point.

No-one said that, on that thread.

You obviously haven't read the ageist stuff that the OP has voiced.

One thing I will say though is that if you're hell bent on seeing someone ime a lot of classical music venues are refreshingly old school when it comes to returns. Barbican , South Bank, Wigmore Hall, Albert Hall, all have systems where if you pitch up on the day and hang around you can get ticket returns as they come in for face value, often eg from arts desks who have spares and give them back physically before the performance. There's no fucking around with third party sellers and the like. So if you live in Birmingham and have the time you could still get to see her.

That is very much what the OP on that thread said. But I don't want to disrupt this thread which is actually a celebration of what an older person can achieve so I will leave this thread

Ahhhhh this prom sold out before I got round to booking.

Hoping to get a day ticket though. Have already booked my train there and back :)

Just prom it @clary ! Hope to see you there!

@Enrichetta it is very sad about Barenboim. Agree his marvellous orchestra has long been a highlight. Did you see where they played a duet as an encore? It was always a treat to watch them together with him conducting and her solo but there was something extra special about that one - they met all those years ago when they were both piano prodigies, and there they were playing piano together still. Really very beautiful.

Yeh that's the plan haha :)

I usually go with DD but there is no way she would be able to stand for that long so it's a solo trip.