Martha
ArgerichFrom the age of five, Martha Argerich studied piano with Vicenzo Scaramuzza in Buenos Aires.
In 1955 she came to Europe to continue with Friedrich Gulda in Vienna.
Following her first prizes in the piano competitions in Bolzano and Geneva in 1957, she embarked on a concert career. Her victory in the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1965 confirmed her worldwide prominence.
Martha Argerich rose to further fame with the breadth of her interpretations, ranging from Bach through Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, Debussy, Ravel to Bartók. She has worked with the great conductors and also has remained intensely involved in chamber music.
At the age of 17 she accompanied the violinist Joseph Szigeti, and toured Europe, America and Japan with Gidon Kremer and Mischa Maisky. She has recorded much of the repertory for four hands and for two pianos with Nelson Freire, Stephen Kovacevich, Nicolas Economou and Alexandre
Rabinovitch.
Her recordings include solo works by Bach, Brahms, Chopin, Liszt and Schumann; concerti by Chopin, Liszt, Ravel, Prokofiev, Beethoven and Stravinsky. She has longstanding ties with Deutsche Grammophon.
From the chamber repertoire, she has recorded works by Schumann and Chopin with Mstislav Rostropovich, and cello sonatas by both Bach and Beethoven with Mischa Maisky. Her recordings with Gidon Kremer of Prokofiev sonatas received the 1992 Tokyo Record Academy Award, the Diapason d'Or 1992 and the Edison Award 1993.
In 1999, the first International Martha Argerich Piano Competition took place in Buenos Aires. Later that year the second Martha Argerich Music Festival took place in Japan.