Watch this and see why Martha Argerich is the greatest pianist in the world

[onlymusiciansallowed]

greatest pianist in the world? Because she play's prokovieff? I never heard here playing something with a recognizable interpretation... it's very nice reproducing note's...

[DaveInirts]

lol she found even the time to adjust her hair  at 0:44

[MrDavedust]

to much happening in 1 composition. great piano playing tho.

[mrpolaroid123]

@MrDavedust You say that, but it works. 

[Tubbs3695]

Asian Dad.

"Good, now play it backwards..."

[Nexodaedalus]

That was so damn fast! Literally the fastest I've ever heard that played, and it's my favourite piece of classical music!

[theblueisyou]

more like "watch this and still wonder why martha argerich is the greatists pianist in the world"

[tonycosworth]

1 question please: why this coda is fastest in this film than in the other film of the same Pletner recording ? It's evident hearing it, and the chrono is 1"49" instead of 1'55" ??? and the tone frequency is identical (therefore the speed of the recording s identical)

[earthward1]

I love to listen to her performances because her musicality and accuracy with such difficult material is unequalled. But it's interesting that in some ways she's not the most interesting pianist to watch because she doesn't move a lot or make dramatic gestures. I'm sure that's partly why her technique is so incredible. For some reason though I find it more exciting to watch amateur pianists play these concertos because when they get through it in one piece it feels like such a cathartic triumph.

[tonycosworth]

@earthward1 Yes, very interesting idea: the 3rd beeing tipically a piece for amateur pianist; The Bartok 2nd too...

[Dubickimus]

I still maintain that Franz Liszt is the greatest pianist

[tonycosworth]

@Dubickimus Are you a ghost from XIX° ? I'm afraid

[paulostroff99]

Stunning performance.TY for posting

[basmith13f]

I watched the whole Prokofiev Piano Concerto #3 with Ms. Argerich as soloist of 2008 (a year later than this performance, in Italy). The tempo in the last movement was definitely slower than in this one, but I would have to say that this performance was more exciting.

[ilovegemgem]

is that pletnev??

[bluz1231]

Marta ... je ... preprosto osupljiva ....

[DonnyPiano]

what concerto is this?



[stevouk]

@DonnyPiano Prokofiev's Third

[Strefanasha]

virtuosity does not convince me of the greatness of ANY performer.

If he or she cant do cantible then he is a mediocrity even if his fingers are the fastest on earth.

(BTW one of the best cantabile pianists i ever heard was irina plotnikova, who played with my orchestra in the 1980's. her touch was EXQUISITE)

No, I am not saying argerich is a mediocrity, only that this clip does not convince as to her greatness

[tonycosworth]

@Strefanasha Martha a tout: musicalité et doigts. Comment exprimer la musique sans les moyens: vitesse, puissance, surtout sur un instrument percussif ? sinon on fait du Kempff...

[tonycosworth]

@Strefanasha

Is the problem to be cantible in this coda ? She knows to be cantible better than any pianist: all her dicography prove it !

Are we not in pure percussive music here ?

[wrigleyx]

Réagir à propo de cette vidéo? et bien, un chef d'oeuvre, voilà!

[tonycosworth]

@wrigleyx Oui, c'est le moins que l'on puisse dire; mais on regrettera -comme d'habitude- que la caméra ne soit pas suffisamment centrée sur Martha, et que les plans soient un peu trop éloignés; il existe ici d'autres video qui, avec des vues différentes, peuvent être plus "prenantes" et complètent celle-ci.

Cela étant précisé, elle me fout le grand frisson et j'aimerais bien la capturer...

[wrigleyx]

@tonycosworth oui la regarder jouer est assez saisissant, j'ai vu en effet des vidéo avec un angle meilleur, c'est impressionnant de fluidité, ça semble si facile!! comme celle où la vois jouer Ondine (pas très bien filmé non plus celle là hahaha!!!). Une vidéo de M'sieur Duchable jouer Et 11 op 25 de Chopin, là par contre vu plongeante sur les mains, c'est du caviar :)

[tonycosworth]

@wrigleyx Il faudra que j'aille voir ça !

Reste un problème: le jeu de pédales qu'on aimerait bien voir (c'est mon cas pour le 1° Mvt de la 894...)

[wrigleyx]

@tonycosworth Celle de François René Duchable? Tu va halluciner! enfin je ne connais pas ton niveau alors peu être pas!! moi j'adore le piano mais je suis un guitariste de Blues!! pour les pédales ouais...il faudrait la voir de près Madame Argerich...60 ans de piano, c'est pas rien! rien qu'a froid déjà...ha! les génies!!!

[tonycosworth]

@wrigleyx De quoi parles-tu pour Duchable ? qqchose à voir sur Youtube ?.Moi je ne suis même pas pianiste; j'en suis loin, très loin, très très loin, hélas... j'étudie le piano, nuance !

[hellomate639]

@tonycosworth

Sorry, I don't speak French....

Your comments may have been wasted.

[hahastandupcomedy]

What an incredible performance! I love the 'hair flip' - She's an insanely great treasure! I think if Beethoven saw this, he'd be so freaked out that they would have been the best of friends.

[klaviersonate97]

Pletnev is the best

[hellomate639]

The greatest pianists ever are dead.

Horowitz, Liszt, Rachmaninoff (though he might not like that if his spirit is up there watching somewhere), Beethoven, Benno Moiseiwitsch.

Don't have time to name them all, but plenty are better than Argerich, and she's absolutely brilliant.

It's amazing what natural selection has done to the far ends of the bell curve.

[tonycosworth]

@hellomate639 Fantastic guy, Mr hellomater who heard Beethoven playing !

(Beethoven who was judged as a bad enough pianist by his contemporary witnesses)

Fortunately Mr hello639 was the best witness...

[hellomate639]

@tonycosworth

I didn't hear him myself, but others did, and accounts of what Beethoven could do are more impressive than Argerich.

She'd probably be embarrassed to be called the greatest pianist in the world.

Horowitz didn't consider himself the best pianist in the world.

You want to know who may have been the most talented pianist ever purely as a pianist? Art Tatum, a jazz pianist, who was somewhat of a savant. His accuracy was incredible.

[tonycosworth]

@hellomate639

1) LVB ? j'ai eu de tout autres échos mais on s'en fout: je trouve stupide de juger par personnes interposées des pianistes que l'on n'entendra hélas jamais. Quant à

[tonycosworth]

@hellomate639

2) Je trouve pire que stupide de comparer LVB à Martha

3) Horowitz pensait ce qu'il veut; j'adore l'écouter presque toujours; mais pas toupoursu; comme tous les pianistes.

[tonycosworth]

@hellomate639 4) Si Art Tatum a joué Beeth Schub, Schum Rach Prok Scarl Bart Bach et Scriab, et qu'on peut l'entendre, comparons; sinon, il vaut mieux éviter de raconter des bêtises.

[tonycosworth]

@hellomate639

Car c'est la musique qu'on juge ici, pas la perf technique.

Quand il y a les deux et qu'on n'est jamais ou très rarement déçu, c'est qu'on a affaire aux plus grands;

[tonycosworth]

@hellomate639

En ce sens, Richter et Martha restent mes sommets personnels même si beaucoup d'autres ont pu faire en partie aussi bien, voire (exceptionnellement) mieux.

[odiodi]

Jesuz!



[tonycosworth]

Tout est dans le titre. Merci Lawrencehei

Dommage que d'irrécupérables crtétins osent venir manifester ici leur haine et leur jalousie via des pensées et un vocabulaire immonde.

[cybreeze2]

tim minchin is best hands down :P

[gazzafitz9]

@cybreeze2 yep indeed

[guismiti]

Kissin is the best

[Bruce88keys]

@guismiti Indeed Kissin is the best -

[MUSIC200756]

I still love Martha Argerich she is something she's a beautifull woman

[tayraumuong]

She Play very soon just after she sitdowns and get up very fast once finished lol

[jazzlap]

it looks so easy when she does it. Like a child hitting the piano without a care in the world..

The sound that comes out it's so perfect. If you couldn;t see her you 'd think she is playing from

inside the piano!

[JBHS0681]

So I'll

[Berliozini]

It's amazing to Latin America have produced so many perfect pianists, Martha Argerish, Daniel Barenboim, Both from Argentina, Claudio Arrau from Chile and that impressioning Nelson Freire from Brazil. From this day on to the next century we can talk about Gould, Backhaus, Rubistein, Horowitz, Volodos, Argerish, Arrau and Freire.

[sbq215]

Ehhhhhhhhhh...

[Deutre08]

Why? Is it because she plays almoust everithing faster and careles that should really be?

[010fatalerror]

@Deutre08 her playing is so brainless LOL! Just like she had a motor in her ass. Plays everything fast no matter what she plays (and slow pieces she'd better not play at all because she has no sensitivity whatsoever), the only merit of her playing is speed.

[petertarsio]

BS to all that and we know she can play but there are many pianists out there that can match or surpass her, so no superlatives in that regard.

[CooCurrent]

@petertarsio Music ≠ competition.

[TheJacobite11]

@mojo Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto. End of the third movement.

[MojoFranklin]

What is this piece?

[sthugh]

She's no Art Tatum. But who is....

[copleysq]

grand.

but the greatest pianist recorded is jorge bolet.

by the way, aas to breaking piano, rudolf serkin did in symphony hall boston in a concerto about 1958 or so...stopped while standby emergency tuner relaced string.

anyway bolet is best for many reasons, including sheer effortless power due to his size.

[artymowycz]

i dont know how the piano doesn't break during this piece.

[gmsoyls]

inCREDible!



[evelynthj]

tatesteism: you poor thing, why don't you return to your "first class" country and so help us to clean out our 3rd world countries from people like you?

[hophmi]

Why this fast? Because she can. And it works most of the time. And she gets older, and can still play this way.

[andramoie]

I saw her last wednesday in Gasteig (playing among others Shosty's first piano concerto - one of my favorites). I have to admit it didn't seem her day at all, but it still was awesome!

Hope I'll have the change to listen to hear playing solo, but she doesn't play solo often anymore?

Especially Bach and Scarlatti would be so cool!

[kGmusicpage]

Valentina > Martha. No questions asked

[strevwalsh]

...and to see why Mikhail Pletnev is the worst conductor in the world.

[andrewfinch1066]

Is this a costume performance? Who the hell is that witch playing the song on the piano?  Who can even hear the song while looking at a dried up old sheep's bladder with wires sticking out of the top?

[ravelismyhubby91]

@andrewfinch1066 Obviously not retarded people like you, who call this a "song".

Go back to your Justin Bieber and Rebecca Black playlist.

[andrewfinch1066]

@ravelismyhubby91 Who are Justin Bieber and Rebecca Black? And Ravel is your hubby? Ravel was a faggot. Are you a Muslim woman into faggots or a Muslim man into faggots?

[MrHouyhnhnms]

@andrewfinch1066 ok, you've irritated everyone, now DIE, ok?

[MrHouyhnhnms]

@andrewfinch1066 ok, you've irritated everyone, now DIE, ok?

[06moca1]

@andrewfinch1066 baby baby baby ooo... the song you love and the phrase i used last night when me and your mum spent some alone time

[andrewfinch1066]

@06moca1 My mother wouldn't waste any time with someone who features that piece of schmaltzy salon music that isn't even the best of its opus.

[06moca1]

@andrewfinch1066 m8... you called it a song, that's the same as saying to a christian dinosaurs existed and god was high when he made us

[andrewfinch1066]

@06moca1 I can call it whatever the hell I want to, arseface. Would you prefer if I rewrote my initial comment substituting "song" with "portion of a concerto movement"? Does that change the main point? You either need a brain, a dildo, or both.

[06moca1]

@andrewfinch1066 why would i need a dildo? and i prefer if you called it a piece, not some 'protion of a concerto movement' crap.

btw i like the name you gave me 'arseface'. You remind me of the retard in my class who always gets bullied.

[andrewfinch1066]

@06moca1 A dildo is something you could stick up your bunghole. And do you know why Martha Argerich is famous? She sucked the dick of a man named Michelangeli. Do you think this nasty old hag who slows down at all the hard parts in all of her recordings has talent? If so, you remind me of a deaf nigger that lives in the nuthouse where I volunteer on weekends.

[andrewfinch1066]

@06moca1 How about instead if calling this a piece, I call you a piece of shit? A dildo is something you could stick up your bunghole. And do you know why Martha Argerich is famous? She sucked the dick of a man named Michelangeli. Do you think this nasty old hag who slows down at all the hard parts in all of her recordings has talent? If so, you remind me of a deaf nigger that lives in the nuthouse where I volunteer on weekends.

[lunchmind]

@andrewfinch1066 this racist crap has no place here regardless of what you think of MS. Argerich's playing. Equally repulsive is your demonizing her as a slut who slept her way into fame. She's famous because she's recognized as a world class talent. Just what attracted an apparent idiot like you to this site anyway? There are plent y of other sites for redecks.

[andrewfinch1066]

@lunchmind How is explaining to people that Michelangeli got her recording contracts and victories at competitions because of her virtuosity at the end of his ding-dong in any sense demonizing her. How else can you explain her rise to fame? It corresponded with the rise of Michelangeli's dick into her mouth.

Oh, by the way, did you learn Bill Evans' solo technique yet? Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! If you want to play Waltz for Debbie, just buy a fake book, you boring snake shitface.

[lunchmind]

@andrewfinch1066 YOu're just being a dick. And what does Bill Evans have to do with it? I'm surprised a dimwit like you even knows his name or these other great talents for that matter. I think ,you'd fit in better on Gretchen Wilson's tube site where you can join the other hee-haws in a rousing chorus of Redneck woman.

[MrHouyhnhnms]

@lunchmind AMEN!!!!!!!!!

[lunchmind]

@MrHouyhnhnms Thank you ,Mr. H. What attracted it to this site anyway? It's like finding a couch potato on a wilderness trail.

[Berliozini]

@lunchmind We have a pianist frustrated here, could not play and has just become a critic.

[lunchmind]

@Berliozini HIs racism and vulgar attitude are not justified by his frustration. I too am a frustrated pianist but you won't hear me slandering great artists like Argerich or others. I'l work to improve my playing (or quit: ) )

[MrHouyhnhnms]

@andrewfinch1066 Go chug a beer and beat on a broad, puke.

[brucewayne909]

greatest in the world ??? hardly.....perhaps she is in the top ten..maybe...certainly she is not even close to the great talent of Ashkenazy

[nastyasophie]

beautiful, but..... maybe not the BEST in the world. Try Horowitz?

[chopinandliszt]

Lang Lang too makes stupid facial expressions and plays flamboyantly, do people call him the greatest pianist in the world just for that?

What's your point.

Argerich is one of the greatest pianists, but nothing shown in this video constitutes she's the undisputed #1 of all pianists in the world.

[mwakin2]

@chopinandliszt Dude, it's a joke. It's funny. You can't definitely, empirically, and absolutely prove who the #1 pianist is. This is just a person posting a video of an amazing woman beasting the piano to death,

[irvineworld]

*cough* rubinstein cough*

[Caleta280]

Those hands are made to be in the kitchen! =)

Just joking, she is good but who knows lord if the best..

[bloodgrss]

Make sure you check out Yuja Wang in this--yes she is young--but has an affinity for Prokofiev and plays him in a proper percussive way--and she is a fun personality. We have these giants aging or gone--thank heaven for such as Yuja to take this music into future years when it might fade because of cost etc. Yuja's talent-not to say her dresses-will help it stay alive....

[pyronaught]

Holy Christ that is one fast left hand! All I saw was a blur.

[watsinyrwallet]

what is this piece called ?

[AttemptingToBeBusy]

@watsinyrwallet It's the coda from the last movement from Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3

[Bret6464]

Lawrencehei - I totally agree, Martha is one of the greatest. She was/is a surreal musician and artist, there is immense beauty in her performances :-)

IMO the gods of piano are Rachmaninoff and those who followed Rach in pianism; Gilels, Horowitz, Moiseiwitsch, Weissenberg, Richter (later on, initially he was promoted as the anti-Gilels) and Martha.  Now I love Jung Lin's pianism, she performs Martha-like and Gilels-like. :-) Do not understand comments on "male" vs "female" pianists!

[DeadHappyFilm]

46 people think judging music is a art.

Top comment proves I'm right about those kind of people.

[Gatoradecup]

there is no doubting this player's brilliance, but this 2 minute 47 second clip does not at all justify her to be the greatest piano player in the world.

[koljas66]

Marvellous performance

[steinwaygrande1]

Probably the greatest female pianist of the 20th Century. I thnk this oerformance was utterly superb. Watch out for Valentino Lisitsa - she will take over the reigns when Agerich finally retires. Although now 71 she still plays with her usual high standard of performances.

[Josedono]

I've watched this perhaps thirty five or forty times, trying to get at the magic of it. Never seen anything like that before in my life. I'm not trained in music--did the conductor make a mistake by putting her in a position to embarrass herself, or did he push a great artist to her limits in order to achieve something staggering? If any of you have an opinion, I'd like to hear it. Thanks.

[steinwaygrande1]

@Josedono She is doing what comes naturally to a highly talented and gifted pianist. This is one of her favourite Concertos.Just listen to the audience applause, pity about the abrupt cut off but probably went on for several minutes.

[classic45612]

i'm speechless!

[steinwaygrande1]

@classic45612 Thats an understatement, and I agree withyou. Her preformance of this left me dumbfounded and exhausted. The last time she was in Australia and played this she got a 10 minute standing ovation and performed several encores.

[huwrj]

LOL @ all the YouTube piano experts laying down a critique of a master pianist.

[Anthostomella]

the most exciting performance i've ever heard

[ueblondon]

Amazing

[penguinlybra]

Argerich the greatest pianist in the world? Not even in the top 10!

[steinwaygrande1]

@penguinlybra Ok, if you thinsk she is not in the top ten , then who is. Many of us are of the opinion she is currently and still the best female piansist in the world

[penguinlybra]

@steinwaygrande1 I meant pianists in general, men or women. I think she is a wonderful performer, but also a marketing product of her record company, which shouts with every new record: 'The Greatest Rach' or 'The Greatest Prokofiev'. For my taste, everything Martha does, I heard it somewhere better. My top 10:

Sviatoslav Richter - Artur Rubinstein - Krystian Zimerman - Vladimir Horowitz - Maurizio Pollini - Glenn Gould - Alfred Brendel - Emil Gilels - Vladimir Ashkenazy - Alexis Weissenberg

[steinwaygrande1]

@penguinlybra Yes I agree with you. Perhaps I didnt clarify myslef properly. And you top ten I go along with you as well. And wiht out prejudice and no disrespect to the Asian pianists that are statring to make their mark, it seems as if they are churning them out on a mass production machine. One must remember that there are only a handful of Piainsts that will ever make the top ten in this century. The rest will end up probably washing dishes to make money. Not every one can be a Richter, etc

[penguinlybra]

@steinwaygrande1 Okay, and I've thought about my women top 5: Maria Joao Pires - Bella Davidovich - Clara Haskil - Mitsuko Uchida - Martha Argerich.

[Stupidracoon]

I don't understand why people keep saying this is too fast. It's amazing, and the best interpretation I've heard. And she doesn't look like she's complaining; in fact she looks like she's having a blast. Superior composition, superior ensemble, superior conductor, and the best pianist. It's brilliant.

[wcavuca1946]

This concert always impresses the audience for the speed of his last movement. Marta Argherich's performance seemed me comparable to that ot the top pianists I listened to / wacthed. However, the title (call) for this video seems to be either exagerated or Argentine or both... Not to blame, of course, Ms. Argerisch is indeed wonderful as a pianist!

[ClassicalCurator]

My god, how can you play so intensely and yet still remain relaxed? So pro...

[ShredST]

@ClassicalCurator I'm think relaxation is the key to be able to play intensely, similar to martial arts.

[steinwaygrande1]

@ClassicalCurator The mark of a professional who remains cool , calm and collected under any sort of pressure.Although I have seen her walk off the stage in disgust many years ago

[philiphotchkiss]

She is amazing and it seems that she and M. Pletnev have a very special musical connection.

[cross147]

lol

[infiniterra]

If I could play like she does, I would not mind having my hair the way she does. I love this pianist since decades ago..

[marcind1]

Zimerman is better

[4mebach]

Yes, she is a great pianist. It seems the orchestra drowned her out a bit. I love watching her hands.

[justinus1972]

she needs a hairdo

[rodstartube]

is it prokofiev or something?

[peachmelba16]

Piano demon!

[Alexndr1000]

Argentina.. que orgullo

[Chiewkovsky]

The Piano is SHAKING!!!

[drwklam888]

This is perhaps the gold standard of interpretation of this magnificent piece! This is very very powerful!!!

[Dihelson]

Martha loses ugly against Pogorelich on may pieces, but she is damn good on List´s Sonata. Here, she´s good, but nothing extraordinary...

[jgbusquets]

I prefer Pompa-Baldi performance.

[newFranzFerencLiszt]

can someone explain?

[ConnorV009]

Holy sh.....

[radudeATL]

I love Prokofiev, but it don't love me. That's some hard shit right there.

[Laprevraven]

Do people like Argerich even write their own music, I mean you see all these "Musicians" with their sheet music only playing covers of other famous composers generations ago. I mean is it too hard to write your own stuff or is it not funded? I'm not being ignorant I'm just curious, because I don't know shit about theory but I'm very good at writing my own stuff and improvising.

[analogreproduction]

@Laprevraven

Do I get you right: "Haha, she cannot compose but I can"?

Programmers do not make computers of their own nor do architects make bricks, and Einstein did not make his measuring instruments.

Many great composers - Liszt, Chopin, Debussy, Busoni, just to name a few - were great piano players as well, geniuses in two fields, but most of them are/were not.

The musical heritage is transported to us through great musicians like Argerich, so do not look down on them.

[winnerdoozy]

@analogreproduction the separation of composer and performer is an unfortunate and unhealthy one. there are no artists who only conceptualize art, and leave the actual painting to another. its strange that it happens in music.

[CharlieFreak66]

@winnerdoozy What in the world are you talking about? The separation between composer and performer exists in all performing arts. For example in dance you have choreographer/dancer. In drama you have a playwright/actor. Is it "unfortunate and unhealthy" that the actors in the latest Hollywood movie didn't write the screenplay? Performing and composing are two different skills. Many musicians do both, but there's nothing "unhealthy" about specializing in one or the other.

[analogreproduction]

@CharlieFreak66

My compliments! Couldn't have put it better.

[winnerdoozy]

@CharlieFreak66 Its not specialisation i'm saying is bad - its ignorance. Most performance students never learn to compose at all, and a lot of composers stop playing their instruments. That is the unhealthy separation im talking about. As a result, a lot of professional musicians who perform for their living see newly composed music as less worthwhile than Mendelssohn or Beethoven, and a lot of composers have no idea how instruments work, or what makes players love playing their instruments

[azormage]

@winnerdoozy There never has been and never will be a shortage of superficial virtuosi. But there is no shortage of adventurous performers, either. I'm thinking of pianists like Taylor Denk (he has a marvelous blog), and Marc-Andre Hamelin, who is both a peerless virtuoso and a composer of great facility.

[Laprevraven]

@analogreproduction Well with all do respect that doesn't really answer my question I just so happen to see not many modern composers in the classical field writing their own things, and they only tend to do sheet music and create huge halls of covers from other composers such as Chopin, Rachmaninoff, or Beethoven. I'm a metal musician, and I also compose my own songs and symphonies, and I find my stuff really catchy and so do others, so my question is, where is their stuff?

[TheGingerellas]

She is the best.

[yokehuatgoh]

wow, what a bunch of musicians...

[fabptitpom]

It looks like she's mad against the conductor at the very end, and she's leaving o.o

[bnrshdydvdrtrk]

Very good, but a woman can't be the best, because their hands are too small.

[Mammutinc]

@bnrshdydvdrtrk lol

[springkler]

0:49 shes looking at the orchestra people while playing piano

[juble3]

hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehh­ehe prokofiev<3

[RobinPratt]

Prokofiev Concerto #3.

[JacksonTheGod]

its not tempo guys, its the conductor starting off at the wrong beat~

[vladiinsky]

what was this face at 00:12, like she was unsatisfied with the tempo...

[zakkwyldeverehrer]

Jordan Rudess can play this on his iPad.

[Tsotne16]

a woman with big balls

[1waka1waka1]

Busy busy girl ;)

[olmaleo]

And she finds the time to adjust her hairs (0.45)

:-o