Martha Argerich - Martha Argerich and Friends: Live from the Lugano Festival 2010 (2011)

This box set really is amazing value and would be well worth having at three times the price! Many people sing the praises of Martha Argerich to the skies, so that the superlatives start to seem a bit predictable almost, but here it has to be said that her performance of the Chopin concerto is a marvel. Of the three versions made commercially available it strikes me as the best, partly because it is so vividly recorded, but also because the live occasion always brings out something remarkable in her playing and the passion, risk-taking and sheer virtuosity of her dispatch leave you in a state of disbelief! I think this is probably the best Chopin 1 I have ever heard. There was a live recording of the Schumann with Harnoncourt a few years ago on Teldec where she was caught on tape with the same fire and urgency ... But that is by no means the only outstanding feature here; the two piano quintets by Granados and Korngold are both well worth getting to know, although I had never even heard of either, while Les Preludes by Liszt is given in a stunning two-piano arrangement by the composer, and there are brilliant arrangements of The Firebird, Porgy and Bess and other fantastic original music. Both Capucon brothers put in an appearance in Schumann works and are outstanding, and Stephen Kovacevich appears in a very welcome new version of the Bartok Sonata for two pianos and percussion ... Altogether these performances give a great deal of pleasure and make you wish you could have been there live; however failing this, hearing these discs is the next best thing.