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EMI Classics celebrates the 70th birthday of one of the greatest pianists of the 20thcentury, Martha Argerich. Born in Buenos Aires, she took piano lessons with Vicenzo Scaramuzza at the age of five. In 1955 she went to Europe with her family, and received tuition from Friedrich Gulda in Vienna; her teachers also included Nikita Magaloff and Stefan Askenase. Following her first prizes in the piano competitions in Bolzano and Geneva in 1957, she embarked on an intensive program of concerts. Her victory in the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1965 was a decisive step on her path to worldwide recognition.
Her decision to limit her performances to chamber music and concerto was taken, as she admitted in interviews, to her feeling of loneliness on stage alone. This has been her career path for the last 30 years and she retains the aura of one of the most brilliant of all pianists of modern generations.
Martha Argerich appears regularly as a jury member at important competitions and her friends and protégées captivate audiences with exquisite performances of chamber music at her festival at Lugano. Now at the age of 70 we can salute her as the phenomenon she undoubtedly is and wish her continued success in all aspects of her life.
