DVD Videos

Video Artists International takes great pride in the home video release of a very special concert by Martha Argerich, a legend among living pianists. In 1976, Miss Argerich was in the studios of the CBC Montreal network where she performed the Schumann Piano Concerto, Liszt’s Funérailles and Ravel’s Jeux d’eau.

The concerto receives a patrician performance with all the tonal beauty one would expect from this remarkable artist. The Ravel also benefits from her gorgeous tonal palette and evenness of touch. It is in the Liszt that one experiences the staggering virtuosity that is the other element of Argerich’s art. The left-hand octave passages in Funérailles are played with such awesome speed that the video cameras could barely capture the movement of the hand. As exhilarating to watch as to hear, Argerich on television is a major addition to the recorded work of one of the foremost talents of our day.

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995) was, paradoxically, one of the most celebrated and one of the most reclusive pianists of his time. His fabled technique and peerless musicianship earned him attention early on as the undisputed winner of the 1939 Geneva International Music Competition. One of the jury members was Alfred Cortot, who announced "A new Liszt is born!". To the frustration of his public, Michelangeli’s studio recordings were few and his concert appearances sporadic: his brief recital for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (taped in the Toronto studios, 1970) was appropriately titled "A Most Rare Event". It features a sterling performance of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 3 in C Major, Op. 2, No. 3.

Sviatoslav Richter (1915–1997) was a pianist in the Great Tradition, yet there was nothing traditional about this collosus of the keyboard. Few pianists have had the technical, emotional, and intellectual range that Richter brought to his performances. In 1964, Richter was invited to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Toronto studios for a videotaping of a recital program. The main work of the program, Prokofiev’s Second Piano Sonata in D minor, is a perfect vehicle for a demonstration of Richter’s art, combining, as it does, passages of thrilling virtuosity contrasted with some of Prokofiev’s most lyrical pages. The Sonata is flanked by Brahms’s lovely E minor Intermezzo and two contrasting works by Ravel: the shimmering impressionistic tapestry of Jeux d’eau and the brilliant Spanish-flavored Alborado del Gracioso.

Live Recitals from Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires (1992) and Teatro Il Sistina, Rome (1996).

Includes music by Verdi, Mussorgsky and Bach

A documentary about Wanda Landowska, the harpsichord player. Also includes footage of live performances.

Live recording 1995 from the Great Hall of the Philharmonic, St Petersburg, Russia