Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3, BB 127, Sz. 119 - CD

“Boulez is arguably the most influential figure in the world of music today” The Guardian

“the hushed intensity of the writing, as well as the biting Hungarian flavour, is caught superbly, thanks to Solti as well as to the soloist, and there is no sentimental lingering. In the Piano Concerto, the partnership between Ashkenazy and Solti works equally well.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“As always with this most mercurial of virtuosos, Martha Argerich's playing is generated by the mood of the moment and many listeners may well be surprised at her relative geniality with Dutoit. Personal and vivacious throughout, she always allows the composer his own voice. This is particularly true in Bartók's Third Concerto where her rich experience in chamber music makes her often primus inter pares, a virtuoso who listens to her partners with the greatest care. In the Adagio religioso she achieves a poise that has sometimes eluded her in the past and her finale is specially characterful, her stealthy start to the concluding Presto allowing the final pages their full glory. Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony achieve a fine unity throughout, a sense of like-minded musicians at work.
All true musicians will recognise performances of a special magic and integrity. In the Prokofiev First Concerto, her opening is arguably more authentically brioso than ferocious, her overall view a refreshingly fanciful view of Prokofiev's youthful iconoclasm. The central Andante assai is inflected with an improvisatory freedom she probably wouldn't have risked earlier in her career and in the Allegro scherzando she trips the light fantastic, reserving a suitably tigerish attack for the final octave bravura display. Her performance of the Third Concerto is less fleet or nimble-fingered than in her early days but is more delectably alive to passing caprice. The recordings are clear and naturally balanced.
.......................................................................
Martha Argerich's return to the studios in two concertos she has not previously recorded is an uplifting moment. As always with this most mercurial of virtuosos, her playing is generated very much by the mood of the moment, but you may well be surprised at her relative geniality with Dutoit here. Her entire reading is less hard-driven, her opening arguably more authentically brioso than ferocious, her overall view a refreshingly fanciful view of Prokofiev's youthful iconoclasm. The central Andante assai is inflected with an improvisatory freedom she would probably not have risked earlier in her career and in the Allegro scherzando she trips the light fantastic, reserving a suitably tigerish attack for the final octave bravura display.
Again, while her performance of the Third Concerto is less fleet or nimble-fingered than in her early legendary disc for DG with Abbado; it's more delectably alive to passing caprice.
Part-writing and expressive detail interest her more than in the past and there's no lack of virtuoso frisson in the first movement's concluding quasi-fugal più mosso chase. Once more Argerich is unusually sensitive in the central Andantino, to the fourth variation's plunge into Slavic melancholy and introspection. Personal and vivacious throughout, she always allows the composer his own voice.
This is true to an even greater extent in Bartók's Third Concerto where her rich experience in chamber music makes her often primus interpares, a virtuoso who listens to her partners with the greatest care. Dutoit and his orchestra achieve a fine unity throughout.
The recordings are clear and naturally balanced and only those in search of metallic thrills and rushes of blood to the head will feel disappointed.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010