Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven, Alexander Borodin, Frank Bridge, Felix Mendelssohn, Darius Milhaud, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Francis Poulenc, Alexander Scriabin, Mieczyslaw Weinberg
Performer: Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky, Eduardo Hubert, Dora Schwarzberg, Michael Guttmann, Nora Romanoff, Mark Drobinsky, Akane Sakai, Lilya Zilberstein, Anton Gerzenberg, Alexander Mogilevsky, Andrey Baranov, Geza Hosszu-Legocky, Jing Zhao, Gautier Capuçon, Gabriela Montero, Dagmar Clottu, Francesco Piemontesi, Daniel Rivera, Gidon Kremer
Orchestra: Orchestra della Svizzera italiana
Conductor: Jacek Kaspszyk
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Warner
Catalogue: 2564613460
Release: 2015
Size: 1.76 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K466
01. I. Allegro
02 .II. Romance
03. III. Rondo – Allegro assai
04. Beethoven: Variations on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen”, for Cello and Piano, WoO 46
Milhaud: La création du monde, Op. 81b
05. I. Prelude
06. II. Fugue
07. III. Romance
08. IV. Scherzo
09. V. Finale
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 11
10. I. Allegro di molto
11. II. Andante
12 .III. Menuetto – Allegro molto
13 .IV. Allegro con fuoco
Borodin: Piano Quintet in C minor
14. I. Andante
15. II. Scherzo – Allegro non troppo
16. III. Finale – Allegro moderato
Bridge: Cello Sonata in D minor, H125
17. I. Allegro ben moderato
18. II. Adagio ma non troppo
19. III. Molto allegro e agitato
Poulenc: Sonata for Two Pianos
20. I. Préude. Modéré
21. II. Rustique. Naif et lent
22. III. Final. Très vite
Poulenc: Cello Sonata, Op. 143
23. I. Allegro. Tempo di Marcia
24. II. Cavatine. Très calme
25. III. Ballabile. Très animé
26. IV. Finale. Largo, très librement – Presto subito – Largo
27. Scriabin: Fantasy for 2 Pianos in A Minor
Weinberg: Violin Sonata No. 5 in G Minor, Op. 53
28. I. Andante con moto
29. II. Allegro molto
30. III. Allegro moderato
31. IV. Allegro – Andante – Allegretto
Warner Classics is pleased to release the 12th annual 3CD set of highlights from the Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano, described in The Times (London), as “community music-making on a deluxe scale, with performers and listeners mutually uplifted by music’s wonders.” The recordings celebrate the musical fruits of a project in which young artists join seasoned performers, including Martha Argerich herself, to explore wide-ranging chamber music and orchestral repertoire, both well-known and rarely heard.
In addition to Ms Argerich, the 2014 Festival featured long-time collaborators such as Gidon Kremer, Gabriela Montero, Mischa Maisky, Gautier Capuçon and Lilya Zilberstein, as well as many of Ms Argerich’s young protégées, including pianists Anton and Daniel Gerzenberg and violinists Geza Hosszu-Logocky and Andrey Baranov, winner of the 2012 Queen Elizabeth Competition. Also featured are pianists Alexander Mogilevsky, Francesco Piemontesi, Daniel Rivera, Dagmar Clottu, Akane Sakai, Eduardo Hubert, violinists Dora Schwarzberg and Michael Guttman, violist Nora Romanoff and cellists Jing Zhao and Mark Drobinsky.
The piano has been at the heart of all Lugano Festival programmes, from the Festival’s inception, in performances of standard repertoire alongside rarely heard compositions and the 2014 season was no exception. Each year the Festival includes a piano concerto with Ms Argerich as soloist and this time it is Mozart’s Concerto No 20 in D minor, K466, with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana conducted by Jacek Kaspszyk. Argerich also performs sonatas with each of two long-standing collaborators, cellist Mischa Maisky and violinist Gidon Kremer. She joins Maisky in Beethoven’s Variations on ‘Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen’ based on Papageno and Pamina’s duet in Mozart’s opera Die Zauberflöte and Kremer, a champion of the work of Shostakovich’s younger friend and colleague Mieczysław Weinberg, in the composer’s Fifth Violin Sonata.
The Swiss pianist Dagmar Clottu appears for the first time in this series, joining Argerich in Francis Poulenc’s Piano Sonata for four hands. Gautier Capuçon and Francesco Piemontesi perform Poulenc’s Cello Sonata and Capuçon performs the Cello Sonata in D minor by Frank Bridge with Gabriela Montero.
Other works featured include Darius Milhaud’s jazzy ballet, La création du monde, performed in the composer’s arrangement for piano quintet; Alexander Borodin’s early Piano Quintet; Felix Mendelssohn’s First Symphony, composed at the age of 15, in an arrangement by Ferruccio Busoni for four players at two pianos; and Alexander Scriabin’s Fantasy in A minor, envisaged as a work for piano and orchestra but only sketched for two pianos, and neither orchestrated nor performed during his lifetime.
Few artists have nurtured and promoted emerging young musicians with the level of personal commitment shown by Martha Argerich. In the process, she has created inspired chamber music partnerships mixing established and up-and-coming artists. A legend in her own lifetime for her technical mastery and passionate artistry, Argerich possesses an infectious spirit that has fired her own performances and partnerships as well as those of her colleagues and protégées.
After setting up Meeting Point at Beppu, Japan in 1996 and the Martha Argerich Festival in Buenos Aires in 1999, the pianist decided to create a similar gathering of musical minds in Europe. The southern Swiss town of Lugano was identified as an ideal setting for a project based on the spirit of building a community of close-knit relationships among young and established artists and the Progetto Martha Argerich was launched in 2002. More than a decade later, the Festival continues to retain its original experimental ‘feel’ because of the original programming and the emergence of new performing talents. Geoffrey Norris in The Daily Telegraph wrote, “It is always instructive to see who has been invited to perform at the Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano, because the cast list is a reliable guide to some of the most exciting talent in the musical world today.”
The fourteenth season of the Progetto Martha Argerich will take place from 10-29 June 2015 and will include performances by many of the artists appearing on these recordings.
Similar to previous volumes in this long-running series, the Live from Lugano 2014 box set offers the expected mix of a piano concerto, various chamber works, and keyboard performances by Martha Argerich and a group of well-known and rising musicians. While most of the performances are satisfying, particularly Argerich’s refined interpretation of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, and the handful of chamber sonatas by Frank Bridge, Francis Poulenc, and Mieczyslaw Weinberg, there is one selection that doesn’t work so well. The arrangement for piano quintet of Darius Milhaud’s La création du monde is unbalanced in the murky recording, and the lackluster transcription and sluggish performance show none of the jazziness and charm of the original version for chamber orchestra. Other than that oddity, and the curiosity that is Ferruccio Busoni’s youthful transcription for two pianos, eight hands of Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 1 in C minor, which comes off more like a clever stunt than a compelling performance, the rest of the pieces are well-chosen and equally well-played. The roster of artists includes Lugano regulars, like cellists Mischa Maisky and Gautier Capuçon, violinist Gidon Kremer, and pianist Gabriela Montero, though most of the musicians are not household names. All the same, they are likely familiar to collectors of these live recordings and deserve the exposure the festival brings.