Martha showed up in Houston and played the Prokofiev 3rd for all it was worth. We had a great time and she was afforded all of the support that an audience could bestow. SO many curtain calls, two encores, just fabulous music making!! She persuaded the orchestra to exit the stage and she did finally as well. The Verbier Orchestra was amazing , so much young talent in one place, so professional and enthusiastic, responding to Dutoit's direction. It was obvious that they were having a good time . I doubt that music making can get much better.

John,

What a great review, I'll be going to hear her play this coming Friday - Avery Fischer Hall, and hope she shows up.

Can't wait, counting the days.

Wow!
What were the encores?

I read that she played a sort of Chopin like intro to the Scarlatti in a review. Is this true?

Yeah, i couldn't find anyone who could identify what the first piece was. Everyone just thought it sounded like Chopin or really early Scriabin.

And she played the Scarlatti k 141 (d minor i think?? the one with the repeated notes)

I'll also be there in New York on Friday. Looking forward to it - the Prokofiev is one piece I've never heard her play live.

I'm going to hear her play on Friday also. We'll have to compare notes.

Got my tickets through TDF, e-tickets so I won't know till Friday where my seat is.

Can't wait.

Try not to rub it in, okay?

I'll be there as well on Friday, this week just won't go fast enough!! Also I heard that the Chopin piece was a Mazurka, but I don't know if this is right.

I was told today by a friend that it was a Chopin Mazurka too, so I guess it must have been. I'm not really familiar with the Mazurkas.

She did a bang-up job (that's praise, folks) here in Chicago this evening, and the orchestra was marvelous in the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, as well as two encores, a section from Bizet's L'Arlesienne suite and Chabrier's Rhapsodie Espagnole.

A friend of mine from Minneapolis was at that concert and this is his report as posted on the Argerich DB:

Hi all,

I arrived, cautiously optimistic, at the Harris Theater tonight, about
half an hour before the concert was to begin. The tuner was working
feverishly up until the last minute to make sure the piano was
perfect. My seat was in the first balcony, third row, with the piano
keyboard in my direct line of sight--no need to crane my neck.

The theater itself was a slightly ugly space--"atrocious" is what the
man sitting next to me called it-- but it was quite obviously designed
for its acoustics. I've never had such a good aural experience in a
balcony.

The presence of the piano on stage indicated that my seven years of
hoping she'd show up to any of the concerts I bought tickets to would
finally bear fruit.

And she was amazing.

She was greeted with a roaring ovation upon entering the stage. Half
the audience lost control and applauded after the first movement, and
she turned and nodded politely. During the quiet moments in the
concerto, I heard nary a cough. In fact, I don't think anyone seated
near me was even breathing.

I can't say much about the performance itself that hasn't already been
said in reviews of the other performances on this tour. But as far as
my first real-life Argerich experience, I was impressed with how
effortless her technique is in repertoire of such vile difficulty. I
have seen her in videos in this concerto from several points along her
career, but to witness it in person-- it's almost a letdown. Surely
it should look more difficult than this!

Encores were Scarlatti and that Chopin f-minor mazurka, as in the
other stops on the tour.

Those of you in Europe who can see her frequently are truly fortunate.

I am free to die now.

What your buddy didn't say about the concert was that there were TONS of empty seats. The concert was so badly publicized, the piano rep teacher at my school (northwestern university - in a suburb of chicago) who conducts at the lyric opera, did not know about it.

Aside from that, the concert was an unbelievable experience. Seeing Martha made me remember what music is about!

Aw nuts, I should have flown out for it.

But empty seats for Argerich in Chicago? It beggars belief. It's not as if she performed in Crawford, Texas.

Actually, I walked up to the box office and bought my ticket half an hour before the concert began. Ended up in Row X, keyboard side, and the man next to me commented that we probably had the best seats in the house. For that performance, they were all best seats.

That doesn't bode well. I can't say that the concert in Houston was exceedingly well publicized, but we are season ticket holders and it was an additional option when we purchased those. I DO know that the phone representative indicated that the tickets would not have a refund if Argerich didn't show. I think that it is possible that there is a certain fear factor involved here of wasting money. I took the risk. I took the same risk in the late 70's for a Horowitz recital. I got lucky both times. As far as knocking Texas (Crawford), the arts scene here is fairly robust in the Dallas and Houston metro areas. We had Argerich last week, and we are having Emanuel Ax this week. Not to mention the piano festival last week as well. So far this season we have had Matsuev playing Tchaikowsky, Ohlsson playing Beethoven 5, Gerstein playing both Liszt's Totentanz and Rachmaninoff's Paganini Rhapsody. We have yet to hear B.Douglas play Mozart 25, Hough play Rach.1, Thibaudet play the Ravel left hand, Wosner play Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain. Lang lang is also playing in the spring sometime. Things could be far worse here in Texas as far as piano music is concerned.

If she performed in Crawford, i wonder if George Bush would invite her to his ranch (doesn't he have a few Steinways in the ranch?).