Martha Argerich and Friends.(Brief article)(Video recording review)

Martha Argerich and Friends. DVD. With Nicolas Economou, piano; Mischa Maisky, cello; Nelson Freire, piano. [U.S.]: Pioneer Classics, 2000, [p1982]. PC-10356. $29.98.

Because the legendarily reclusive Martha Argerich has given fewer public performances in recent years, any opportunity to see and hear her is a treat. This 1982 performance, videotaped for West German television, finds her at her peak and surrounded by equally skilled collaborators.

The fifty-six-minute concert features Mozart's Sonata in D Major, K. 381 for piano, four hands, with Nicolas Economou; Schumann's Phantasiestucke op. 73, with cellist Mischa Maisky; and Rachmaninoff's Suite no. 2 in C Major, op. 17 for two pianos, with Nelson Freire. Argerich and Freire, her friend and frequent collaborator, play Ravel's La Valse as an encore.

While all the performers are excellent, being especially energetic on the Mozart, the visuals are of the standard television quality, cutting back and forth from the musician's hands to their faces to medium shots of the stage, with occasional views of the attentive audience. A little too much time is devoted to the performer's faces, and the Schumann piece is dominated by shots of Maisky's ...