A child prodigy, “Bella Martha”, “Tigressa” – numerous terms have been coined to describe Martha Argerich. However, none of these names do justice to an artist who consistently defies categorization. With an almost rebellious spirit, she defies expectations of her public persona – unbending, independent, unapproachable. She does not fit into any pigeonhole, and any attempt to squeeze her into a prefabricated image is bound to fail. Martha Argerich is not only one of the greatest pianists of our time. She is, as her teacher Friedrich Gulda once said, “a genuine phenomenon that cannot be explained”, “the absolute in art”.

The energy that the Argentinian pianist unleashes on stage is like a natural phenomenon, as if the music flows by itself as if it could take no other path, as easy as a child’s play – like back in kindergarten in Buenos Aires when a boy claimed she couldn’t play the piano. She, barely three years old, sat down at the instrument without hesitation and without ever having touched a key before and flawlessly played a lullaby by ear.

Stories like these contribute to the myth surrounding Martha Argerich. She gave her first concert at seven with piano concertos by Mozart and Beethoven, followed by Schumann’s piano concerto at eleven. She is said to have learned Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in her sleep while her roommate rehearsed the concerto and memorized the complex work as if by magic. At the age of sixteen, she won both the Bolzano and Geneva piano competitions, and eight years later, she celebrated her international breakthrough by winning the prestigious Chopin Competition. By this time, she had already emerged from a virulent crisis. In her early twenties, she hardly touched the piano for two years and seriously considered ending her career. “I lived like a 40-year-old, even though I was still so young,” she later said about this time, which was characterized by endless concert tours and a deep sense of isolation.

Perhaps this experience explains why Martha Argerich no longer gives piano recitals and prefers to make music together. As a focus artist at the Musikverein, she also shares the stage with others: With the Vienna Philharmonic under Tugan Sokhiev, she performs Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto; with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Capuçon brothers, Beethoven’s “Triple Concerto”. She demonstrates her passion for chamber music in a trio with Mischa Maisky and Janine Jansen and a piano duo with Lahav Shani. Under his direction, she also devoted herself to Schumann’s Piano Concerto, a piece close to Martha Argerich’s heart that became her musical autobiography throughout her career.

“I have a real affinity with Schumann. He’s like a soulmate,” she once revealed. “My image of him can’t be put into words; it’s constantly changing. His music is like life: spontaneous, unpredictable and full of surprises.” This is a description that could apply to Martha Argerich herself and her approach to music. In an interview with her biographer, Olivier Bellamy, she said: “I try to achieve directness in music. It’s like a person. If you think you know exactly how things will go with someone, you often experience a fiasco. It’s about being in the moment, engaging with how a person is and not with an idea of them. It’s the same with music. It’s a constant discovery. You find something new every time. At least that’s how I feel, and I hope it stays that way – because the music is always better: better than what we play and want. It’s better than ourselves.”