Warner Classics releases two separate LPs devoted to the legendary Martha Argerich, the first being a best of her concerto recordings, the second a best of her solo piano and chamber music albums.

The term ‘living legend’ is genuinely apt to Martha Argerich, whose dazzling amalgam of virtuosity, insight, eclecticism, generosity and mystery makes her a pianist of unrivalled fascination. Argentinian-born, Viennese-trained, and winner of the 1965 Chopin Competition, she became a sometimes elusive figure whose every appearance and recording aroused eager anticipation.

Martha Argerich was born on 5 June 1941 in Buenos Aires. Her interest in the piano showed itself when she was three. Vincenzo Scaramuzza, her teacher, impressed on her the importance of feeling and the singing lyrical line – a facet of her playing which remains immediately recognisable. At the age of eight she made her debut concert playing Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto and the following year she gave Mozart’s Piano Concerto no.20 in D minor, K466, and Bach’s French Suite in G major, BWV 816.

In 1955 her family moved to Europe so that Martha could study with Friedrich Gulda in Austria; in this she was supported by the Argentine government who gave her parents diplomatic posts in their Embassy in Vienna. She won both the Geneva Music and Ferruccio Busoni International Competitions in 1957, but it was her winning the seventh Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw that confirmed her as a major talent at the age of 24, which was followed by the legendary 1965 Chopin recital to be released on EMI Classics (now Warner Classics).

Her formidable technique has often been compared to that of Horowitz. She is reputed to have learnt Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit in three days having been told it was extremely difficult. Her solo career lasted for a quarter of a century during which her talent for interpreting the romantic classics, notably Chopin and Liszt, were matched by her brilliance in the 20th century masters Ravel, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Messiaen. Her decision to limit her performances to chamber music and concertos was taken, as she admitted in interviews, to her feeling of loneliness on stage alone. This has been her career path for the last decades, and she retains the aura of one of the most brilliant of all pianists of modern generations.