She is one of the most famous pianists alive (and definitely THE most famous female pianist). Her life and her pianistic abilities are the stuff of legend. Listening to her playing is like putting your hand into a power socket. She has that ‘electric’ quality in her performance. She once dubbed ‘The Whirlwind from Argentina’. I say that she indeed is a whirlwind, but a whirlwind made of fire. When she was 16, she won the first prize of Geneva International Music Competition and Ferruccio Busoni Competition. Eight years later she won the most coveted prize of the legendary Chopin International Competition.

Martha Argerich has a real affinity towards Prokofiev Piano Concerto no.3. She learned the piece -literally- in her sleep while her roommate practiced it. By her own admission, she even picked up all the mistakes that her roommate made. The only time she worked on the piece is actually to remove those mistakes. Andre Previn introduces Martha on their performance together on 1977 as follows: “It is probably the most popular of the Post-Romantic piano concertos. And this for very good reasons: it is very dynamic, it is very Russian, and it is terribly difficult. Obviously, the word “difficult” has never been explained to the soloist playing tonight.”