Great music; fair photography
The music and the playing of Argerich and her friends are first-rate. The complexity of 2 piano music or 4 hand piano music is wonderful to hear and to behold. The hearing was wonderful; the beholding was not.
Too much time was spent looking at the backs of performers, the nose and prominent wave of Ar gerich hair, the beard of Freire. Admittedly, closeups of performers can be very rewarding, but when more than one or two features consumes the entire screen.
I believe that music lovers who buy DVD per- formances of classical music want to see the musicians plying their virtuosity. That means for pianists the hands should be featured. That's where the music is being made. Certainly, camera views can be arranged to accommodate both the upper body, arms, hands, and keyboard.
In music utilizing two pianos it seems that a split-sreen technique could have been used to capture the total performance from the two players at the same time so that the listener
could see...
Too many faces / So few hands
This video is an excelent performance. In fact, Argerich was in a peak! Somethings that are not so good:
The Schumann's Fatasie is a very nice piece and the sound is really good. But, I don't know why, the cameras seems to treat Mr. Maisky as a kind of soloist, and Argerich's hands its almost never seen.
The cameras shows the faces of the musicians for a long time, more than necessary. When she was playing with Nelson Freire, there is a camera that shows a frontal vision of the two pianos, you see the "body" of the pianos instead of the hands. The hands appears too, but it could appear more.
Some positive points are:
The sound quality is very, very good. The selection is very special. The last two pieces are very strong. The performance is perfect!
There is some program extras, like biographies and music titles. One of them is a feature called music analisys. It's really interesting. You can listen to the music and see a legend explaining the parts of the music...
A wonder to behold
Argerich's rhythm is impeccable. Although I am not crazy about Freire, he seems to be among the few who can keep up with her! As another reviewer stated, I expected to see the performer's hands a lot more often. AND...I thought the camera spent too much time on Friere and his hands and not on Argerich. After all, it is called MARTHA ARGERICH and Friends. But thankfully, the sound and quality of this DVD made me forget about it for a while. I sorely miss Economou! He and Argerich were made for each other. Their recording of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker is a gem. This Mozart 1-piano 4-hands sonata is a favorite of mine and it was a real treat to see. Maisky's performance of Schumann was something else. I had forgotten how beautiful this work was.
All in all, this DVD is a must for all Argerich fans.
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