Argerich, dark music that comes close to divine
Martha Argerich and Nelson Preire performed 4 encores after their piano duo Wednesday night at Carneggie Hall. The third was a two piano rendition of the “Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy” from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. In the original, the bells and the wind instruments cheerfully echo each other. But not in Argerich’s pianistic interpretation of it. The chime sounds, which her wrists coaxed out of the higher keys, teased in a perverse manner. Rendering the wind instrument’s part, she menacingly struck out the lower notes of the piano.
Argerich relishes in tainting initially light, innocent music with a dash of malevolence. This characteristic quality of her playing appeared not only in the encores. During the main performance, her interpretation of Rachmaninoff was far from the naive passion of romantic period music. There again, her high notes teased like a human murmur. The piece became suggestive, almost like one of Gerschwin’s songs.
As for Nelson Preire, the second piano player, he gracefully brushed through the faster, more difficult moments of the program. But his playing lacked Argerich’s expressiveness and he seemed more her accompaniment than her partner.
