My Top 10 Recordings - no. 10: Argerich/Gaspard

The Lioness of the Piano! 

When I listened the first time to Gaspard de la Nuit I was in my early teens and it was Martha Argerich’s recording. I had never heard such abandon and passion at the piano or in classical music. I was shocked by her limitless command of the instrument.

This is probably the recording I listened to the most in my childhood. It was particularly the third movement ’Scarbo’ which fascinated me so much, that I kept listening to it over and over.

I could hardly wait to be done with my homework to finally enter again in this world of color, of sudden and fickle mood changes. I loved hearing Argerich bring to life the mischievous and horrifying devil that is Scarbo. I loved her seemingly supernatural technique in conjunction with the supernatural character of Scarbo. There was and is something magic and dangerous about this recording.