CD: Brahms/ Mendelssohn: Argerich/ Capuçon, et al

The Martha Argerich Project stems from a festival started by the great pianist in Switzerland last year, in which leading instrumentalists come together to work outside the regular concert circuit. This disc, taken (not with ideal sound) from the resulting concerts, features Argerich in music by two composers with whom she is generally not associated.

The Sonata for Two Pianos Op 34b is Brahms's first version of the work that became his F minor Piano Quintet, and the power and dash that Argerich and Zilya Zilberstein brought to it, suggests that more piano duos should take it up. In the Mendelssohn D minor Trio, in which she is partnered by Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, it is fascinating to hear how, as a great Schumann interpreter, Argerich approaches his friend and contemporary. She renders the work almost as a mosaic of fantasy pieces, without ever losing sight of the music's real bone structure.