Martha Argerich and Baruch Meir performing works for piano Four-Hands by Maurice Ravel and Leo Smit.

Opening Gala recital for the 11th Bösendorfer and Yamaha USASU International Piano Competition. Recorded on 01/02/2025. Evelyn Smith Music Theatre, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA.
Program includes Ravel (1875-1937) Ma mère l'Oye (Mother Goose Suite) and Leo Smit (1900-1943) Divertimento. Argerich performs two encores, Schumann Traumeswirren (Op. 12/7) and Bach Gavotte(English Suite No. 3).
0.00 Applause
0.51 Ma mère l'Oye, Maurice Ravel
16:10 Divertimento, Leo Smit
31:48 Encores: Schumann and Bach
Martha Argerich was born in Buenos Aires. From the age of five, she took piano lessons with Vicenzo Scaramuzza. In 1955 she went to Europe with her family, and received tuition from Friedrich Gulda in Vienna; her teachers also included Nikita Magaloff and Stefan Askenase. Following her first prizes in the piano competitions in Bolzano and Geneva in 1957, she embarked on an intensive programme of concerts. Her victory in the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1965 was a decisive step on her path to worldwide recognition.
Martha Argerich rose to fame with her interpretations of the virtuoso piano literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. But she does not regard herself as a specialist in "virtuoso" works - her repertoire ranges from Bach through Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, Debussy and Ravel, to Bartók.
She appeared with Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic at the 1992 New Year's Eve Concert with Strauss's Burleske and also at the Salzburg Festival at Easter 1993. May 1998 saw the long-awaited musical "summit meeting" between Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky and Gidon Kremer. On the occasion of a memorial concert for the impresario Reinhard Paulsen, the three artists came together in Japan, where they performed piano trios by Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky (recorded live by DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON). In March 2000 Martha Argerich gave her first great solo appearance in almost 20 years in New York's Carnegie Hall.
She has also dedicated herself to chamber music, and has recorded works by Schumann and Chopin with Mstislav Rostropovich, and cello sonatas by both Bach and Beethoven with Mischa Maisky. She has made numerous successful recordings with Gidon Kremer, such as violin sonatas by Schumann and works by Bartók, Janácek and Messiaen (PRIX CAECILIA 1991), and Mendelssohn's concerto for violin and piano with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Their recording of Prokofiev sonatas and melodies received the 1992 Tokyo RECORD ACADEMY AWARD, the DIAPASON D'OR 1992 and the EDISON AWARD 1993. One of their most outstanding recording achievements was that of the complete Beethoven violin sonatas (Nos.1-3: RECORD ACADEMY AWARD 1985), which was concluded with the release of the Sonatas op. 47 "Kreutzer" and op. 96 in 1995. Among her more recent releases is the above-mentioned live recording of piano trios by Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky with Mischa Maisky and Gidon Kremer.
Pianist Baruch Meir is one of only 65 artists worldwide named as a Bösendorfer Concert Artist since the founding of the company in 1828.
Meir has performed extensively in Austria, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Serbia, and the United States. Meir has presented recitals at the Bösendorfer Saal, Vienna; Bauman Auditorium, Oregon; Murphy Hall, Popper Theater and Nixon Library in Los Angeles; Dixon Hall, New Orleans; Wise Auditorium, Jerusalem; Bates Recital Hall, Austin; and at the Toujours Mozart Festival in Salzburg, Austria.
An Associate Professor of Piano at the Arizona State University School of Music, Dance and Theatre, in the Herberger Institute, Meir maintains a busy teaching schedule in addition to his international concert career.
A native of Israel, Meir is a summa cum laude graduate of the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University, where he earned his master’s degree in piano performance. He holds the Artist Diploma from the Royal College of Music in London and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from ASU. His teachers include Rachel Gordon, Valter Aufheuser, Pnina Salzman, Michael Bugoslavsky, Irina Zaritskaya and Robert Hamilton. Meir’s distinctions include the American-Israel Cultural Foundation Awards, the British Council Fellowship, first place at the Klatzkin Competition for Contemporary Piano Music and the ASU Concerto Competition.
Baruch Meir is the founder, president, and artistic director of the Bösendorfer and Yamaha USASU International Piano Competition.
Videography: Michael Zifeng Zheng
Sound Recording and post-production: Qize Liu