The Superlative prodigy of Martha

Martha Argerich is a natural phenomenon.

A prodigy who could perfectly play a tune by ear on the piano before she was 3 years old.

What most people don’t know about her, is that at 16 and after winning two of the top International competitions (the Geneva and Busoni competitions), she entered a personal crisis and eventually stopped playing piano for three years.

She even considered giving up piano altogether and training to be a secretary or a doctor instead…

However, she was eventually encouraged to pursue piano again by her colleagues and mentors.

Upon taking it up again and still being very young, she won what is arguably the most important music competition in the world: the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw.

I´ve met Martha Argerich several times. I’ve even assisted her in a couple of her concerts by turning the pages for her while she performed piano duets.

She’s enchanting and appears very humble, however, there’s a silent authority to her that is discreet but ever-present.

Perhaps some of it is in our minds, in the perception we have of her. After all, she’s a living legend.

She had very encouraging words for me playing both piano and bandoneon and was impressed that I could play Bach´s music on such a devilish instrument as the bandoneon!

I bet if she wanted to, she’d be capable of doing that a week after taking up the bandoneon though…

When I was younger, I looked up to my musical idols so much that I would never even dare talk to them. That’s why whenever I met musical geniuses such as Grigory Sokolov, Ivo Pogorelich, Janine Janssen, Anne-Sophie Mutter, and others, I barely shook hands or said hello. Even when I got masterclasses from world-class figures like Andras Schiff or Arcadi Volodos, I stayed mostly shy and quiet.

I felt like I didn’t have enough value or importance to me to dare speak to them as an equal human being.

With time, I realized what utter nonsense that was.

Not because I value them less. If anything, I value them even more than before. This is because now I know where they´ve come from and why they´ve become who they are.

I made the decision 10 years ago to become a concert artist. That is, giving up any job that didn’t have to do with playing concerts. And I’ve made a living out of it ever since.

For many (not to say most), that’s an impressive and impossible feat to accomplish. Really very few artists live exclusively of their art, in any field. And I don’t mean to compare myself with any of those geniuses, but we are all unique. Every artist and human being is unique.

And after all, performing is an act of revealing oneself, communicating and sharing your true nature with a crowd of people.

There has to be more than just flashy and impressive digital abilities in order to garner enough attention to gain success.

There has to be essence.

Step one: Discover and get in touch with your essence.

Step two: Learn how to communicate and share your essence with others. Unless you’re a natural-born communicator (which most people aren’t), you’ll constantly need to learn and sharpen those skills.

In each of those steps, there’s a whole universe of mini-steps, but the big picture is in those steps.

These great artists have learned that very well, and you will encounter that most of them stay humble.

They stay humble because they´re great, and they´re great because they stay humble.

The ones that don´t, well, might garner some success, but eventually, they end up with problems or sometimes even completely disgrace themselves.

Now, as I mentioned to you yesterday, I’m launching a membership program. A way to share my essence with you in the most direct way I´ve done yet.

Sure, it consists of you getting exclusive recordings of mine that won’t be available anywhere else for anybody else, but there will also be so much more… I’ll reveal these things to you in the coming days.

You´ll enjoy and learn about music and art from an actual artist who lives and breathes his own art and is eager to share it with the world.

For now, I want to share with you my Piano Inspiration playlist where I’ve just added 5 of my favorite piano pieces, played by the one and only Martha Argerich.

Here is the link: Piano Inspiration. Enjoy.

Have a great day.

Claudio.