Maybe its true that one can be rewarded for not wanting something.
Three days ago, Lynnette said that she had a spare ticket for the closing concert of the Singapore International Piano Festival, and would I like to have it. I’d been living under a rock for quite a while, and therefore had not attended the SIPF at all, let alone know who the pianists were for the 2018 edition. I exclaimed “WHO??!!“ when Lynnette told me that the featured pianist for the closing concert was Martha Argerich. Yes, the legend herself, on her first concert in the Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan.
The next day, disbelief turned to disappointment when the spare ticket was claimed by the person for whom it was originally intended. Getting another one on my own through the box office was going to be impossible, because tickets had been completely sold out a long time ago. Oh, well. I’d never imagined that I would be able to attend an Argerich concert anyway, so I left it at that.
Then yesterday morning, Lynnette said that there was a return ticket for the gallery, and she’d bought it for me. So yes, I did get to go after all, to see and hear for myself why Martha Argerich is a piano legend. I was very fortunate to be seated where I could see her hands and her feet.
The SSO was conducted by Darío Ntaca, himself one of the SIPF pianists. Lynnette was leading. Here is the programme:
Ntaca was the pianist for the Mozart #17, and conducted the orchestra from the piano. Argerich may now be 77 years old, but age has not dimmed her skills at the keyboard.
Argerich was presented with a bouquet of flowers during the first standing ovation. She managed to pluck out one pink rose and presented it to Lynnette. After two curtain calls Argerich sat down at the piano to play an encore (Scarlatti). During the subsequent standing ovation Lynnette answered ‘yes’ to Argerich’s question about whether she should play another encore. The audience roared its approval as Argerich turned around and walked back to the piano. So there was Debussy. One more standing ovation, and the concert was over.
The Piano Chronicles 