Martha Argerich was a child prodigy who played her first concert of music by
Mozart and Beethoven at the age of eight and won the International Chopin Piano
Competition in Warsaw in 1965 when she was 24. For the next 50 years she was
hailed as one of the greatest classical music pianists, known especially for her
recordings of Messiaen, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninov. She has performed with
orchestras at major venues around the world including the Royal Albert Hall for
the BBC Proms.
Born in Brazil, she studied in Europe when her parents were appointed to
diplomatic posts in Aus...