Martha Argerich and Charles Dutoit demonstrate that vitality is ageless at the Enescu Festival

For decades, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto no. 3 in C major has been one of the pillars of Martha Argerich’s repertory. Her performances have remained remarkably consistent over the years – unromantic, percussive, deeply respectful of the original score, including the frequent and sometimes unexpected accents. Despite a little coordination slip during the piano’s first entrance, this Enescu Festival performance with the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Charles Dutoit was nothing short of remarkable. 

Argerich skilfully tempered the inherent virtuosity of a score lacking a self-contained slow movement, infusing several segments with profound poetic insight. Relying on a conductor who easily comprehends her artistic intentions, she imbued the first movement’s slow central episode with a whiff of aggression, while highlighting the music’s eerie qualities in the second movement’s fourth variation and in the Finale’s meno mosso serenade. Throughout, her playing brought to mind all sorts of connotations from pearls glimmering on a necklace to ominous stampedes taking the listener to an impromptu encounter with The Fiery Angel. Argerich's pianism has lost none of its impishness, buoyancy or magical allure.

After enthusiastic applause, Argerich graciously returned to the piano adorned with the many bouquets she had received. With Dutoit leaning over its side, she treated the audience to two encores: a serene but tensionless Von fremden Ländern und Menschen, followed by a delightfully ludic Gavotte from Bach’s Suite no. 3 in G minor.

An esteemed responsibility of this biennial festival has consistently entailed featuring George Enescu’s compositions whether they were completed or just mere sketches. In most cases, the organisers prefer engaging foreign guests for these initiatives, anticipating that their interest will contribute to the wider dissemination of Enescu’s body of work within the worldwide musical audience.

Dutoit commenced this concert by conducting Enescu’s Pastorale-fantaisie. Composed and premiered in 1899, the final year of Enescu's studies at the Paris Conservatoire, the work was relegated to a drawer until 2017 when young Romanian conductor Gabriel Bebeșelea unearthed it. The tripartite composition largely reflects Enescu's rigorous academic training and the his ability to nurture and transform thematic material. At the same time, it showcases – as Dutoit helped clarify – the presence of an original artistic spirit, a specific idiom marked by elements of Romanian folklore that would fully blossom in the Romanian Rhapsodies.

Throughout his extensive career, French music has held a central position in Dutoit's repertoire, making Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique a frequent choice. His mastery of the intricacies of this difficult score was evident in the rendition he conducted at the helm of the solid Hungarian orchestra that he nudged ahead with elegant gestures. It was a correct and limpid version that never disrupted the narrative thread. However, despite certain details being delicately drawn, such as the soft melodies of the shepherds’ pipes echoing in the storm-charged landscape (Scène aux champs) or the harp’s lovely intervention (Le Bal), the performance failed to fully rekindle the sense of freshness and innovativeness that 19th-century listeners would have experienced. The deliriousness in the Rêveries–Passions and the dynamic fluctuations, unruliness, and grotesque elements in Marche au supplice and Songe d’une nuit de sabbat were not highlighted to their fullest potential. But Dutoit's encore – the Farandole from Bizet’s L’Arlésienne – was burst with energy.