Remember the poem by Jenny Joseph, warning that when she is old, “I shall wear purple / With a red hat which doesn’t go”? There was a hint of the same gentle anarchy in this remarkable performance by Argentinian pianist Martha Argerich and her Korean sometime mentee Dong Hyek Lim.
The advertised first half of piano duets including Schubert’s Fantasia in F minor D940 was scrapped in favour of Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major K448 and Ravel’s two-piano arrangement of La Valse – only for the Schubert Fantasia to reappear in the second half as a monumental, 20-minute encore following Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances in its two-piano original version. Between works, the two pianists meandered around the stage, chatting and occasionally bowing – Argerich leaning on Lim’s arm but driving nonetheless. There were onstage negotiations about whether or not to swap pianos after the first work. There were furious looks shot at page-turners caught on the back foot. Every movement started before the audience had settled.
