Saturday, July 18, 2015

Martha Argerich plays at Centro Cultural Kirchner

Internationally-renowned Argentine pianist Martha Argerich last night performed a history-making concert at the Ballena Azul hall of the recently inaugurated Centro Cultural Kirchner, built on the premises of the refurbished building that used to house the Central Post Office in downtown BA. With a capacity of 1,750 seats, tickets for the Argerich concert went for free online, with more than one million cyber surfers registering at the Kirchner Centre for access to the performance. As tickets quickly went out, though, music lovers were still able to enjoy the Argerich performance broadcast live on the Televisión Pública Channel 7, Radio Nacional Clásica FM 96.7, all INCAA movie theatres across Argentina and the Estaciones de Igualdad Cultural, most of them housed at cultural centres. Preceded by an introduction by journalist Víctor Hugo Morales, and accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra, Bacalov kicked off the evening’s proceedings with his own Porteña. The performance was conducted by Maestro Eduardo Hubert. Porteña, for two pianos and orchestra, was composed by the Oscar-winning Bacalov and is dedicated to Argerich, 74. Apart from last night’s concert, Argerich will on Sunday 26 appear with Argentine-Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim at the Teatro Colón. In 2014, Argerich resumed her professional relationship with the Colón, which had been severed in 2005. In 2012, Argerich had already returned to Argentina on a tour that deliberately omitted a stopover in Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires Herald