Martha Argerich plays Beethoven

Since 2018, Martha Argerich, together with the Symphoniker Hamburg, has welcomed guests to her 10-year festival at one of her favourite concert halls – the Laeiszhalle Hamburg. Together with numerous musical friends, she presents chamber music, highlights from the piano repertoire and orchestral concerts. 

On 21 June 2026, to mark the Fête de la Musique, ARTE Concert was there live and broadcast Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 as part of »europiano«, alongside other piano concertos from concert halls across Europe. 

A world-class concert hall since 1908: The Laeiszhalle Hamburg

Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major is a work brimming with youthful freshness, wit, and virtuosic elegance, and it is no surprise that it ranks among the most popular piano concertos in the history of music. With her unmistakable blend of temperament, depth, and spontaneous joy in making music, the legendary Martha Argerich breathes new life into this masterpiece.

Martha Argerich has been at home on stages around the world for eight decades and is regarded as one of the most significant pianists of our time. Her playing is characterized by profound poetry, a seemingly boundless sense of timbre, and a pursuit of authenticity and immediacy of expression that make the inner structure of the music directly tangible. Martha Argerich consistently channels her almost proverbial technical brilliance into a vibrant, human presence—thus creating ever-new, yet familiar, spaces for experiencing and reflecting on art.

Born in Buenos Aires, Martha’s exceptional musical talent was recognized early on. At the age of four, she demonstrated it for the first time in front of an audience. In 1955, the Argentine government enabled the family to move to Europe. There, she continued her studies, first in Vienna with Friedrich Gulda and later in Switzerland. She soon won numerous first prizes at Europe’s major piano competitions, such as those in Geneva and Bolzano in 1957. Winning first prize at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1965 drew enormous international attention, which has never waned since.

Martha Argerich performs with the world’s most renowned orchestras, counts masters such as Daniel Barenboim, Mischa Maisky, and Gidon Kremer among her longtime collaborators, and nurtures her musical extended family, which also includes many young, up-and-coming musical talents. She has also inspired the founding of several festivals—to this day, those in Japan, Argentina, and Hamburg remain among the cornerstones of her artistic work.

Symphoniker Hamburg

Martha Argerich piano

conductor Sylvain Cambreling

Als Residenzorchester der Laeiszhalle spielen die Symphoniker Hamburg dort zahlreiche Konzerte.