Martha Argerich

Financial Times 8 July 2011

Michelangeli confined himself to the G major concerto. How did he influence her during the 18 months she spent with him?

“I don’t know. He was around most of the time but he wasn’t interested in us [pupils]. He only gave me four lessons. Later he told an interviewer: ‘I did a lot for that girl.’ When asked what he had done for me, he replied: ‘I taught her the music of silence’.”

This is a joke, and we both laugh. She says Michelangeli was generous with money – “we never paid a thing” – but banned pupils from attending his concerts. The only time she heard him was when she sneaked into a box occupied by the wife of Russian virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz, who complained about the way Michelangeli played Scarlatti. “She kept saying ‘He doubles the basses!’, and I kept thinking ‘You should know enough about that’ because [Horowitz] did exactly the same.”