Piano Concerto.1, 3 / .3: Argerich(P), Dutoit / Montreal.so

This recording received the 2000 Grammy Award for "Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra)."
This disc was Gramophone's "Recording of the Month" for October 1998.
The great Argentinean pianist Martha Argerich has championed Prokofiev's music throughout her illustrious career but isn't usually associated with Bartok.
Prokofiev's First Piano Concerto was written in his student years when he was very much the enfant terrible of Russian music. The work is filled with youthful energy and exuberance and Argerich is up to all its quirky turns and twists. The Third Piano Concerto is the most popular of the five Prokofiev composed. Argerich has made this work something of a signature piece, having recorded it once before. She is a masterful pianist and sensitive to the work's changing moods, which go from melting lyricism to sardonic humor. Charles Dutoit and Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal provide virtuoso accompaniment--this is a stellar orchestra.
The Bartok concerto was originally conceived as a concerto for two unaccompanied pianos but was later reworked by the composer and stands as his last completed work, although the last 17 bars were orchestrated by Tibor Serly after the composer's death. The concerto is surprisingly lyrical with a tender slow middle movement and a jocular finale. Argerich, Dutoit and the orchestra are ideal partners in this rewarding survey of the 20th Century piano concerto.