Martha Argerich is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Unusually, her genius reveals itself mostly in collaborations: with orchestras and conductors in concertos, and with chamber musicians.

Of Catalan and Russian Jewish background, Argerich was born in Buenos Aires on June 5, 1941. She started piano lessons at five and made rapid progress, performing concertos by Mozart and Beethoven flawlessly just three years later. Her family moved to Switzerland in 1955, and she studied with Madeleine Lipatti, Nikita Magaloff, and then, for 18 months, with Friedrich Gulda in Vienna after Argentine president Juan Perón arranged for diplomatic work for her family there. Argerich won the Geneva International Competition and the Ferruccio Busoni International Competition in 1957, and she made a well-regarded debut album in 1960, featuring music by Liszt, Prokofiev, Ravel, Brahms, and Chopin. However, her real breakthrough was a first prize at the Chopin International Festival in Warsaw in 1965; she was the first pianist from the Western hemisphere to triumph, and the win brought publicity similar to that which attended Van Cliburn's International Tchaikovsky Competition victory in Moscow in 1958.

After her early years, Argerich rarely gave solo concerts, sometimes saying that she felt lonely on-stage. She recorded concertos, mostly from the late Romantic and early modern periods, with most of the major European conductors. Argerich began a long association with the Deutsche Grammophon label in the 1970s, and her 1975 release featuring concertos by Prokofiev and Ravel, with the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado, had an iconic cover photo showing the two in intense conversation. Her 1985 recording of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Charles Dutoit, was another classic. Dutoit was one of Argerich's three husbands; before him came composer Robert Chen, and after him pianist Stephen Kovacevich, and she had children with all three. Argerich recovered from a 1990 bout with malignant melanoma and a 1995 recurrence; she was cured by an experimental treatment at the John Wayne Cancer Institute and performed a Carnegie Hall concert to benefit the Institute. She has continued to give widely praised concerto performances into senior citizenhood, appearing at the BBC Proms in 2016 with conductor Daniel Barenboim in the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major. She has also been an enthusiastic performer of chamber music and duo sonatas, appearing and recording with Kovacevich, pianist Nelson Freire, violinist Gidon Kremer, and other choice players. In her later years, Argerich was widely known for her leadership of the Progetto Martha Argerich at the Lugano Festival in Switzerland, where she performed with and nurtured the careers of many young musicians. That festival came to an end in 2016 after its sponsor was investigated for possible violations of Swiss banking laws, but in 2018, she curated a new festival mounted by the Hamburg Philharmonic, and she has continued to serve as director of the Argerich Music Festival in Beppu, Japan, which she created in 1996. In 2019, she had a busy schedule of concerts across Britain, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. Her concerts generally take up the mainstream of the concerto and chamber repertory, from Mozart to the early 20th century, but she has performed more contemporary music by her compatriot Alberto Ginastera, Witold Lutoslawski, and others.

Argerich has continued to record for Deutsche Grammophon but has also appeared on Warner, Decca, and other labels. Her recording pace has hardly slowed in her 60s and 70s; in the year 2015 alone, 11 separate Argerich recordings appeared (some were reissues of earlier material). In 2020, Argerich was heard on a new recording of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 19, with conductor Seiji Ozawa and his Mito Chamber Orchestra in Japan. By that time, her catalog included at least 175 recordings. ~ James Manheim

Nelson Freire was among the most admired pianists of his generation, having played with the leading orchestras and conductors in the most prestigious recital halls, and in collaboration with the finest violinists, cellists, and fellow pianists. He also recorded extensively in a wide range of repertoire for numerous major labels, including Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, and Decca. On the latter, Freire issued an album of encores in 2019.

Freire was born in Boa Esperança, Brazil, on October 8, 1944. He was amazingly precocious, taking his first piano lessons from his older sister at age three and giving his first public recital, where he played Mozart's A major Sonata, K. 331, at five. Among his earliest important piano teachers were Nise Obino and Lucia Branco. At the age of 12, he won the prestigious Rio de Janeiro International Piano Competition (1957). There, he performed, among other challenging pieces, the Beethoven Concerto No. 5 (the "Emperor") before a jury consisting of Lili Kraus, Marguerite Long, Guiomar Novaes, and other prominent pianists. He continued piano studies with Bruno Seidlhofer in Vienna with scholarship funds earned from his competition victory. In 1959, he launched his international career, touring Europe, South America, and East Asia, appearing with many of the world's leading orchestras and conductors.

Not satisfied with his credentials, Freire entered the Lisbon-based Vianna da Motta International Piano Competition in 1964 and took first prize. His London debut took place in 1968 and his American debut in 1970, when he played Rachmaninov's Fourth Piano Concerto with the New York Philharmonic under Rudolf Kempe, a conductor with whom he made several successful tours, but typically with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

By the 1970s, Freire was a successful recording artist who would draw particular critical acclaim for his Chopin. He soon turned to piano duo repertory, often appearing and recording with Martha Argerich. The team's first recording -- Rachmaninov's Suite No. 2, Op. 17, and Lutoslawski's Variations on a Theme of Paganini -- was released on Philips in 1982. Subsequent recordings of works by Bartók, Ravel, and others appeared over the next two decades. Freire also collaborated with violinist Gidon Kremer and cellist Mischa Maisky, and he remained active in the new century both as a soloist and duo player. In 2005, he scored critical successes at the BBC Proms in London, in Tokyo, and on tour with Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester. Later releases included Chopin Adagios (2008), a Debussy album (2009), and Harmonies du Soir, featuring an all-Liszt program. In 2019, he issued an album of encores on Decca. Freire died on November 1, 2021, in Rio de Janeiro, at the age of 77. ~ Robert Cummings

Riccardo Chailly is a dynamic and sometimes controversial conductor known for his devotion to contemporary music and for his attempts to modernize approaches to the traditional symphonic repertory. His many recordings for the Decca label include modern masterworks by Zemlinsky, Hindemith, and Schnittke, the symphonies of Gustav Mahler, and a number of operas. In 2021, Decca issued a box set of Chailly conducting the complete works of Stravinsky, and he led the La Scala Theater Orchestra in backing Anna Netrebko on her album Amata dalle Tenebre.

Chailly was born in Milan on February 20, 1953. The son of composer Luciano Chailly and an occasional rhythm & blues drummer, Chailly began his conducting career as Claudio Abbado's assistant at La Scala, cutting his teeth on the standard operatic literature. He attained considerable success as an opera conductor in his own right, making guest appearances at London's Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, and numerous Italian and German houses; he also made several notable recordings, including an Andre Chénier with Luciano Pavarotti. Nevertheless, he decided to focus his energies on symphonic conducting instead, feeling that it offered a wider avenue for artistic exploration. To that end, he became the principal conductor of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1982, eventually leading them on their first North American tour in 1985; he was also the principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic from 1982 to 1985.

In 1988, the newly rechristened Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra named the 35-year-old Chailly as its chief conductor and artistic director. This would prove to be the defining post of his career, and he would cut back on his touring and operatic engagements to make it the center of his artistic activities. The relationship with both the orchestra and its audience was rocky at first, marked by resentment toward his "modernistic" approach to the works of Bruckner, Mahler, and Brahms. (Among other things, Chailly moved the group away from its signature sound and toward a more flexible palette of orchestral color, adaptable to the needs of each composer.) However, after that adjustment, Chailly assumed a position of confident leadership over the group, maintaining its position as one of Europe's finest ensembles but also establishing it as a source of innovation and fresh perspective. Chailly left the Concertgebouw in 2004, and was replaced by Mariss Jansons.

Chailly was the first music director of the Orchestra symphonica Giuseppe Verdi, serving from 1999 until 2005. In 2005, he assumed a new post with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, where he served until 2016. In 2015, Chailly was named music director of La Scala in Milan, and the following year was named to the same role with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. He has conducted orchestras across Europe and the U.S., including such illustrious groups as the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, and the Chicago Symphony.

Chailly is a noted champion of Edgard Varèse and Alexander Zemlinsky, both of whom he feels have been under-appreciated. He also maintains an interest in the performance practice of the Baroque era, and in his performances of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, he attempts to balance the sound of the modern orchestra with the style of the period. As an operatic conductor, Chailly has made several notable Rossini recordings, including La Cenerentola, starring Cecilia Bartoli. In 2019, Chailly released an album dedicated to Nino Rota's music for films by Federico Fellini, as well as a La Scala production of Puccini's Madame Butterfly. In 2021, Chailly and the La Scala Theater Orchestra backed soprano Anna Netrebko on the album Amata dalle Tenebre, and Decca issued the Stravinsky Edition box set containing Chailly's recordings of all of that composer's works. That year, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra extended Chailly's contract until 2026. ~ Allen Schrott & Keith Finke