Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim perform Schumann, Debussy, and Bartók

Barenboim and Argerich begin with an intimate music dialogue in Schumann’s Six Studies in the Form of Canons, Op. 56, an accessible work whose performance showcases the two artists' complementary talents. They continue with Debussy’s 1915 En blanc et noir, an avant-garde work for its time that provoked harsh criticism from the likes of conservatives like Saint-Saëns, who declared that "We must at all costs bar the door of the Institut [de France] against a man capable of such atrocities; they should be put next to the cubist pictures." Bartók’s spectacular Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion is filled with technical fireworks that Barenboim and Argerich perform with unfailing mastery of their instrument, a brilliant display in this historic recital.