Argerich combines both fantasy and passion in a performance of quite exceptional immediacy... A most welcome reminder of this endearingly volatile artist in youth.

"When preparing a BBC ''Building a Library'' survey of Schumann's Fantasie in C major way back in 1980, I was surprised to find not one but two LP recordings of the work from Martha Argerich. What we're given here is a CD remastering of the earlier (and I thought better) of the two, first issued by Ricordi in 1976 though only available in this country by special order. Durchaus phantastisch und leidenschaftlich is Schumann's marking for the first movement. Predictably, Argerich combines both fantasy and passion in a reading of quite exceptional immediacy. What sometimes worried me was an over-impressionability of temperament finding outlet in little impulsive surges and other idiosyncracies of timing that after repeated hearings might begin to obtrude. Certainly her response to the a tempo markings (after ritardandos) in the development section is too extreme to sound poised. The central 'march' movement, though never lacking strength and stability in its proud main theme, is lightened by some unusually sprightly episodes, for which she even allows herself a quicker tempo.

The finale, wonderfully pellucid in texture, is marginally faster than we often hear it, with a very marked response to the eager expectancy of the second (etwas bewegter) theme, and a characteristically Argerichian burst of flame in the coda's crescendo. In sound-quality the disc first struck me as just a little cold, but my ear very quickly tuned in. All in all a most welcome reminder of this endearingly volatile artist in youth."

Joan Chissell, Gramophone [1/1991] Reviewing EMI 63576