Happy birthday, Martha Argerich!! 🌱

“I didn't want to be a pianist in the first place. I still don't want to be, but it is the only thing that I can do, more or less."

Her trademark mass of lustrous black hair may be grey, but Martha Argerich still looks almost girlish when she steps onto the concert platform.

On the eve of her 85th birthday on June 5, she is still giving concerts.

Diminutive, with surprisingly small hands, it comes as a shock when she unleashes her full horsepower and those famous fingers dance over the keyboard.

Speaking of their friendship, which goes back eight decades to their childhood in Buenos Aires, Daniel Barenboim said, "only the greatest artists can maintain the freshness of discovery with the depth of thoughtfulness. Martha is one of them."

In addition to her breathtaking technical skills and rare combination of power and grace, there's an air of genuine mystery about Argerich's music making.

She seems to disappear into the piano and yet has a hyper responsiveness to the atmosphere and incident of live performance, and there's that refreshing element of risk too.