In August 2013, I wrote a blog, I have fallen in love .The (short) blog is outdated, because several of the YouTube links do not work anymore. Here is the first part of that blog.
A few weeks later, in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, I heard her play Beethoven’s 3rd piano concerto, one of her favorites. No recording exists, but click here for a beautiful recording with Frans Brüggen and his Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century in 2010. During her long career she had a close, affectionate relationship with her Dutch audience.
Her last public performance was on 19 March 2025 in Den Haag. A duo recital with the (blind) Spanish pianist Ignasi Cambra in the World Master Pianists series. A few months later, she had a (minor) stroke, which she saw as a warning sign. In November, at 81 year old, she officially confirmed her permanent retirement from performing. I no longer am a pianist
After my 2013 blog, I remained a fan, but never wrote another blog about her. In 2021, I wrote a blog about Martha Argerichh, in many ways her antipode. In 2012 both world-famous pianists attended the 8th Chopin and his Europe festival in Warsaw. On 28 August they played with Frans Brüggen and his orchestra two Beethoven piano concertos and gave an encore. Here it is, part of Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite. Click on the photo to listen.
Look at their body language. By the way Martha Argerich is now 85 and still active, having concerts around the world.
Maria João was born in Lisbon on 23 July 1944. Her father passed away two weeks earlier, she was raised by her norther and her grandfather. She was a child prodigy, giving her first public performance when she was 7. When se was 17, she got a scholarship to to continue her piano study in Germany.
In 1970, at age 26, she won the first prize in the Beethoven Bicentennial Competition, held in Brussels. It launched her into international fame and established her career on the global stage. She got a contract with ERATO. Click on the left picture to listen to some of her recordings (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven). In 1989, she signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Click the right picture for two Mozart piano concertos.
She was not always happy with her career and fame. Between 1978 and 1982, she even stopped public performances. She had an aversion to the commercialized classical music circuit, with its competitions and first-prize winners. Around that time, her interest in Buddhism started.
In 1985 she played Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 21 in a music movie. Fascinating and unconvential. Click on her photo to watch.
She started touring again, and had her debut in Carnegie Hall in 1988.
In1991 Werner Zeindler. a Swiss film director. ,made a documentary movie about her, Portrait of a Pianist. Interviews with her and her mother, and music by various composers. The interview is candid and gives insight into her personal feelings about being a famous pianist. Her reservations about the classical music scene are still strong; she dreams of a farm in the countryside, far away from the urban crowd. Click on the picture for the movie.
In 1999 she followed this dream and started the Belgais Centre for the Study of the Arts in a remote rural area of Portugal. Much more than a farm, it was an ambitious humanistic project. A primary school to bring under-privileged children in contact with music and arts. A training center for young musicians, not in competition but in collaboration. A place to give concerts, far away from urban noise.
Soon after the start, the center ran into problems due to hostility from the Portuguese media and the political establishment. Funding became a problem; Maria had to continue giving concerts. Exhausted and frustrated, she left Portugal in 2006 for Brazil, but came back one year later and is still active, though more as a teacher/mentor than as a concert pianist.
Traditional public performances in famous concert halls became a rarity. Here is a 2003 recording of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Pierre Boulez. Click on the photo to listen.
In 2012, she launched the Partitura Project, where musicians participate in an atmosphere of collaboration instead of competition. Workshops have been organized in many European countries. The last few years it was hosted by The Gilmore.
She prefers more intimate encounters with her audience. Her interest in Buddhism was evident in a series of Cocnert-Meditation, organized in 2019 with the French Buddhist Monk Matthieu Ricard. Click on the photo to watch.
On 16th December 2021, she played in Geneva with Martha Argerich, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 10 for two pianos. Listen to how the two pianists play together, collaborating instead of competing. They also played a piano sonata for four hands.
In May 2023, she attended the Gilnore festival and was interviewed. One part is called “Finding the Path“, about her life and beliefs. The other part, “The Actual Story“, is about the famous incident in 1999, when she found out during the performance that she had prepared a different Mozart concerto than the one being played. The screenshot shows her initial shock. But she recovered. Watch the interview, where she explains.
The next year, in May 2024, she came back to the Gilmore and gave a recital, playing music by Mozart and Debussy. It is the most recent YouTube video I have found. Click on the photo to watch.
A few months later, on 24 July 2024, one day after her 80th birthday, she was interviewed in Bordeaux after she had given a recital. Click on her photo for a text transcription. Very informative.
Although she will no longer give public performances, she remains active as a teacher/mentor. This year, she launched a new project, the MJP Piano Academy.
Collecting information for this blog, my respect and admiration for her have grown.
