Richard Pennycuick wrote:

>She cancelled a gig with Ashkenazy and the Philharmonia in Sydney recently.
>Few were surprised.  I don't remember his name, but a violinist substituted
>and got some valuable notices.  Someone else might get lucky.

She hasn't cancelled, for ages, any regularly scheduled concerts, but
cancelled the entire tour for January due to regular ongoing (semi-annual,
I think) precautionary treatments aimed to prevent a recurrence of cancer,
which she has fought a couple of times.  The concerts were arranged years
ago and the new experimental treatment which has more or less saved her
life came after, but they require regular treatment times to make sure she
remains clear of cancer.  Obviously, it's good news that she is clear, but
it's important to remain clear.

There was a fear that the stress of going ahead with the tour at the same
time she was undergoing the precautionary treatments which require her to
be there for a bit would not be good for her general health.  Finally, she
made what many of us feel is the right decision as it would be nice to see
her around to play more in the future.  The newspaper accounts were candid
re the cancellations done in order to have the treatments instead, without
rushing around.

In 1995 Henry Fogel announced on the newsgroups that she was
battling melanoma.  And she has been, more than the one time, and with
complications.  However, the John Wayne Cancer Institute with a new l
treatment has been able to keep her clear of this, and it's no small thing.

As for any tendency to cancel in the recent past, many of these happened
after the initial bouts with cancer and she usually soon appeared only a
couple of months later to play such things as a series of Liszt concertos
in Berlin and also very soon after another bout, to play the Prokofiev 1st
and 3rd in one program, in NY ('97)

Since she has understandably tended to want privacy about her battles,
and people have respected that, her cancellations have seemed willy nilly
to those who didn't know and who couldn't know.  Now, in no doubt gratitude
for the work at John Wayne Cancer Institute, she is doing the benefit
recital for them in NY, a solo recital in one half and chamber music in the
2nd half - the pieces have been announced and you can find them on Carnegie
Hall site or my own (see sig) as well as details re ordering (whatever
tickets are left).  There are about 200 of the best seats saved, I hear,
for those who attend the benefit reception for the Institute also, which
are $500 and include a good ticket for the concert.  The tickets available
downstairs are $63 to $80 or so.  I may have a couple to sell after a while
as I was offered other tickets.

On February 2 she did do the concerto with Ashkenazy in Japan as promised
though she had flown to Gulda's funeral/memorial and then flew back to
Japan to do the concerto on the day she arrived..

Tomorrow, February 7 she plays the first of two solo recitals there, which
also will have chamber music in one half.  The other concert is scheduled
for February 9.  Since she hasn't played solo works in the U.S.  since
1981 and made one exception in Beppu in 1995, a short recital, a couple
of friends are going and I'll be looking forward to their reports.

She has family in NY and tends not to cancel there, playing almost every
year in the last few years, and since this is a benefit recital for the
Institute that helped her so well, it's not likely that she'd cancel.  I'm
sorry for those in places like Sydney though, who had hoped to hear her.
That was really unfortunate timing.

Andrys in Berkeley
http://www.andrys.com/argerich.html
Available Argerich recordings