Seven years ago, the Portuguese poet of the piano Maria Joao Pires shocked the classical world by announcing her retirement.
It seemed somehow unreasonable as she was playing better than ever and her occasional four-hand partner, Martha Argerich, three years older, showed no sign of slowing down.
But Pires said she had been on stage more or less continuously sinc e the age of five and she deserved a different life.
Well,that went well. Pires returned to the stage in 2020 and has barely paused since.
Tomorrow, she turns 80.
One of my most powerful memories is of Pires playing Chopin’s Nocturnes at a late-night BBC Prom, with her grandson turning pages. The rest of us hardly dared to breathe. Artists of this calibre come once in two decades. Long may she play.
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