Martha Argerich

with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/ Charles Dutoit, NCH, Dublin Sun 8pm €45-€90 01-4170000

If there’s a living legend in the world of piano playing it’s got to be Martha Argerich. American pianist Stephen Kovacevich has said of her: “If Mercury could play the piano, Martha is what he would sound like”. And he ought to know, he lived with her.

The Argentinian firebrand returns to Ireland for the first time in over 40 years this week, to play one of her signature pieces, Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Charles Dutoit. Dutoit (to whom Argerich was once married) hasn’t conducted in Dublin for over 30 years.

His Irish début, with the RTÉSO in 1975, prompted the late Charles Acton, then music critic of The IrishTimes, to eulogistic description: "Tall, slim, with gestures and movements that are elegantly expressive and very French, he gives the impression of the acting ability of Marcel Marceau, the showmanship of Leonard Bernstein, the total involvement in music of Cleo Laine". Dutoit, who last year became chief conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra will become principal conductor and artistic adviser of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the start of the 2009-10 season. His Dublin programme with the orchestra is an all-Prokofiev affair, opening with the Love of Three Oranges Suiteand ending with music from the ballet Romeo and Juliet.