Pianist cancels rare piece. Martha Argerich steps in.

Daniil Trifonov has pulled out of the Kremerata Baltica’s Mieczyslaw Weinberg weekend at the Vienna Festival next month. Daniil received a summons from Valery Gergiev to play in Moscow at the opening of the Tchaikovsky Competition, of which he is the most recent winner. It’s the kind of offer you don’t refuse.

What to do? Not many famous artists will learn a new score at short notice.

Gidon Kremer made a call. ‘Luckily,’ he tells Slipped Disc, ‘Martha agreed to step in and to play with me the planned Weinberg Sonata Nr.5-one of 12 works by M.Weinberg we will perform together with Kremerata Baltica in 4 concerts at this intense Musikverein weekend on June 13/14.’

Can anyone recall a higher-calibre substitution?