Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim Awarded France's Légion d'Honneur

The pair have known one another since their childhoods in Buenos Aires

Pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim and pianist Martha Argerich have both been decorated with the Légion d'Honneur, France's highest order of merit, for their services to music. Barenboim was admitted to the rank of Grand Cross (the highest of the five honors), while Argerich was made a Commander.

The pair have been lifelong friends and both hail from Buenos Aires, Argentina. As children, they both performed in the home of the amateur violinist and wealthy patron Ernesto Rosenthal, who invited some of Argentina's most promising young musicians to give private concerts.

"We realized that we are the only two survivors from that time," Argerich said in 2014 of their friendship. "It brought us closer."

"These two geniuses born in Argentina are reunited today, tonight, in Paris. After what a career, and what a life!" said the French president Emmanuel Macron at the ceremony. "You move from one language to another: from Portuguese to Italian, from French to English. But your true homeland is music."

"Seeing the president mention the qualities and careers of Martha and Daniel in such a precise way made it clear that not only was it my pride, but that through me the pride of all Argentines was manifesting itself," said Jorge Telerman, director of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.