Nelson Freire

“Freire characterises and colours each one inimitably, never searching for emotional depths that aren't there, nor attempting to confer profundity on music that is mostly intended simply to be enjoyed...if there is a more perfectly played piano disc released this year, we will be very lucky indeed.” The Guardian, 23rd August 2012 *****

“Freire's kind of artistry raises [the repertoire] to an entirely different level. There's plenty of flair and soul, yet the playing is always crystalline and precise, perfectly pedalled, the colours as subtle as a Debussy prelude...Just drop-dead gorgeous repertoire and performances: I don't think I've enjoyed any piano recording more this year.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2012 *****

“Freire presents a masterlcass in nonchalant playfulness, capturing to perfection the charm of a composer often criticised for being too fecund and unselfcritical but here heard at his best...Freire is a class act - and 'Brasiliero', immaculately recorded by the way, is sheer delight from start to finish.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2012

“The Brazilian takes on Debussy favourites (Preludes: Book 1, Children's Corner and Claire de Lune) with his usual dazzling clarity. Impressive in his keyboard scope, he offers moments of engaging insight. But while his note-striking is pure and brilliant, elsewhere Freire has a somewhat meaty approach, the detached perfection and button-brightness occasionally jarring with the more poetic, subtle ripples of Debussy's music.” The Times, 7th February 2009 ***

“…Nelson Freire… confesses to a special empathy for Debussy… and you will be hard pressed to find a recital of comparable warmth, affection and finesse. When you have heard "Voiles" gives with a greater sense of mystery… or witnessed playing throughout Book 1 of the Préludes more delicate, rapt and precise? Clair de lune, added, as it were, as an encore, is dreamy and magically remote...” Gramophone Magazine, April 2009

“Nelson Freire, the legendary Brazilian pianist and longtime musical partner of Martha Argerich, turns to Debussy. In the accompanying notes he confesses to a special empathy for Debussy and you will be hard pressed to find a recital of comparable warmth, affection and finesse. Here, there is no need for spurious gestures and inflections; everything is given with a supreme naturalness and a perfectly accomodated virtuosity that declare Freire a master pianist throughout. When have you heard 'Voiles' given with a greater sense of its mystery or witnessed playing throughout Book 1 of the Préludes more delicate, rapt and precise? There is lightly worn fantasy and expertise in 'La sérénade interrompue' and the direction Profondément calme (dans une brumedoucement sonore) is distilled into something close to perfection. Always Freire 'evokes rather than spells out' and has one every heard a more subtle or engaging way with 'Dr Gradus ad Parnassum' (from the Children's CornerSuite). Clair de lune, added, as it were, as an encore, is dreamy and magically remote, making you long for further Debussy from this artist. Decca's sound is warm and brilliant.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

`If there is a more suave, pianistic and subtly gifted artist before us today, I cannot imagine who it might be.' (Opus Magazine)

“This is the Brahms piano concerto set we've been waiting for. Nelson Freire and Riccardo Chailly offer interpretations that triumphantly fuse immediacy and insight, power and lyricism, and incandescent virtuosity that leaves few details unturned, yet always with the big picture in clear sight. The D minor No 1's headlong opening tutti updates Szell/Cleveland's patented fire and brimstone with a warmth of tone that manages to convey both line and mass as few others do. Timpani and brass proudly step up to the fore in both concertos, while frequently buried lines emerge from the gnarly textures with uncommon clarity and specificity. In Chailly's hands, a genuine chamber music aesthetic consistently governs the lustrous warmth of Brahms's underrated orchestrations, to say nothing of the heights to which the conductor has led his revitalised Leipzig Gewandhaus ensemble.
Balanced within the orchestra as an equal partner, Freire is completely on top of and inside both works' solo parts, from No 1's fervent yet cogently shaped octave outbursts and the B flat's graceful, light-footed finale to both slow movements' unforced simplicity, organic flow, and freedom from sentimentality. No doubt that the presence of an audience fuels the palpable give and take between soloist and conductor. Just as the Szell/Cleveland cycles with Serkin and Fleisher, and Gilels/Jochum (reviewed below) were benchmarks in their day, these gorgeously engineered, stunningly executed and temperamentally generous performances will stand as points of reference for generations to come.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“This is the Brahms piano concerto set we’ve been waiting for. Nelson Freire and Riccardo Chailly offer interpretations that triumphantly fuse immediacy and insight, power and lyricism, and incandescent virtuosity that leaves few details unturned, yet always with the big picture in clear sight. ...these gorgeously engineered, stunningly executed and temperamentally generous performances will stand as points of reference for generations to come.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2006

“Rarely in her extraordinary career has Argerich sounded more exhaustingly restless and quixotic, her mind and fingers flashing with reflexes merely dreamt of by other less phenomenally endowed pianists. Yet her Rachmaninov is full of surprises, her opening Allegro almost convivial until she meets directions such as più vivo or veloce, where the tigress in her shows her claws and the music is made to seethe and boil. The cadenza (the finer and more transparent of the two) rises to the sort of climax that will make all pianists' hearts beat faster and her first entry in the 'Intermezzo' interrupts the orchestra's musing with the impatience of a hurricane. But throughout these pages it's almost as if she's searching for music that will allow her virtuosity its fullest scope. In the finale she finds it, accelerating out of the second movement with a sky-rocketing propulsion.
Here the music races like wildfire, with a death-defying turn of speed at 7'21" and an explosive energy throughout that must have left audience, conductor and orchestra feeling as if hit by some seismic shock-wave.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“it provides a wonderful corrective to those who think of this composer's piano music as all flamboyant gestures and rhetoric. The overwhelming impact of this disc stems from the sheer beauty and elegance of Freire's playing, his crystalline tone and infinitely subtle range of touch and colour, which are combined with all the technique needed to cope with whatever challenges these pieces present him.” The Guardian, 28th April 2011 *****

“Freire is a master of the Romantic repertoire – partly by dint of experience and maturity, which lend his pianism a grace and temperament that is always finely judged, not least in the opulent rhetoric of the Ballade No 2. But he also demonstrates a range of tone-colour and warmth of feeling that are essential to Liszt” Financial Times, 21st May 2011 *****

“[Freire] wears his undeniable virtuosity lightly in this spellbinding programme of choice Liszt...It is, above all, the reflective, dreamy, romantic side of Liszt’s personality that Freire celebrates here...his selections from the Années de pèlerinages...confirm his preference for the poetic Liszt of limpid, transparent sonorities, rather than the flamboyant glitz merchant” Sunday Times, 29th May 2011 *****

“’ll be very surprised indeed if Freire’s new recital isn’t counted as one of the best new recordings for Franz Liszt’s 200th birthday year...Freire has the gift of seeming to slip inside the skin of every piece here, never distracted by surface glitter or showmanship as he seeks the musical truth” bbc.co.uk, 13th June 2011

“This is immensely distinguished Liszt-playing...Freire seems utterly at one with the music, not only in terms of its innate poetry but also its astonishing diversity of texture and touch...Freire produces a really beautiful piano tone, too, conjuring an astonishing range of colours...Altogether an immaculate disc, enhanced by an excellently recorded balance.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2011 *****

“Freire's selection is a judiciously varied programme of works for which he has a particular fondness - and it shows...Again and again one marvels at the spontaneity of Freire's playing, his ability to think in long paragraphs and bring an almost improvisatory air to proceedings” Gramophone Magazine, August 2011

““Suppleness before everything,” Chopin used to tell his students. Freire does his best to follow suit, often varying quickenings and hesitations with a magician’s touch...A level of poetic enchantment...takes this music of sweet dreams and agitated melancholy through the night to victory” The Times, 5th March 2010 ****

“For Freire the Nocturnes are tirelessly experimental, an opalescent world of shifting moods and colours...True, there are moments when a once legendary and impeccable technique stiffens [...], yet this is less than marginal in music-making so personal and reflective” Gramophone Magazine, May 2010