In celebration of Chopin Year--2010 being the 200th birthday of the sui generis Polish genius--Nelson Freire, a Chopin interpreter of unique discernment, records the beloved Nocturnes. Freire is an acknowledged master of t... more »he keyboard. His recordings for Decca have won numerous awards, including a Gramophone Award, Diapason d'or, Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros, and Choc du Monde de la musique. Freire is past winner of the Dinu Lipatti Medal, first prize winner of the International Vianna da Motta Competition and was France's Victoires de la Musique's "Soloist of the Year" in 2002. A pianist's pianist who's playing "sings" with every refinement of the school of bel canto, Nelson Freire is an artist whose profile deserves the attention of a wider classical market. In the opinion of The Dallas Morning News, "Any new Freire recording is virtually self-recommending." 2 CDs for the price of 1!« less
In celebration of Chopin Year--2010 being the 200th birthday of the sui generis Polish genius--Nelson Freire, a Chopin interpreter of unique discernment, records the beloved Nocturnes. Freire is an acknowledged master of the keyboard. His recordings for Decca have won numerous awards, including a Gramophone Award, Diapason d'or, Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros, and Choc du Monde de la musique. Freire is past winner of the Dinu Lipatti Medal, first prize winner of the International Vianna da Motta Competition and was France's Victoires de la Musique's "Soloist of the Year" in 2002. A pianist's pianist who's playing "sings" with every refinement of the school of bel canto, Nelson Freire is an artist whose profile deserves the attention of a wider classical market. In the opinion of The Dallas Morning News, "Any new Freire recording is virtually self-recommending." 2 CDs for the price of 1!
CD Reviews
A wonderful set of Nocturnes for touching the listener's hea
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 03/09/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Offered as a two-for-one, Nelson Freire's new set of Chopin Nocturnes is irresistible. He has a personal but forthright approach that is more alluring than Maria Joao Pires on DG and a less aloof, patrician style than Pollini, also on DG. I love the latter, but Freire is so appealing in his expression that from the first note the Nocturnes don't seem dreamy and drifting. That's a unique experience for me. I am not a fixated Chopinist, and it's rare for me to listen to more than three Nocturnes at a stretch. But Freire, now 65, has reached the summa of his career. His recent duo piano recital with Martha Argerich on DG, taken from a 2009 concert in Salzburg, is a miracle of musical taste and technique. The two merge seamlessly, as they do here. With the Nocturnes he summons a lifelong love and shows that seemingly simple, unaffected playing, with a total absence of applied sophistication, can create the most moving effect.
This isn't a set for those who want technical nuance and fine shadings. A good deal of the time Freire hovers around mezzo forte, and his rubato is minimal compared to stylists like Rubinstein and Moravec. I wouldn't disagree with anyone who points to more refined readings of any single Nocturne, and there are times when you wish that Freire would find more individual personality in each piece -- Horowitz was phenomenal at that. But such quibbles don't negate how comfortable Freire is in his mastery of a revered composer to whom he has dedicated many years of his life. For emotional connection and the ability to touch one's heart, it's hard to imagine a better set of Nocturnes than these.
Decca's recorded sound is gorgeous, a consistent theme when it comes to Freire, I've found."
Exceptional and illuminating
Ben Brouwer | Minneapolis, MN USA | 04/13/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I recall an interview in which Nelson Freire spoke fondly of the hours he spent at the piano with Guiomar Novaes, playing Chopin's Préludes for one another. The fruit of their time together seems no more apparent than here, for listeners familiar with Novaes' legendary account of the Nocturnes. Freire's approach is, above all, warm and lyrical, without languishing and hanging on every note, instead letting beauty speak for itself. Reviews have referred to his playing here as "unfussy" or "straightforward," backhanded compliments that are undeserved and reflect a century and a half of romantic detritus that has accumulated around Chopin. I enjoy a recording of the first nocturne of Op. 62, for example, that does not take seven and a half minutes to complete. Freire seems to be one of the only pianists since Rubinstein (1965) who takes Chopin's "andante" seriously, not treating it as a largo, adagio, or grave (or worse!).
But it is a daunting task to say much at all about a new recording of pieces that tend to be deeply and uniquely personal experiences to each individual. Even the pros have trouble doing so (for example, one got paid to write such gobbledygook as, "...a level of poetic enchantment that might be a tad below true glory but still takes this music of sweet dreams and agitated melancholy through the night to victory"). There is an undercurrent of disappointment about this recording running through the reviews, armchair and professional alike. No complete set of the Nocturnes is completely satisfying, and if I had the time I'd patch together a set based on the strengths of each. Until then, Freire's approach is, to me, exceptional and illuminating, and deserves a place among the best."
Pure delight & opportunity for reflection
Carlos E. A. Ferreira | Brazil | 05/11/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"one can listen to Nelson Freire almost endlessly, each time discovering new themes, new sound matches, new sound beauties. From poets to mathmatecians, everybody can enjoy these Chopin sonatas."
Freire exemplifies the "less is more" approach to Chopin
Ralph Moore | Bishop's Stortford, UK | 05/19/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The blurb on the cover of this double CD features a quotation from the "New York Times" which endorses Freire's playing as "decorous" - an odd choice of compliment but it does in fact express exactly how I feel about and react to his wise, sensitive approach. Nothing is extreme or underlined; understatement is the order of the day - which is not to say that Freire is in any way bland - far from it - but he has evidently acquired over the decades of loving and playing this ethereal music a deep appreciation of its dreamy profundities and sees no need to play to the gallery.
Nonetheless, as much as I admire his interpretations, I want just a little more overt emotionalism in this music; some might call my taste vulgar, but I respond more readily to the freer, more spacious interpretations he gave us in the mid 70s and still more to the more generous use of rubato and the more unbuttoned Romanticism of Tamás Vásáry (see my review of his bargain Nocturnes excerpts on DG). "How Chopin should go" is a debate which elicits very opinionated reactions and we all have our ideas. Perhaps I should value his subtlety more, but as much as I admire Freire's restraint and serenity, I prefer more variety in dynamics and tempi."
Chopin's Nocturnes - a perfect vehicle for Nelson Freire's p
P. Adrian | Arad, Romania | 04/19/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"There is no doubt that Nelson Freire is one of the most gifted and charismatic pianists of our time. His special sensitivity and technical ease have entitled him (from the very beginning of his career, some decades ago) to be regarded as a refined poet among the keyboard virtuosos. Now in his mid-sixties, Freire enjoys a time of special achievements at the peak of his mellow artistry, by exploring different stylistic territories (Chopin, Brahms, Debussy, Beethoven, Schumann) both on disc and on stage with undiminished passion and outstanding results. His compelling interpretations are samples of intense musicianship enthusiastically sniffed by music-lovers and professionals alike.
Freire's soft and natural touch looks perfectly suitable to Chopin's tendency towards confession and introspection, features unfolded especially in his Nocturnes where the poetry must be rather suggested than boldly affirmed and the technical skills serve as a simple vehicle for romantic expressiveness, confined to making sense and rising genuine emotion. Nocturnes were conceived as reflective small poems (what else can be considered for instance op.9 no.2 or op.15 no.1?) sprinkled here and there with contrasting outbursts. Their dreamlike mood bets on the atmosphere, lays the stress on the filigree in phrasing, shades light on fine nuances, and makes thus each detail decisively count. All these small-scale entities are then combined to reveal the structure of the whole, to get the line of significance and feeling from apparently contrasting - and sometimes diverging - details. This, of course, calls for a master of intuition and sensitivity and even more, an exquisite evocative performer.
All his special gifts - including that keen sense of melody and natural affinity with daring (but suggestive, perfectly adequate) harmonies the Polish composer so generously exploited throughout his work - qualifies Nelson Freire for such a role. I dare state that Chopin chose Freire and not vice versa, as the Brazilian pianist proves more compellingly here than anywhere else on his previous recordings that he has no rival in conveying Chopin's mood, his insolvable melancholy. The inwardness (listen, for example, the two wonderful nocturnes op.27) gets sad (but not cold) inflexions, bordering on mystery and even trance. Although, there are other valuable versions (Pollini, Moravec, Leonskaja, Pires, Ohlsson) of the complete Nocturnes in the market, Freire's account stands as a milestone among them. At the same level of artistry (but achieved by means of a completely opposite approach) Pollini's recent account conceives an austere version of the whole set, detached from all that sweet romantic melancholy. Valuating a restrained, aristocratic coldness and finding painful inflexions in sadness, some ironical accents in lament, and no room for sentimentality in discourse.
A few years ago, I had the precious opportunity to be in the audience attending Nelson Freire's two-folded appearance in Bucharest during the 2007 "George Enescu" Festival. About the two-piano recital he gave on that occasion with sparkling Martha Argerich I mentioned in a previous review (on their Salzburg recital recording). Here - in connection with the composer under consideration - I am happy to remember the superb version of the F minor Piano Concerto he performed on that very occasion accompanied by the Bucharest Philharmonic under Michel Plasson. Enchanting - genuinely Chopinesque! - rendition to be cherished among my beloved musical memories! Now, Nelson Freire performing on disc Complete Nocturnes: a true delight for celebrating the Chopin Year!
Track Listings (20) - Disc #1
