Nelson Freire nasceu em Boa Esperança, no Estado de Minas Gerais, no Brasil. Estreou-se em público aos cinco anos de idade, tendo então interpretado a Sonata K. 331 de Mozart. No Rio de Janeiro foi aluno de Nise Obino e Lúcia Branco e, em 1957, após ter ganho o Concurso Internacional de Piano do Rio de Janeiro, com a interpretação do Concerto Imperador de Beethoven, o Presidente do Brasil atribuiu-lhe uma bolsa que lhe permitiu estudar em Viena com Bruno Seidlhofer, professor de Friedrich Gulda. Sete anos mais tarde, recebeu a Medalha Dinu Lipatti, em Londres, assim como o 1.º Prémio no Concurso Internacional Vianna da Motta, em Lisboa.
A carreira internacional de Nelson Freire teve o seu início em 1959, multiplicando-se os recitais e os concertos na Europa, nas Américas, no Japão e em Israel. Colaborou com maestros notáveis como Pierre Boulez, Charles Dutoit, Valery Gergiev, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, Colin Davis, Yuri Termikanov, Riccardo Chailly Eugene Jochum, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Rudolf Kempe (com quem realizou várias digressões nos Estados Unidos da América e na Alemanha, com a Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), Rafael Kubelik, John Nelson, Vaclav Neumann ou David Zinman.
Ao longo de cinco décadas, Nelson Freire apresentou-se em mais de setenta países, nas principais salas de concertos e em colaboração com as mais importantes orquestras a nível mundial. Apresentou-se também em vários concertos com a Orquestra Gulbenkian, a última vez em maio de 2014, sob a direção de Lionel Bringuier. É muito solicitada a sua presença em recital, tendo-se apresentado no Grande Auditório Gulbenkian em março de 2016. Ao longo da sua brilhante carreira, recebeu os mais importantes prémios discográficos, incluindo um Grammy latino, bem como outras importantes distinções: Cidadão do Rio de Janeiro, Cavaleiro da Ordem do Rio Branco, Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, Commandeur dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Medalha Pedro Ernesto, Medalha da Cidade de Paris, Medalha da Cidade de Buenos Aires e doutor honoris causa pela Escola de Música da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
Setembro 2018
Nelson Freire has long been seen as a connoisseur’s pianist, but a series of superb recordings have raised his profile to the extent that he is now thought of as one of today’s universally recognised great musicians. Whether playing the great warhorses of the repertoire or the gentlest miniatures, he brings to his performances a level of quiet thoughtfulness that puts him in a class of his own.
Born in Boa Esperança, Brazil, he began piano lessons at the age of three with Nise Obino and Lucia Branco, who had worked with a pupil of Liszt. He made his first public appearance at the age of five playing Mozart’s Sonata K. 331. In 1957, after winning a grant at the Rio de Janeiro International Piano Competition with Beethoven’s Emperor concerto, he went to Vienna to study with Bruno Seidlhofer, teacher of Friedrich Gulda. Seven years later he won the Dinu Lipatti Medal in London and first prize at the International Vianna da Motta Competition in Lisbon.
Since his international career began in 1959, Freire has appeared at virtually every important musical centre, in recital and working with countless distinguished conductors and orchestras. A great musical collaborator, he has toured extensively with Martha Argerich, with whom he shares a long-time musical collaboration and friendship. They have recorded several discs together, including a live recital from the Salzburg Festival.
He has an extensive discography and was included by Philips in its historic series Great Pianists of the 20th Century, released in 1999. He has been an exclusive Decca artist since 2001, his releases including major works by Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Debussy, Liszt, as well as the two Brahms Concertos with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly. The Chopin bicentenary year of 2010 saw two new releases by Freire: his recording of the complete Nocturnes and a recital album. In the Liszt bicentenary year of 2011 Decca released his recital album Harmonies du Soir. An album of his compatriot Villa-Lobos, Brasileiro, was released in summer 2012.
In October 2014 he celebrated his 70th birthday with the first release in a Beethoven concerto cycle with Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, coupling the Emperor concerto with the Sonata Op 111. It was followed by a recording of the Chopin F minor concerto with the Gurzenich Orchestra Köln under Lionel Bringuier, prompting BBC Music Magazine to say: “. . . it would be a rare connoisseur not to recognise a major master in the lyrical, rhythmically buoyant, spiritually abundant playing here”. Radio Days, a two-CD collection of concerto radio broadcasts from 1968 to 1979, included repertoire Freire had never recorded commercially, as well as his legendary Paris debut in Tchaikovsky’s first concerto with Masur in 1969. In March 2016 comes his first recorded recital of the music of Bach, featuring four great keyboard works and a collection of shorter pieces and arrangements.
Freire will be including Bach in recitals during spring 2016 in Lyon, Paris, Berlin, Perugia, Baltimore, San Francisco, Palo Alto and Vancouver. His diary also has two recitals in his native Brazil and dates in Finland, Luxembourg, France and Germany, with Beethoven and Brahms concertos featuring prominently.
In March 2007, Nelson Freire was appointed a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the French government and in January 2011 he was made a Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion de’Honneur, the French government’s highest award to a foreigner.
“Few pianists alive convey the sheer joy and exhilaration of being masters of their craft more vividly and uncomplicatedly than Nelson Freire.” – The Guardian
1/2016