Nelson Freire Nelson Freire

Nelson Freire (born October 18, 1944) is a Brazilian classical pianist.

Freire began playing the piano at age 3. He replayed from memory pieces his older sister, Nelma, had just performed. His teachers in Brazil were Nise Obino and Lucia Branco, former students of a pupil of Liszt. For his first public recital, at the age of four, Freire chose Mozart's Sonata in A major, K. 331.

In 1957, Freire's performed Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, at the age of 12. He was awarded 7th place at the Rio de Janeiro International Piano Competition. He subsequently received a Brazilian government grant to study in Vienna with Bruno Seidlhofer. By 1964, Freire had won his first prize at the Vianna da Motta International Music Competition in Lisbon, Portugal (ex-aequo with Vladimir Krainev) and he also received the Dinu Lipatti Medal and the Harriet Cohen Medal in London, England. In December 2001, he chaired the jury for the Marguerite Long Competition in Paris. His debut at The Proms was in August 2005.

In general, Freire tends to avoid the limelight, publicity, and interviews. However, in 2011, Freire withdrew from a scheduled engagement with the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira (OSB) and conductor Roberto Minczuk, in support of the orchestra musicians, following the dismissal of about 3 dozen OSB musicians by Minczuk.

Recordings

Freire has recorded for Sony/CBS, Teldec, Philips, and Deutsche Grammophon. He has recorded Liszt's piano concertos with the Dresden Philharmonic under Michel Plasson for Berlin Classics. Freire has recorded commercially with Martha Argerich, with whom he shares a long-time musical collaboration and friendship. Freire has more recently signed an exclusive contract with Decca, the first result of which are recordings devoted to the works of Chopin,receiving the Diapason d’Or, a "Choc" award from Monde de la Musique, as well as being rated a "10" by the Répertoire magazine and "recommended" by Classica. The recordings comprise, in two CDs, the 24 piano études and the 2nd and 3rd piano sonatas, as well as the Barcarolle op. 60. Subsequent Decca recordings include a 2-CD set of the Brahms piano concertos with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly, which won the 2007 Classic FM and Gramophone awards in the Record of the Year and Concerto categories, and CDs devoted to Beethoven sonatas, Chopin, and Debussy. He marked the 2011 bicentenary of the birth of Franz Liszt with a Decca CD entitled Harmonies du Soir. He has also recorded Brazilian piano music for Decca.

An archived recording of Freire at the age 12-13 includes his 1957 live concert performance in the final round of the Rio de Janeiro Piano Competition of that year, which launched his career, as well as pieces he recorded immediately after the competition.