This richly inclusive album celebrates Nelson Freire, a virtuoso with a difference. True, Martha Argerich, his long-time musical partner lifted him beyond his natural musical grace in performances and recordings of a wild fire, yet as a soloist he maintained a distinctive poise and reticence the reverse of a more overt drama. Never lacking in power, when necessary, his voice was what painter's call 'low in tone.' a marvel of understated fluency.
His performance of Chopin's B flat minor Sonata is spacious rather than taut or frenetic, always sensing the lyrical undertow. His sonority is rich and full in the climax of the development, his trills in the Scherzo's trio luminous and characterful. Once again, if there is no lack of re-creative strength there is always a sense of space, of ample time to breathe and sing. He excels in the Funeral March's central benediction, and if the return of the march's principal idea is thundered out(in common with Rachmaninov's legendary recording) the finale is given with a desiccated, detache sonority creating its own distinctive menace.
The Fourth Scherzo(most amiable but most treacherous of the four) is alive with a teasing elegance and an ease that other pianists can only envy.
In the Schumann Fantasie, while Freire always allows the composer his own voice, his effortless musical quality is backed by a transcending fluency, his performance concluding with an unforgettable sense of rapture in the finale's dream world. Once more in the Arabesque Friere shows himself a master of understatement, yet there is no lack of urgency in Brahm's opus 79 Rhapsodies, with their return to the composer's early heroic style. Small wonder that Argerich asked Friere's advice before making her own recording of the Rhapsodies.
If Freire's way with Debussy's 'Estampes' is cool and rapid to the point of detachment he offers greater intensity and commitment in Scriabin's 'Prometheus, La Poeme de feu, flickering in and out of the wild and hallucinatory texture. In both Falla's 'Nights in the Gardens of Spain' and most of all in Villa-Lobos's 'Momprecoce(an all-Brazilian Carnaval seen through a child's eyes), a vivid ethnic tapestry of ideas, Freire is understandably at home in his scintillating concertante yet prominent role.
These discs are an invaluable souvenir containing the performances of a pianist who could, in the words of a German critic, 'turn power into sounding energy and who could turn technical ability into elegance. Shy and reserved in manner, Nelson Freire was a virtuoso as inclusive as he was aristocratic.
Bryce Morrison