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Two years ago, the Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire bid his final adieu, ascending to the pantheon of pianists to join the great masters of sublime music. He leaves behind an invaluable musical legacy. With a rare poetic sensitivity, he managed to distill the very essence of Romantic compositions, guiding music enthusiasts, through his piano, to a realm of virtue and humanity.
On November 1, 2021, Nelson Freire (1944-2021) joined Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) where music itself was conceived. Nelson Freire was much more than a mere pianist. He was unmistakably an intuitive poet of music, one who touched upon sensitivity to rouse humanity from its lethargy. His interpretations resemble dewdrops gently kissing the petals of carnations, increasingly fragrant with anguish, disarray and melancholy, in a world thirsty for blood and conquest. A world that, century after century, exhales the acrid odor of death, a funeral scent that rises like a bitter offering to a vengeful, vindictive, bloodthirsty and murderous god. A demonic god, a demiurge insensible to the sweet mercy of the divine, a creature who, in the darkness of its being, has never known the saving light of mercy and who, like a malevolent shadow, hovers ferociously over this tormented world. A god that bears no resemblance to God. Amid the darkness prevailing in this turbulent era, Nelson Freire’s immortal performances carve a luminous path to the quintessence of human emotion, eliciting silent tears from humanity in a world that seems to have irretrievably lost its innocence.
Poetic Intoxication
The soft melodies, unfurled under the fingers of the Brazilian pianist, seem to emanate from a mystical universe where music becomes an almost sacred elixir, capable of uniting what the ravages of life have so often torn asunder. In the golden glow of his musical fugues, the piano transforms into an altar where emotions are set free and hearts converge in silent communion. Borders, barriers, ramparts and the vicissitudes of being and existence are immediately forgotten as one is swept away by this music that heals, unites and reminds us that, despite the torments and tribulations of human life, harmony persists, elusive yet unalterable. His artisanal work on tonalities, colors, the gradation of nuances and dynamics, the legato, and above all, the rubato, lends a special interest in his interpretations of the works of Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849). With persuasive intelligence and flawless mastery, elevating art through art itself, he imparts a discreet lyricism to the inexhaustible melodic blossoming of the Polish composer, from which springs, without any unnecessary ornamentation, a kind of poetic intoxication.
Foretaste of Paradise
When Nelson Freire took hold of Frédéric Chopin’s majestic Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11, his phrasing resonated like prayers chanted in the sacred darkness of a cathedral. In this way, the soul finds its tranquility within the melodic waves that carry it toward divine infinity. His renowned radio recording of this concerto, made in 1968 and released in 2014 by Decca, with the NDR Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Heinz Wallber, undeniably offers a sweet foretaste of paradise. Stripped of any roughness, this performance, whose brilliance is matched by meticulous stylistic fidelity, is full of melancholic grace that seems to draw its emotion from “Chopin’s soul odyssey,” to borrow Franz Liszt’s (1811-1886) expression. From the first note to the final silence, Nelson Freire reigns as an absolute master. His sovereign touch reveals a deep mastery of tonal subtleties and the art of the pedal, a surgical precision in modulations, and an unpretentious virtuosity that adeptly avoids the pitfall of sterile technical exhibitionism. This mastery reaches its zenith in his interpretation of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21: the virtuoso does not merely play, he breathes music, feels it within the intimacy of his being, and delivers it with refined sensitivity.
Whispered Confessions
Nelson Freire’s piano repertoire encompasses a plethora of masterpieces from great maestros, ranging from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) to Claude Debussy (1862-1918), through Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Franz Schubert (1797-1828), Robert Schumann (1810-1856), Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), among others. However, it is in his masterful renderings of Romantic era compositions, particularly those of Poland’s son, that the artist climbed the ranks of international fame. Within the sparkling silences that punctuate his interpretations of Brahms’s Concerto’s No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 and No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83 (with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Chailly), emerges a twilight light of ineffable splendor, which stealthily slips between the notes and bathes his harmonies in a majesty oh so intoxicating. One that deftly marries stylistic beauty with passionate fire, vehement eloquence (notably in the last theme of the first movement of the concerto in D minor) to the whispered, poignant and almost improvised confessions of the piano (notably in the second movement, Adagio, of said concerto).
Musical Catharsis
In his reading of Beethoven’s Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, and especially Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, his piano dons a woody timbre, with brilliant crescendos and decrescendos, yet without harshness (notably in the last movement, Rondo, of the concerto in E-flat major), volatile trills and explosive arpeggios. Thus, Nelson Freire naturally established himself as the uncontested prince of noble harmonies, a virtuoso whose music seems to flourish under his fingers like the majestic roars of a lion in all its splendor. In the third movement, known as the “Marche funèbre,” of Chopin’s Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35, we discover, through Nelson Freire, a piece we thought we knew well, as if by the back of our hand. The funeral march thus becomes a march towards the Light, paving the way to a beyond filled with peace and redemption. The harmonies transform into a catharsis, healing the gaping wounds of existence and thus reconciling humanity with its painful past.
Requiescat in pace, maestro.
