“The loss of a giant”: the pianist Nelson Freire has passed away – France Musique

It is a monument, a sacred monster of the piano which leaves us. Brazilian pianist Nelson freire died in Rio de Janeiro on the night of Sunday to Monday at the age of 77, learns France Musique. With him, an unusual flamboyance on the keyboard is extinguished, mixed with a rare sensitivity and expressiveness.

France Musique pays tribute to him from 3 p.m. in Relax with Lionel Esparza, as well as in the van Beethoven by Aurélie Moreau.

Early virtuosity

Nelson Freire was born in 1944 in Boa Esperança, in the south-east of Brazil. His family detects and recognizes his precocious talent early on. He was introduced to the piano by his sister at the age of 3. Young Nelson, reserved, sickly, finds in music an ideal playground to express himself. He began to study the piano in earnest at the age of 5, under the guidance of Lucia Branco and Nise Obino. At 11, he was already playing Chopin with dazzling talent and ease. Extremely alert and studious despite his young age, he made giant strides, and at only 13 years old, won the International Piano Competition in Rio de Janeiro, performing Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto. Premise of the glories to come.

The young virtuoso pianist then won a scholarship to study in Vienna with Bruno Seidlhofer. As a young student, he then meets his soul mate, his great friend, Martha argerich, had who he will share the keyboard on many occasions. It was empty-handed, without having won a competition, that Nelson Freire returned to Brazil in 1962. A little gloomy and depressed, tired of the piano, a score would pull him out of his languor: the Rhapsodies of Brahms, offered by a friend. By playing Brahms, the young pianist rediscovers a taste for his instrument.

The performances and the prices follow one another. The Dinu Lipatti Medal in London, in 1964. The First Prize -ex-aequo with Vladimir Krainev – of Vianna-da-Motta competition, in Lisbon. Then, in 1972, first discographic award with the Edison Prize, for his recording of Preludes of Chopin.

“He always had a feline game, brilliant, extremely easy, easy, a very exhilarating virtuosity”, describes the pianist and producer Philippe Cassard. “And I would also say that what has always struck me is the joy of playing. An instrumental pleasure, a velvet touch, soft, extremely singing. He was undoubtedly the greatest current Chopinian, with Martha Argerich . “

“It is the loss of a giant. He is one of those pianists who are like anchors for the young generation” – Philippe Cassard

From the Brazilian school of pianists, Nelson Freire has a desperate admiration for the pianist Guiomar Novaës and his friend Martha Argerich, whom he considers to be the best pianist of his generation. Freire’s area of ​​predilection remains the romantic repertoire: he has made remarkable recordings of Schumann, Chopin and even Brahms, never forgetting the repertoire of his native country, Brazil.

“For me he was more than a pianist: he was someone who only lived for music”, reacts his friend Alain Lompech, journalist and music critic. “When you spoke to him, you always had the impression that you were with him, but that part of him was not there. I heard him working for hours on Beethoven’s Sonata No. 111. worked in an incredibly humble way.For him, the music had to be transmitted without his presence, without him being there, without anything interposing between the audience and the work. He was working until he faded away. “

“I listened to a lot of records with him. He taught me to listen differently, he was my listening teacher” – Alain Lompech

Great romantic

“We retain his interpretation of the works of Chopin, Brahms. He imposed a transcendent Rachmaninoff and Liszt. But there was always voluptuousness, a voluptuous play, like a great Burgundy wine”, emphasizes Philippe Cassard. With remarkable personality and humility for a musician of his rank: “He is someone who left his mark, his style, his class. He was an artist of a very high class, absolutely not narcissistic, defying all fashions and egotisms. He was distinguished by its purity, its musical integrity. “ An extraordinary class, humility and mastery that made Nelson Freire one of the greatest pianists of the second half of the 20th century.