Nelson Freire (piano)
Memories: The Unreleased Recordings
rec. 1970-2019
DECCA 4853136 [75 + 80]
Spanning a half-century of previously unreleased recordings, this twofer tribute to Nelson Freire, who died in November 2021, presents a formidable programme. Concertos by Beethoven (No.4), Brahms’ Second and Bartók’s First alongside Strauss’ Burleske take up the bulk of the discs but the smaller pieces, iridescent gems, some of them, arguably preserve his tonal qualities in better ways.
The concertos are from radio broadcasts and date from 1970-77. The Strauss is a 1985 SWR product. Beethoven’s Fourth is with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, conducted by Uri Segal in October 1972. The broadcast balance hasn’t been achieved especially well, the orchestra too recessive for my liking, the piano solidly out front. That, though, focuses the ear, at least, on Freire’s elegant, refined art and the crisp but unshowy elegance of his pianism. He plays Saint-Saëns’ cadenzas, the first of which is decidedly aggressive in places. Freire’s playing of the slow movement is precisely and beautifully calibrated, but it remains healthy and unindulged and his is thoroughly engaged in the finale where, though too prominent in the balance, he phrases with maximal clarity and rhythmic incision and a fair amount of filigree too.
Strauss’ Burleske (SWR Baden-Baden, Zoltán Peskó, December 1985) is better balanced and full of bravura – sensitive but capricious, colourful, rightly virtuosic and revealing some expressive depth not always encountered. This was his only performance of it, a fortunate survival. In the Bartók concerto No.1 the Frankfurt Radio under Michael Gielen is also somewhat backwardly placed, which accounts for a relative lack of punch where the piano tends to obstruct the sonority. When the orchestra is given its head – for example, at the very beginning of the finale – it sounds better. However, the tempo for the central movement is very slow: Yefim Bronfman took a similarly slow tempo with Esa-Pekka Salonen in Los Angeles, but most other performers are a good two to three minutes faster in this movement alone.
Brahms Concerto in B flat was taped in performances given between March-April 1977. Its opening movement is relatively expansive but logically driven and enriched by Freire’s sonority. As some will remember he recorded this with Chailly in Leipzig but with Horst Stein this time directing the Frankfurt orchestra, this makes a fine adjunct to Freire’s commercial discography. Stein offers fine, purposeful support in the second movement and in the third the cello principal unfolds his solo at an unhurried, expressive tempo, Freire making the most of the chamber-scaled exchanges with orchestral soloists. He goes effectively attaca straight into the finale though I assume in the broadcast there was a pause. He plays this with real bravura but sensitive wit too.
The Berlin sessions of 2014 feature some beautifully recorded, pellucid playing. Here he is unfettered and free. The Gluck-Sgambati Mélodie, an unedited performance, is beautifully voiced and features deft rubati, Freire taking his time over the trills. Very beautiful. The Bach-Hess Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, also unedited, is full of refined delicacy, and Beethoven’s Andante favori – his only recording of it – makes up the trio of pieces from the February 2014 sessions. Other solo pieces are not so well recorded but persuasive musically.
These two discs have been well edited. There’s also a touching but in no sense lachrymose memorial essay by his long-time recording producer at Decca, Dominic Fyfe. It’s probably too soon after his death for a more expansive look at his career but this compact twofer reveals many of the qualities that made him so admirable a musician. As he recounted to Fyfe, for all his modesty he wanted to be remembered and these recordings are part of that remembrance.
Jonathan Woolf
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Contents
Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714-1787)
Orfeo ed Euridice: Mélodie (Dance of the Blessed Spirits) arr. Sgambati
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Cantata BWV147 ‘Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben’; Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring arr. Hess
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Andante Favori in F, WoO 57
rec. 23 February 2014, Teldex Studios, Berlin
Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58
Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR/Uri Segal
rec. 6 October 1972, Liederhalle, Beethoven-Saal, Stuttgart
Bagatelles (11), Op. 119 No 11. Andante, ma non troppo
rec. 28 April 2006, La Salle de Musique, Chaux-de-Fonds
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Burleske for Piano and orchestra in D minor, AV85
SWF Sinfonie Orchester Baden-Baden/Zoltán Peskó
rec. 10 December 1985, Hans-Rosbaud-Studio, SWF Baden-Baden
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
La plus que lente, L128
rec. 15 June 2008, Friedrich-Ebert Halle, Harburg
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)
Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4 for piano or orchestra; I. Prelúdio (Introdução), W264
rec. 22 February 2019, Friedrich-Ebert Halle, Harburg
Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
Piano Concerto No. 1, BB 91, Sz. 83
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra/Michael Gielen
rec. 22 and 23 October 1970, Sendesaal des Hessischer Rundfunks, Frankfurt
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 83
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra/Horst Stein
rec. 28 March-1 April 1977, Sendesaal des Hessischer Rundfunks, Frankfurt
Klavierstücke (6), Op. 118; 2. Intermezzo in A
rec. 18 February 2006, Gewandhaus, Leipzig
