The greatest Brazilian pianist, Nelson Freire, dies at 77 – Culture

The Brazilian pianist passed away at dawn on the first Monday Nelson FreireHe is 77 years old. He was at his home in Rio de Janeiro. The news has been confirmed to condition by your business woman. Freire was one of the greatest Brazilian artists, with a career that led him to major stages in the world.

The cause of Nelson Freire’s death has not yet been released.

Freire had an accident while driving in Rio de Janeiro in 2019 and He underwent shoulder surgery. He was scheduled to return to the stage last year, but concerts were canceled due to the pandemic. Two months ago, he canceled his participation as a juror in the Chopin competition in Warsaw.

The story of Nelson Freire

Nelson Freire was born in Boa Esperanca, within the state of Minas Gerais, in October 1944. He began playing the piano at the age of three, and while still in Minas, he was a student at Nice Aubino. He moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he took lessons with Lucia Branco.

In 2015, Estadão accompanied Freire on a visit to Boa Esperança, where he sang in a public square with the Philharmonic of Minas Gerais. Then he recalled his childhood and the beginning of his relationship with music. In addition to the first concert, at the age of five, at Cine-Teatro Brasil.

“I played tracks like La vie em rose, La Paloma, quizas, quizas and quizas. But I also had fun,” he joked. The family was large, and I had several cousins, in addition to my two brothers. I loved riding the horses, bathing in the stream, splitting the worm in half, and watching the two halves move. They killed the birds with the slingshot, but that I didn’t like. There was only one time when I took off wings from a fly, went to look at it with a lens and ended up burning the cat.”

At the age of twelve, he was one of the winners of the Rio de Janeiro International Piano Competition. “The competition opened up a musical horizon. It was unexpected. I was invited to participate (there was no age limit), and Donna Lucia immediately warned me out loud: Don’t think you’ll make it to the finals. You will compete with Pianists from all over the world, with people in their thirties awarded in other competitions.

Shortly thereafter, Freire went to Vienna, where he studied with Bruno Seidlhofer. In 1964, she won first place in the Vianna da Motta competition in Lisbon.

What happened next was the development of a career that made him one of the greatest pianists of his generation. Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Schubert, Mozart, Greg, Rachmaninoff, Villa Lubos, Debussy – Freire has traveled the world performing concerts or performing with the greatest orchestras on the planet.

In the early 2000s, the pianist was the subject of a Joao Moreira Salles documentary. The film showed the character of a pianist: shy, averse to interviews, prefers communication over the piano. “How much trouble should I say,” he joked whenever he started an interview. In the film we also see his passion for jazz, the pianist Guiomar Novaes, the friendship with Martha Argerich and with the instrument itself: one of the most famous scenes is the scene in which he comes in Sala São Paulo to the conclusion that this piano does not like him.

The film’s success coincided with a new phase in Freer’s career, who began making new recordings after nearly two decades away from the studios. “I don’t like recording, the whole ritual annoys me. But after I started again I think I tasted it. Now, I want to record more and more. And one more thing, for a musician like me, who doesn’t like to travel all the time, the album has another advantage: it travels for me.” And I stay at home,” he joked in a 2004 interview.

Decca’s own recordings have yielded reference records for pieces such as the Brahms Concerto, Brahms Emperor Concerto and Chopin Concerto #2. Also of note are solo albums dedicated to Beethoven, Schumann, and Debussy, as well as Encores on which he has recorded a series of Brazilian authors.

However, in the audience’s memory, another piece was forever engraved, which Nelson Freire always used as an appearance in his performances: Gluck’s Melody of Orpheus and Eurydice. Tenderness and lyric poetry – there has always been clear intimacy between the artist, his instruments and his music. What his death has now turned into an unforgettable memory.