Decca Classics’ Memorial for Nelson Freire

Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire died on November 1, 2021. I was unaware of that event at the time. Indeed, consulting my archives, I discovered that I had written about him only once, during my tenure with Examiner.com. That was in August of 2012, when I wrote about Brasileiro—Villa- Lobos & Friends, a 30-track Decca Classics survey of the Brazilian piano repertoire over a roughly 60-year period between 1890 and 1950. At that time I was a bit dismissive, describing the album as a collection of encore pieces; but I now feel a bit of regret that this release slipped off my radar.

More recently Decca Classics has released a two-CD tribute entitled Memories: The Unreleased Recordings 1970–2019. Once again, there is a generous offering of encore selections. However, there are also three substantial concerto recordings representing a unique assembly of “three B’s.” The first CD includes Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 58 (fourth) piano concerto in G major, which Freire recorded using an edition with cadenza’s composed by Camille Saint-Saëns. Freire recorded this performance with Uri Segal conducting the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The remaining two concertos fill all but one track on the second CD. The first of these is Béla Bartók’s first piano concerto. (Bartók is the composer that makes this “three B’s” collection unique.) The Bartók selection is followed by Johannes Brahms’ Opus 83 (second) piano concerto in B-flat major. Both of these concertos were performed by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony conducted by Michael Gielen. Finally, the first CD includes one other substantial concertante performance. The Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Zoltán Peskó, accompanied Freire’s performance of Richard Strauss’ “Burleske” in D minor (sometimes known as the Strauss concerto for piano and timpani).

While there remain six tracks that could be viewed as encore offerings, the album as a whole makes it clear that Freire could bring expressive interpretations to longer-duration selections. That said, I would have to confess that both those selections and the encores are well accounted for in my current library. As a result, listening to the new release triggered my memory of the Brasileiro album; and I have to confess that I am more drawn to how Freire chose to introduce an unfamiliar piano repertoire than I am to his accounts of the more familiar offerings on this memorial release.