“Memories: The Unreleased Recordings” honors the pianist in the first year of his death
critics of The New York Times made a list with 5 albums to listen to now and included one Nelson Freire: Memories: unreleased recordings, 1970-2019. The album, which collects unreleased recordings on disc, is now out to honor the the greatest Brazilian pianist, who died a year ago, on November 1, 2021.
“Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire was one of those artists whose profile in the musical environment was inversely proportional to his position among his fellow musicians,” wrote David Weininger, who pointed to the record and quoted Ivan Davis that a he once said that “anyone who knows anything about the piano can’t understand why it’s not a household name”.
“Words like warmth, refinement, elegance were almost ineluctably linked to his playing, which had acumen, excellent technique and an almost magically beautiful touch. Two different sides of his personality are exhibited in this posthumous collection assembled by Dominic Fyfe, music producer of Freire at Decca, “he writes.
Four concerts of radio shows in the 70s and 80s, he continues, show a warmth and impulsiveness not always present thereafter. “There is a certain keenness in his performance in Bartók’s First Piano Concerto – a piece absent from his discography – as well as the well-adapted accompaniment of conductor Michael Gielen.”
He also comments that the seven solo pieces take us back to the sensitive and nuanced piano known in the last two decades of his career. “An arrangement of Glück’s Dance of the Blessed Spirits by Orpheus and Eurydice – an encore by Freire – opens this collection; a silent and devastating reading of Brahms’s Intermezzo in la (Op. 118, nº 2) closes it, a poignant memory of what we lost. “
Memories: unreleased recordings, 1970-2019 can be heard on Spotify and YouTube.
5 classical music albums nominated by the New York Times
- The Disney Book, by Lang Lang, piano (Deutsche Grammophon)
- X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, by Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Odyssey Opera Chorus with Gil Rose (BMOP Sound)
- Karol Szymanowski: Piano Works, by Krystian Zimerman, piano (Deutsche Grammophon)
- Memoirs: The unpublished recordings, 1970-2019, by Nelson Freire (Decca)
- Hans Rott: Symphony No. 1, by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra with Jakub Hrusa (Deutsche Grammophon)
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Source: Terra
Emily Jhon is a product and service reviewer at Gossipify, known for her honest evaluations and thorough analysis. With a background in marketing and consumer research, she offers valuable insights to readers. She has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Marketing and Consumer Research from the University of Oxford.
