Nelson Freire: Brahms
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Johannes Brahms
Genre:
Instrumental
Label: Decca
Magazine Review Date: AW17
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 73
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 483 2154DH
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Sonata for Piano No. 3 |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Johannes Brahms, Composer Nelson Freire, Piano |
(8) Pieces, Movement: No. 3, Intermezzo in A flat |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Johannes Brahms, Composer Nelson Freire, Piano |
(8) Pieces, Movement: No. 4, Intermezzo in B flat |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Johannes Brahms, Composer Nelson Freire, Piano |
(7) Pieces, Movement: No. 1, Capriccio in D minor |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Johannes Brahms, Composer Nelson Freire, Piano |
(7) Pieces, Movement: No. 4, Intermezzo in E |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Johannes Brahms, Composer Nelson Freire, Piano |
(3) Pieces, Movement: No. 2, Intermezzo in B flat minor |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Johannes Brahms, Composer |
(6) Pieces, Movement: No. 2, Intermezzo in A |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Johannes Brahms, Composer Nelson Freire, Piano |
(6) Pieces, Movement: No. 3, Ballade in G minor |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Johannes Brahms, Composer |
(4) Pieces |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Johannes Brahms, Composer Nelson Freire, Piano |
(16) Waltzes, Movement: No. 15 in A flat |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Johannes Brahms, Composer Nelson Freire, Piano |
Author: Harriet Smith
Freire’s sound has always been a thing of wonder: even at full volume and full tilt there’s no hint of percussiveness in his tone – just sample the development of the first movement; or the way the melody of the intermezzo-like slow movement is plucked almost insouciantly out of the texture (where the earlier version was elegant, this is utterly luminous). If the dizzy unpredictability of the finale is just a shade more unhinged in 1967, this newer one has lost nothing in playfulness. Freire’s zest for this piece is palpably undimmed and what a joy it is.
He follows the sonata with a bouquet of Brahms’s later pieces. From Op 76, he relishes the ethereal opening of No 3 (less free with rubato than the devilishly luxuriant Volodos) and finds a profundity to the songful No 4. That’s a quality he reveals in the second of the Op 117 pieces, too, while the presto Capriccio that opens Op 116 has energy without ever seeming rushed, Freire voicing Brahms’s rich textures with an easeful mastery.
Highlights are many – the regret-filled duet of the middle section of Op 118 No 2 or the way he brings to such a quiet close the Ballade, Op 118 No 3. He is different in his approach from Volodos in Op 118 but no less compelling. I hope the inclusion of the final works, Op 119, is not an indication that Freire is done with this composer: they are touched everywhere with an ineluctable beauty without the slightest degree of self-consciousness. No 1 draws you in, unfolding with complete naturalness, spinning lines out of air, while the chattering No 3 is superbly vivid. Freire gives No 4 not only strength and fervency but an almost symphonic splendour in its colouring, the inner section having an easeful quality before being quickly banished. By way of an encore, we get a deliciously poised reading of the Waltz, Op 39 No 15. Enough adjectives. Go and buy it, and set it on your shelves next to Volodos.
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