At 77 years of age
Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire has died
The Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire at a concert in Cannes in 2005. Freire died in Rio de Janeiro at the age of 77. Photo: Pascal Guyot / AFP / dpa
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He was one of the most important classical pianists in the world and played with many renowned orchestras. Now the Brazilian Nelson Freire has died.
The Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire died in Rio de Janeiro at the age of 77. This was reported by Brazilian media such as the newspaper “Folha de S. Paulo”, citing his agent on Monday.
The Foreign Ministry in Brasília wrote that evening that it took the news with a heavy heart. The cause of the artist’s death was initially not known. A public memorial service should take place in the Theatro Municipal in Rio on Tuesday.
Freire, considered one of the best pianists in the world, fell on the Rio promenade in 2019. He broke his arm and had an operation. Since then he has not given a concert or made a recording. According to companions, the accident had a significant impact on Freire’s mental health. “Nelson fell into a deep depression,” said the Brazilian pianist João Martins of the newspaper “O Globo”. “I think this depression was stronger than he could stand because music was everything to him.”
Nelson Freire has played in dozens of countries, often with the Argentine pianist Martha Argerich, and has an extensive and award-winning discography. Born in 1944 in the state of Minas Gerais, he first appeared at the age of five. After taking seventh place in the piano competition in Rio at the age of twelve, he received a scholarship to study in Vienna. At the age of 24, Freire made his debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. “Time Magazine” described him as “one of the greatest pianists of this or another generation”.
He has won prizes and awards, played with orchestras such as the Berlin, Vienna and St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra, and was one of the great interpreters of Ludwig van Beethoven and Frédéric Chopin. Philips Records accepted him into the “Great Pianists of the 20th Century”. Critics praised Freire’s extraordinary technique, sonority and sensitivity.
For decades he refused to make recordings because, in his opinion, music should be played live in front of an audience. In the 2000s, however, he began to record music again – for example for the work of Claude Debussy. For his album of Brahms concerts with the Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig, Freire received the 2007 Gramophone Award in the CD of the Year category, and the 2012 Grammy Latino for “Brasileiro” with works by Heitor Villa-Lobos, among others.
Personally, the pianist has been described as shy and discreet. “If I have to speak, it’s a problem,” he joked. Freire expressed himself through music, the piano was his friend – or it wasn’t. One of the most famous scenes in the documentary “Nelson Freire” by Brazilian filmmaker João Moreira Salles is the one in which Freire concludes in the Sala São Paulo that the piano there doesn’t like him.