Nelson José Pinto Freire was born on 18 October 1944 in Boa Esperança.[3][2] He began playing the piano at age three.[4] He replayed from memory pieces his older sister, Nelma, had just performed. His teachers in Brazil were Lucia Branco, a former student of Arthur De Greef, a pupil of Franz Liszt, and her assistant Nise Obino.[2] He gave his first public recital at the age of four.[4]
In 1957, Freire's performed Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, at the age of 12. He was awarded 7th place at the Rio de Janeiro International Piano Competition. He subsequently received a Brazilian government grant to study in Vienna with Bruno Seidlhofer. By 1964, Freire had won his first prize at the Vianna da Motta International Music Competition in Lisbon (ex-aequo with Vladimir Krainev) and he also received the Dinu Lipatti Medal and the Harriet Cohen Medal in London. In December 2001, he chaired the jury for the Marguerite Long Competition in Paris. His debut at The Proms was in August 2005.[5]
Freire died from a fall[11] at his home in Rio de Janeiro on 1 November 2021, two weeks after his 77th birthday.[2][12][13]
Recordings
Freire recorded for Sony Classical, Teldec, Philips, Decca, and Deutsche Grammophon. He recorded Liszt's piano concertos with the Dresden Philharmonic, conducted by Michel Plasson for Berlin Classics. Freire recorded commercially with Martha Argerich,[14] with whom he shared a long-time musical collaboration and friendship.[7] Freire later recorded exclusively with Decca, the first result of which are recordings devoted to the works of Chopin, receiving the Diapason d'Or, a "Choc" award from Le Monde de la musique, as well as being rated a "10" by the Répertoire magazine and "recommended" by Classica. The recordings comprise, in two CDs, the 24 piano études and the 2nd and 3rd piano sonatas, as well as the Barcarolle op. 60. Subsequent Decca recordings include a 2-CD set of the Brahms piano concertos with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly,[15] which won the 2007 Classic FM and Gramophone awards in the Record of the Year and Concerto categories, and CDs devoted to Beethoven's piano sonatas,[16] Chopin,[17] and Debussy.[18] He marked the 2011 bicentenary of the birth of Franz Liszt with a Decca CD entitled Harmonies du Soir.[19] He also recorded Brazilian piano music for Decca.[20]
An archived recording of Freire at the age 12–13 includes his 1957 live concert performance in the final round of the Rio de Janeiro Piano Competition of that year, which launched his career, as well as pieces he recorded immediately after the competition.[21]