Nelson Freire

Nelson Freire:

• Live at the Royal Albert Hall, London

On this CD, Nelson Freire is the soloist in Chopin’s lyrical and brilliant Second Piano Concerto. On the podium the young French conductor Lionel Bringuier makes his “Proms” debut conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra and also gives us a sizzling performance of Roussel’s Symphony No.3 and of Ravel’s score for the ballet ‘Daphnis et Chloé’ – Suite No. 2.

Here are the selections:

Berlioz:

• Le Corsaire Overture, Op. 21

Chopin:

• Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21

Nelson Freire (piano)

Gluck:

• Orfeo ed Euridice (Orphée et Euridice): Dance of the Blessed Spirits

piano transcription by Giovanni Sgambati

Ravel:

• Daphnis et Chloé – Suite No. 2

Roussel:

• Symphony No. 3 in G minor, Op. 42

Performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Lionel Bringuier, and Nelson Freire, piano soloist

Chopin wrote his second piano concerto at the age of 19 while crazily in love with an opera singer, but it is the work itself which is the object of adoration for soloist Nelson Freire who describes himself as having something of a ‘crush’ on the piece after first hearing it as a teenager.

Mr. Freire’s interpretation, this concerto is far less of a piano solo with subservient orchestra, and much more a shared work for piano and orchestra.

The three other works on the program allow us to hear French music over a century of changing musical tastes, beginning in 1844 with Berlioz’s adventure in his overture ‘Le corsaire’.

By 1912 the tides of modernism influenced Ravel’s amazingly scored, pastoral ballet Daphnis and Chloë, with its famous opening soundscape of dawn breaking over the forest canopy.

And by the 1930’s Roussel’s Third Symphony reflected the new trends of classical music.

Recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall, 08/2010

Here is Nelson Freire in the second movement of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2:

Let’s hear the final movement of this great performance:

Tags: Nelson Freire, Chopin, Lionel Bringuier, Royal Albert Hall