Freire plays Chopin Barcarolle

[Bluetooth6483]

Very good indeed. Almost of Rubinsteinian dimensions!

[OkitaJuuzou]

Code is too fast...

[MrGunterguerrero]

Chopin masterly played by the Brazilian pianist virtuoso Nelson Freire.

Wonderful !

Thank you Ana Claudia for sharing !

[TJFNYC212]

I think this is an awesome, masterful interpretation but must admit that I have always and still find Artur Rubinstein's interpretation definitive (for the moment).......................­...... :)

[christianocrr]

Stop critiquing (whoever you are) and listen for a second. You are missing a great performance. 

[freeqwerqwer]

This guy plays w/o true understanding of the piece. . What fake playing.

[NemoProkofiev551]

@freeqwerqwer What do you mean? Sorry, but there's obviously something I'm not understanding: Freire plays it beautifully as far as I can tell. Do explain, friend! :)

[RCA11DESIGN]

Nelson Freire...Como sempre IMPECÁVEL é simplesmente uma grande honrra vê-lo tocar e grande orgulho ter um conterrâneo dessa grandeza, um Brasileiro de Minas Gerais.

[Grigor99]

OMG! Of course I'm setting boundaries! There has to be some boundaries for ALL music. As far as criterion is concerned, all those items you mentioned are all legitimate musical ideas that an artist actually USES when developing an interpretation, so how one can call them lame is totally beyond me. I think you really just like to hear yourself argue just for the sake of it. This is not even a constructive dialogue.

[thetunr]

@Grigor99

>This is not even a constructive dialogue.

We found something to agree on, eventually.

[Grigor99]

@thetunr Lol Yup.

[justinneversleep]

man, i just hate the noise people make in the background, !!!!!!er!!!!!!!!! coughing and coughing and coughing!!!!! is it cuz he is too good and choked you guys??!!!

[antoinezygfryd]

Excusez-moi mais ne trouvez-vous pas que le tempo est un peu rapide??

Et que les accents sont un peu durs??Excusez-moi mais un tel tempo m'inquiète...

[billyguns2]

I have listened to just about every recording of this, my favorite piece by Chopin and one of my all-time favorite compositions; nobody approaches Horowitz in this music. I will go so far to say that it is the greatest thing Horowitz ever recorded. Freire joins a select list of second bests for me, including the Lipatti, Cherkassky, Gieseking, and wonderful 1957 Rubinstein versions.

[RabidCh]

@billyguns2

I disagree. I don't believe there can be a definitive Chopin Barcarolle.

You already went so far when you stated nobody approaches Horowitz in this music. Also try Poushinoff, de Brunhoff, Kapell, Cortot (1951), Perlemuter.

[Grigor99]

This is fine playing, but I feel that the opening sets the entire mood. Friere starts behind the tempo after the low Csharp bass and then gets TO tempo almost in the second bar, finally ritarding at the end of the intro. I believe it must START in tempo and gradually get softer and slower. Pacing is everything in this amazing masterpiece. That's why so few pianists can REALLY play it at the highest level of artistry. This is a good rendition, but not one of my favorites..

[rohayhupiano]

@Grigor99 I must agree with you, this is surely one of the most difficult works when it comes to interpretation. Perhaps I'm just disappointed because I was expectring "more" from what I had previously heard from Freire, but, again, that's what I feel about most of the masters' interpretation of this gorgeous piece. Odd thing, but that's part of what makes me love this barcarola, each rendition might be "good" or "bad", but each one of them is like an universe within itself...

[Grigor99]

@rohayhupiano Well said. I also believe that the Barcarolle is such a unique work that when a pianist attains a high enough level and then listens to another artist's interpretation, unless it is close enough to his/her own concept, he will likely be left wanting. This is true with many compositions, but at least with the Barcarolle there seems to be even less room for diversity in which we will aesthetically agree,

[thetunr]

@Grigor99

I wonder why so many people, however strong their opinions are about a piece, fail to distinguish between personal preferences and a great pianist's fully mature interpretative choices. What you think is right is simply what_you_think_is_right and the "highest level of artistry" is reached not because a pianist does exactly what you expect him to do, but when his or her interpretation works, even on shores distant from the safe harbour of your personal taste.

[Grigor99]

@thetunr Probably for the same reason that some people just prefer their mother's meatloaf.

[thetunr]

@Grigor99

Off the point. Preferences are fine, but actually you were teaching Freire how to play the Barcarolle, which invites ridicule. Now, I suspect there's a reason why Freire is Freire and you just a Grigor99.

[Grigor99]

@thetunr I can appreciate the piety of that statement more than it's utility. The old argument that he's Freire and I'm a Grigor99 is specious at best. It is a foul point from those who do not wish to offer honest opinions about high art. 

[thetunr]

@Grigor99

HAHA, that's true, but I love cheap shooting now and then... :)))

But seriously, playing the piano (as many other activities) is no theory.

[Grigor99]

@thetunr Also, many great artists DO miss some important musical ideas like Freire. Watch Lugansky's playing of the Chopin 4th ballade. A very fine performance indeed, BUT he actually plays the last set of final chords completely out of tempo and double times them. Many pianists do this and is NOT at all what Chopin actually wrote. There are rests between these final chords.

[thetunr]

@Grigor99

OF COURSE they miss some important musical ideas. Not many, but ALL the greatest artists miss something. Even the composers themselves can't envision some impoortant musical ideas their music would disclose. Fact is, when you make an interpretative choice, you reject all the others. Also, don't you think that Lugansky KNOWS what he's doing? You'd better then not listening to any pianist from the older generations, since they took liberties on a regular basis.

[Grigor99]

@thetunr Well, I never asked him WHY is plays the last chords completely out of tempo. True the old pianists did take a lot of liberties which I also do not totally agree with. It has to be within the realm of No. 1 - good taste and No. 2 - honesty to the score. If I were able to ASK Lugansky why he does certain things and he could explain it so I see he reasoning, then maybe I would accept it, BUT this is music and we don't sit there and say, well, I don't HEAR what he's trying to do

[thetunr]

"True the old pianists did take a lot of liberties which I also do not totally agree with. It has to be within the realm of No. 1 - good taste and No. 2 - honesty to the score."

Grigor, arbiter of taste and score observance, do you hear yourself? You are amusing.

[Grigor99]

@thetunr Yes, and I understand what I said. Any teacher, artist or good musician will admit there are "parameters" with which we all must work within. Some areas such as score observance have larger areas of "liberty" that we can work within while others may not. This depends on the musical period and even composer. The performer simply must know them and stay within these parameters while still making a coherent musical statement. This is not rocket science.

[thetunr]

@Grigor99

Well, then it's clear to me that we live on different planets. In mine artists are free, in yours someone (who, the audience democratically, an oligarchy of critics, the Supreme Censor?) traces the boundaries of their range of action.

HAHAHAHA, who do you think you are, Zhdanov?!

[Grigor99]

@thetunr There is no "tracing" of boundaries. The boundaries already exist by the artist's own understanding of the both the historical performance techniques for a particular style or composer as well as more modern conventions of playing. Without these parameters, boundaries or whatever you choose to call them, listeners can be left to wonder(in extreme instances) whether they are listening to Chopin being played like Rachmaninoff or even Bach being played more like Chopin.

[thetunr]

@Grigor99

You don't even realize that you're setting boundaries when you write that Chopin cannot be played like Rachmaninoff, or Bach like Chopin, whatever that means (to me it means nothing -- what is that about, pedalling, dynamics, agogics? Pretty lame as a criterion). Your starting point as a listener should be, the pianist know more than you, open your ears and do what you're supposed to do as a listener: LISTEN! Most people don't really listen to an interpretation, they COMPARE it.

[Grigor99]

@thetunr By the way, even the great Horowitz was quoted as say "one must play Mozart like Chopin and Chopin like Mozart, but all in good taste". Also, I NEVER make a silly assumption that "the pianist"(whoever that is you are referring to) knows more than me. It's not a matter of "knowing more". And, when I DO compare interpretations, it's always within what I feel I would want to ultimately hear and experience which is always evolving the more I hear different interpretations and COMPARE! Lol

[Grigor99]

@thetunr I have heard hideous examples of both. Fortunately, most major artists know how far they can take a composition. So yes, as a result, as long as the artist does stay within the larger "performance practices" for a composition the listener understands and is pretty satisfied by the performance, the rest is of course left to an individuals personal preference. Do you see what I am getting at? I don't believe we are really that far apart here.

[Grigor99]

@thetunr so I'll just ask him to explain it after the concert. This isn't how music works. If the listener doesn't understand the musical intention behind something, it doesn't matter WHO the "great artist" is-it doesn't work.

[thetunr]

@Grigor99

There's no "it doesn't work", there's only "it does/doesn't work FOR YOU/ME". Furthermore a concert is a LIVE event, that means that the pianist is PERFORMING, not necessarily carving her interpretation in stone, he could be experimenting and trying new solutions, or even be sick and play so so.

[lorehorace]

@Grigor99 well, ina interview, Freire declears that he had his way to play Chopin, and i think that he had this right. Every GOOD and with personality musician play his interpretation.

sorry my ad english, i'm from italy

[Bruce88keys]

So natural, poetic, he truly makes this big nocturne form his own voice-

[libetta]

@Bruce88keys

i agree w/ u here. friends?

[jefftam1234]

best pianist alive, bar none

[meneltar]

except for mighty martha

[scriabin007]

he playes so lyrical...freat Chopin!

[abajour]

Nelson is so lyrical... a true poet.

[INTERNETVID]

...........................

[Pischnaholic]

The very great re-statement of the second theme at the climax, wonderfully played here by Freire, would have had far more impact if the preceding segments had been stated with more delicacy and serenity at a steadier tempo. It's all very good, but body of the piece struck me as too agitated -- as though it were straining at an invisible leash. A Barcarolle, after all, should FLOAT.

Many interpretations of this Chopin work sound wonderful, until you hear HOROWITZ, whose recording is matchless.

[go9zu]

Wonderful interpretation!It goes direct to the heart!

[Iimage13]

A vibrant interpretation!