Nelson Freire
Um Filme Sobre um Homem e Sua Música
Nelson Freire conta a história do menino-prodígio do interior de Minas Gerais que se tornou unanimidade internacional. Filmado no Brasil, na França, na Bélgica e na Rússia, o documentário acompanha a rotina de Nelson em concertos e recitais, desde o primeiro contato com o piano até a recepção dos admiradores no camarim. Uma música extraordinariamente bela pontua o filme: Nelson toca Brahms, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Bach, Gluck, Villa-Lobos, e interpreta Rachmaninoff a quatro mãos com Martha Argerich. Mais de 90 minutos de extras, incluindo a íntegra do concerto n.2 de Rachmaninoff com a Filarmônica de São Petersburgo. Sucesso de crítica e público. "Nelson Freire é um dos mais brilhantes pianistas de todos os tempos" - Time Magazine
A vida e obra de Nélson Freire, um dos principais pianistas brasileiros e do mundo na atualidade, retratada através de 31 blocos temáticos que mostram um homem e sua música.

Biography 
Born in Boa Esperança, Brazil, Nelson Freire began piano lessons at the age of three with Nise Obino and Lucia Branco, who had worked with a pupil of Liszt. He made his first public appearance at the age of five playing Mozart’s Sonata K. 331. In 1957, after winning a grant at the Rio de Janeiro International Piano Competition with Beethoven’s “Emperor”Concerto, he went to Vienna to study with Bruno Seidlhofer, teacher of Friedrich Gulda. Seven years later he won the Dinu Lipatti Medal in London and first prize at the International Vianna da Motta Competition in Lisbon.
Since his international career began in 1959, Freire has appeared at virtually every important musical centre, in recital and collaborating with such distinguished conductors as Jirí Belohlávek, Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Chailly, Myung-Whun Chung, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Iván Fischer, Valery Gergiev, Alan Gilbert, Eugen Jochum, Fabio Luisi, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Ingo Metzmacher, Kent Nagano, Václav Neumann, Seiji Ozawa, David Robertson, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Yuri Temirkanov, Michael Tilson Thomas, Hugh Wolff, David Zinman and orchestras including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester of Berlin, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Munich Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, Oslo Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Mariinsky, Tonhalle of Zurich, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Vienna Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, London Symphony, BBC Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, São Paulo Symphony and Seoul Philharmonic, as well as the leading North American orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington. With Martha Argerich, he toured Japan in 2003, Brazil and Argentina in 2004 and the USA and Canada in 2005.
Freire has an extensive discography and was included by Philips in its historic series Great Pianists of the 20th Century, released in 1999. He has been an exclusive Decca artist since 2001, thus far recording Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann and Debussy, as well as the two Brahms Concertos with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly, which was hailed by Gramophone as “the Brahms piano concerto set we’ve been waiting for” and has earned international prizes including the 2007 Classic FM Gramophone Award as “Record of the Year” and “Winner of the Concerto Category”, Diapason d’or, Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros and Choc du Monde de la musique as well as a Grammy® nomination. The Chopin bicentenary year of 2010 saw two new releases by Freire: his recording of the complete Nocturnes and a recital album containing the Second Sonata, Op. 10 Etudes and Barcarolle. In the Liszt bicentenary year of 2011 Decca released his recital album Harmonies du Soir. His new album Brasileirois planned for release in summer 2012.
In March 2007, Nelson Freire was appointed a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the French government and in January 2011 he was made a Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion de’Honneur, the French government’s highest award to a foreigner.

Source: Decca Classics