Nelson Freire (piano) Decca 478 2728*****

Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire's bicentenary Liszt recital is a well-balanced affair. This is partly a matter of the repertoire, which represents the brash, the intimate, the colourful and the prophetic sides of Liszt. But it's also because of the cultured breadth of Freire's pianistic responses to the wide-ranging challenges that Liszt poses. Freire never loses his composure. The most dangerous of the undertakings is probably the Second Ballade, where he limits the raw bluster in the storms he stirs up. He's delightfully capricious in the late Valse Oubliéein F sharp, caressing in the six Consolations, and stirs rich, dark sonic depths in the third Hungarian Rhapsody. The collection also runs to the atmospheric concert study Waldesrauschen, Sonetto 104 del Petrarca, Au lac de Wallenstadtand the highly-perfumed transcendental study, Harmonies du soir, which gives the disc its title. See url.ie/4w4k