Nelson Freire was a child prodigy: at three years of age he could play by ear what he heard his sister play. The local piano teacher rapidly became redundant so Freire’s parents, his father a pharmacist and his mother a schoolteacher, moved to Rio de Janeiro. Further sacrifices were made when the father had to take a job in a bank, but the problem with young Nelson was that his playing was already formed by the age of seven, so teachers found him difficult to train. Fortunately, he was presented to Lucia Branco, a pupil of the great Belgian pianist Arthur de Greef, himself a pupil of Liszt. Branco suggested that Freire should first learn with one of her own pupils Nise Obino, and it is to her that Freire claims he owes everything. Three months of intensi...