What is most notable about this collection is the way Freire finds exactly the right idiom for each composer: a perfumed suggestion in the theatre for Tchaikovsky's First, elfin charm for the young Prokofiev and a quintessentially Russian nostalgia for Rachmaninov.

These recordings of live broadcasts dating from 1968-79 tell us in no uncertain terms of Nelson Freire's immaculate overall command, allied to a liberation granted to only the finest pianists...These are not the sort of performances to prompt vivid metaphors. Yet there are several surprises from a pianist who has often kept emotions at arm's length.

There's not a dud among them. Each bar is full of the vitality that Freire brings to everything he plays, though the recorded orchestral sound is a bit dry and bright – and the orchestras aren't always immaculate. But Freire's fabulously clean phrasing and pearly tone are never compromised, and each concerto is special in one way or another.

Freire excels...on his 1979 account of Liszt No 2, with Bavarian Radio forces conducted by Eleazar de Carvalho, who apparently sometimes marked beats by thumping his chest as if he were Tarzan. Listening to this blistering recording, I am not at all surprised.