Arthur Moreira Lima

Arthur Moreira Lima (16 July 1940 – 30 October 2024) was a Brazilian concert pianist and one of the country's leading pianists of his generation.

He returned to Moscow, finished his studies, and spent three years as Kehrer's teaching assistant. A year later, he shared third prize with Victoria Postnikova at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. In the final, he played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3.

Chopin and other Romantic composers stayed in his programs, while Brazilian music took up more space in his concerts and albums. In 1975, he made a double album of music by Ernesto Nazareth for the Marcus Pereira label. He returned to Nazareth in later albums and recitals.

Guests on the program included Radamés Gnattali, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Paulinho da Viola, Raphael Rabello, Milton Nascimento, Ney Matogrosso, Moreira da Silva, João Nogueira and Nelson Gonçalves. Moreira Lima spoke with them from the piano and often played alongside them.

He bought a Scania truck with his own money and had it rebuilt so that one side opened into a stage. The truck used air suspension to reduce the shocks carried to the piano while travelling.

In 2005 and 2006, the tour Nos Caminhos da Fronteira reached 35 towns near Brazil's land borders, from Chuí in Rio Grande do Sul to Xapuri in Acre. The 2007 tour, Nos Caminhos de JK, stopped in 57 cities across Maranhão, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Tocantins and Pará, with further concerts in the Federal District and Rio de Janeiro.

The crew could prepare the truck for a concert in about an hour. Before a performance in Santos in 2012, twelve workers opened the stage, installed the sound, lights and screen, and tuned the piano. They packed everything away in about the same time before leaving for the next stop. By 2018, seventeen people travelled with the project, including a piano tuner and a sound engineer.

Some tours were financed by private companies through Brazil's federal cultural incentive law. Municipal governments supplied the concert sites, seating and local crews. The 2012 tour Brasil Sertões 2, sponsored by Ultragaz, passed through fifteen cities. Its Recife stop was the project's 443rd concert.

Principal and collaborative albums

Year Title Repertoire or collaborators Label or format Notes 1965 The VII International Chopin Piano Competition, Warsaw 1965 Frédéric Chopin LP Performances recorded during the VII International Chopin Piano Competition 1970 Chopin Chopin Concert Hall; LP 1975 Arthur Moreira Lima interpreta Ernesto Nazareth, Vol. 1 Ernesto Nazareth Discos Marcus Pereira MPA 9311; double LP Reissued on compact disc in 2006 1976 Chopin: The 14 Waltzes Chopin Denon OX-7084; LP 1976 Arthur Moreira Lima Interpreta Frédéric Chopin, Vol. 1 Chopin EMI 1977 Recital de Piano com Arthur Moreira Lima Works by Bach, Villa-Lobos and Chopin Phonodisc 0-34-405-392; LP Recorded in Moscow 1977 Arthur Moreira Lima interpreta Ernesto Nazareth, Vol. 2 Nazareth Discos Marcus Pereira MPA 9364–9365; double LP 1979 Chorando Baixinho: Um Encontro Histórico With Época de Ouro and Abel Ferreira LP Reissued on compact disc 1980 Parcelada Malunga With Elomar LP 1981 Com Licença Brazilian popular and concert music LP 1982 ConSertão: Um Passeio Musical pelo Brasil With Elomar, Paulo Moura and Heraldo do Monte LP 1982 Tangos, Waltzes, Polkas of Ernesto Nazareth Nazareth Pro-Arte International release 1984 Arthur Moreira Lima interpreta Ernesto Nazareth, Vol. 3 Nazareth LP 1984 Arthur Moreira Lima interpreta Ernesto Nazareth, Vol. 4 Nazareth LP 1984 The 767 Is Coming... Promotional recital recording LP 1988 Tchaikovsky: As Estações Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, The Seasons LP 1990 Cartão de Visita Brazilian repertoire CD A later Karmi edition was issued in 1998 1992 O Boêmio & o Pianista With Moreira da Silva Album 1997 Piano Interludes Classical repertoire Album 1999 Arthur Moreira Lima Plays Piazzolla Astor Piazzolla Album 1999 Arthur Moreira Lima interpreta Waldemar Henrique Waldemar Henrique CD 2000 MPB Piano Collection Brazilian popular music Sony Music Brazil; six-CD set The phonographic copyright is dated 1999

Album series

Meu Piano: Três Séculos de Música para Piano

Meu Piano, also marketed as Três Séculos de Música para Piano, was a 41-disc collection issued by Editora Caras. It combined earlier recordings with programmes devoted to particular composers and repertories.

Disc Title or principal repertoire Publisher 1 Clássicos Favoritos I Editora Caras 2 Chopin I: Piano Concerto No. 1; Krakowiak Editora Caras 3 Clássicos Favoritos II Editora Caras 4 Sonatas Famosas Editora Caras 5 Villa-Lobos I Editora Caras 6 Chopin II: The 19 Waltzes Editora Caras 7 Schumann & Liszt: Os Grandes Românticos Editora Caras 8 Mozart & Haydn Editora Caras 9 Ernesto Nazareth I Editora Caras 10 Meu Piano, disc 10 Editora Caras 11 Chopin III Editora Caras 12 Meu Piano, disc 12 Editora Caras 13 Scriabin, Tchaikovsky & Prokofiev: A Grande Escola Russa Editora Caras 14 Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 Editora Caras 15 Chopin IV Editora Caras 16 Astor Piazzolla Editora Caras 17 Chopin V: The Polonaises, Volume I Editora Caras 18 Villa-Lobos & Radamés Gnattali Editora Caras 19 Chopin VI: 24 Preludes Editora Caras 20 Clássicos Favoritos IV Editora Caras 21 Mozart: Famous Sonatas Editora Caras 22 Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 Editora Caras 23 Chopin: The Polonaises, Volume II Editora Caras 24 Clássicos Favoritos V Editora Caras 25 Chopin VII Editora Caras 26 Meu Piano, disc 26 Editora Caras 27 Radamés Gnattali Editora Caras 28 Meu Piano, disc 28 Editora Caras 29 Meu Piano, disc 29 Editora Caras 30 Brazílio Itiberê & Brazilian National Anthem Editora Caras 31 Mussorgsky & Prokofiev: Dois Retratos da Rússia Editora Caras 32 Meu Piano, disc 32 Editora Caras 33 Meu Piano, disc 33 Editora Caras 34 Clássicos Favoritos VII Editora Caras 35 Clássicos Favoritos VIII Editora Caras 36 Schumann & Liszt II Editora Caras 37 Meu Piano, disc 37 Editora Caras 38 Clássicos Favoritos IX Editora Caras 39 Chopin: The Sonatas Editora Caras 40 Meu Piano, disc 40 Editora Caras 41 Chopin XII Editora Caras

O Piano Brasileiro de Arthur Moreira Lima

Volume Year Title or principal repertoire Label 1 2003 De Repente Azul 2 2003 Com Licença Azul 3 2003 Villa-Lobos Azul 4 2003 Villa-Lobos II Azul 5 2003 Villa-Lobos Azul 6 2003 Ernesto Nazareth Azul 7 2003 Ernesto Nazareth Azul 8 2003 Francisco Mignone Azul 9 2005 Radamés Gnattali Azul 10 2003 Radamés Gnattali & Villa-Lobos Azul 11 2003 Arthur e Seus Amigos Azul

Video releases

Year Title Format Notes 2012 Arthur Moreira Lima em 3 Movimentos DVD Issued by CNI–SESI Performances

Repertory and interpretation

Moreira Lima's programs brought together composers from different periods and countries. At a 1963 recital in Curitiba, he played Bach's Partita No. 1, Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata, Barber's Excursions, two works by Liszt and Villa-Lobos's Festa no sertão.

He studied in Paris with Marguerite Long and in Moscow with Rudolf Kehrer. Long emphasized clarity and control. Kehrer worked with him on phrasing, tone and the ability to make the piano "sing".

He believed that the pianist carried music from the page to the listener through choices of phrasing, timing and expression. A score, in his view, could not be played as a mechanical copy of its notation. Part of the music depended on what the performer heard and chose to bring forward.

Selected recitals and collaborations

Moreira Lima made his New York debut at Carnegie Recital Hall in November 1962 with a program of Bach, Beethoven and Chopin. John Gruen praised his technique in Bach and Beethoven in the New York Herald Tribune, and wrote of his "poetic flights" in Chopin.

That September, Moreira Lima and João Carlos Martins performed Bach Meets Chopin at the 92nd Street Y in New York. Martins played the twenty-four preludes from the first book of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, and Moreira Lima played Chopin's twenty-four preludes. They alternated the pieces in pairs.

On the night of the first Bach Meets Chopin concert, Moreira Lima also played at Alice Tully Hall with Paulo Moura, Raphael Rabello, Norton Morozowicz, Joel Nascimento and João Pedro Borges. Their program included choro by Patápio Silva, Ernesto Nazareth and Abel Ferreira. The next day, he returned to the 92nd Street Y for a solo Chopin recital with nocturnes, waltzes, the Barcarolle, the Polonaise-Fantaisie and the Second Sonata.

He returned to New York in 1982 with a recital that paired Chopin with Brazilian music. That year, he played Nazareth at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Joseph McLellan wrote in The Washington Post that the concert introduced Nazareth to American listeners. Reviewing Moreira Lima's Nazareth albums in 1984, McLellan called his playing "fluent, technically assured and totally idiomatic". Awards and honors

Competition prizes

Moreira Lima began winning competitions as a child. In 1949, at the age of nine, he won the Young Soloists competition of the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra by unanimous decision. He played Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 under Eleazar de Carvalho. Three years later, he won again with Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1.

He won third prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1969, behind Radu Lupu and Georges Pludermacher. In 1970, he shared third prize with Victoria Postnikova at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

In 2001, he was made a Commander of the Order of Cultural Merit.

The Florianópolis City Council granted him honorary citizenship in 2003. Santa Catarina awarded him the Cruz e Sousa Medal of Cultural Merit in 2007.

In 2023, the Department of Keyboard Instruments at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro's School of Music proposed that Moreira Lima receive an honorary doctorate. The school's congregation approved the proposal on 6 October.

Death and critical reception

Final illness and death

Moreira Lima underwent treatment for intestinal cancer from 2023. On 24 September 2024, he took part by video in the ceremony at which the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro awarded him an honorary doctorate. His grandson, pianist Francisco Moreira Lima Pereira Lira, attended on campus in his place. His wake was held the next day at Jardim da Paz in Florianópolis.

Critical reception

At his New York debut at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1962, John Gruen praised his technique in Bach and Beethoven in the New York Herald Tribune. He found a more lyrical side to his Chopin, writing of the young pianist's "poetic flights". After his death, the European classical-music magazine Pizzicato called him "a major Chopin interpreter".

Brazilian repertory and public reputation

Moreira Lima was already pairing Brazilian pieces with European concert works by 1966. At the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, he followed Schumann, Chopin and Prokofiev with Ernesto Nazareth's Batuque and Coração que sente. His 1975 double album of Nazareth's music led to further albums, recitals and releases devoted to the composer.

Luís Nassif wrote that Moreira Lima's Nazareth albums arrived during the revival of choro in the 1970s. Musicians around Gnattali and Raphael Rabello were reaching new listeners, while Moreira Lima brought Nazareth into recital halls and the record market with the standing he had gained abroad.

Nazareth was one part of Moreira Lima's Brazilian repertory. He played with choro musicians, singers and songwriters while keeping Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev in his concert schedule. Perpetuo wrote that he resisted the usual division between concert and popular music, moving from solo recitals to performances with Época de Ouro, Elomar, Paulo Moura, Ney Matogrosso and Nelson Gonçalves.