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Firma Melodiya presents a set of rare recordings by Emil Gilels. “The world knows many talented pianists and a few great masters who tower above them all. Emil Gilels is one of them.” “The titans of piano like Gilels are borne once in a century.” Those were the kind of reviews that accompanied Gilels throughout his pianistic career beginning with his victory at the all-union competition in 1933 in Moscow. However, this set will open new sides to Gilels’s repertoire even to those who is well acquainted with his recordings. We will hear Emil Gilels as an ensemble musician. The titan of piano, who roused the audiences and orchestras, was able to turn into a fine chamber musician, a wonderful ensemble partner as though he dissolved his brightest individuality in a piece he performed. The more so because Gilels’s partners were truly brilliant soloists such as Yakov Flier and Yakov Zak (piano), Elizaveta Gilels (violin), musicians from the Beethoven Quartet Dmitri Tsyganov (violin), Vadim Borisovsky (viola) and Sergei Shirinsky (cello). The set features compositions from various periods. Along with well-know piano and chamber ensembles, it includes recordings of rarely performed works by Mozart arranged by Busoni, Saint-Saëns and Cui. But the previously unreleased recordings by Emil Gilels deserve a special mention. They are Suite No. 2 for piano by Rachmaninoff, Rondo four hands by Chopin, Concerto pathétique by Liszt, a suite for two pianos by Leonid Nikolayev and a piano trio by Andrei Babayev. The recordings were made in 1946 to 1959. |
