Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Frederic Chopin, Emil Gilels :: Emil Gilels Legacy, Volume 3: Helsinki Festival, 1975

The fabulous technical equipment, glorious sound, and passionate temperament of Emil Gilels particularly suited him to the biggest pieces in the piano repertory. It was for this reason that, unlike most of his Russian compatriots, he never programmed much Chopin. The works he recorded in the studio and performed (at least in New York) were restricted to a few big pieces--the E Minor Concerto, the two mature sonatas, the G Minor Ballade, and an occasional polonaise. In his last years, however, Gilels became a more pensive player, who could create magic spells in smaller forms such as Grieg's "Lyric Pieces" and Brahms' Intermezzi. The pianist's relatively early death--he was only 68 when he died in 1985--robbed his admirers on this side of the Atlantic from hearing him apply his newly acquired poetic and sensitive powers to more of Chopin's music. That is why Vol. 3 in Doremi's Emil Gilels Legacy is so valuable. This transcript of his 1975 recital in the Helsinki Festival contains, so far as one can tell, Gilels's only known recorded performances of any Chopin mazurkas or Impromptu. In the A-flat Impromptu, this legendary virtuoso completely eschews bravura. Instead of the customary pianistic impudence, what one hears is softly persuasive and intimate. Three mazurkas (in A minor, Op. 7, No.2; C Major, Op. 24, no. 2; and F Major, Op. 68, No. 3) are equally delicate, sensitive, and unhurried. The rest of the disc contains repertory (Chopin's G minor Ballade and C minor Polonaise and the Beethoven Sonatas Nos. 12 and 16) recorded elsewhere by Gilels in much better sound. --Stephen Wigler