Emil Gilels

[Nick Armstrong]

I usually like Gilels...

Me too...

The RR segment with David Owen Norris considering recent centenary boxes of Gilels's recordings was fascinating, I thought.

Treat of treats for me (and playing as I type - it's available separately via iTunes music) was the recording of Poulenc's Concert Champêtre, as I'd never heard it before - for piano and orchestra, billed as the Concerto in D "Pastoral". I think it really works, and the Melodiya recording is great. A new lease of life for a piece I love.

Illuminating to hear DON's comment about the other star of this recording and the Melodiya box as a whole: Kirill Kondrashin, surely one of the very greats of the 20th century, who could turn his hand to just about anything.

Prize for Best Joke to DON's comment that the 50 CD boxset is 'live recording after live recording of people coughing with fabulous music making going on in the background' (or words to that effect)...

There are a lot of 1962-vintage Soviet coughers during the Poulenc, but somehow it doesn't matter.

[Hornspieler]

Some interesting information here.

I was always a great admirer of Gilels' playing and am surprised that I had almost forgotten of his existence - I would rate him in the same class as my favourites, Julus Katchen and Solomon as exponents of some of my favourite piano works.

HS

BTW: You may have noticed my change of Avatar.

As I can now claim to be entering my second childhood, I have returned to 1946 when, at the age of 14, I was photographed practising on my French Horn, made by Boosey and Co in the early part of the 19th century which was, of course a piston horn, but incorporating their new system of compensating valves - a system which you will still see on tubas and brass band instruments to this day. Ask Tony to tell you more about the tuning problems associated with adding too much extra tubing to the original length of an instrument. (He's the expert on these matters of pitch variation).

[Richard Tarleton]

I greatly enjoyed the DON interview - he and Andrew spark productively off eachother. "Norris", indeed.

I saw Gilels once - in the RFH in 1972, playing the Tchaikovsky no. 1 with the LSO under Svetlanov. I noted the comment about the chastened-sounding Chicago SO flute player, and the subsequent efforts of the flute and oboe in the slow movement. At the oboe entry in the RFH, Gilels shot the oboe player A Look - no idea what the poor man had done wrong if anything, but he got a weapons-grade glare. Gilels was everything I imagined - imperious, leonine, etc. etc.. I was sitting next to a couple from Oregon on holiday in London - they'd previously seen a distinctly grumpy Gilels in a half-empty hall in Portland, Oregon.

I was relieved to hear DON say Schubert was not his strong suit, after that controversial D850 the other day . Generally, his comments were as insightful and illuminating as ever. I used to have the Jochum Brahms concertos on LP and may yet replace them.

[Zucchini]

Gilels was everything I imagined - imperious, leonine, etc. etc.. I was sitting next to a couple from Oregon on holiday in London - they'd previously seen a distinctly grumpy Gilels in a half-empty hall in Portland, Oregon.

We heard him in recital at Eton College and he performed in a perfunctory way, seemingly detached from both audience and music. Main memory of this tedious evening is of two large minders at the back of the hall making sure he didn't do a runner...

[Keraulophone]

I was relieved to hear DON say Schubert was not his strong suit, after that controversial D850 the other day

DON criticised EG's Schubert without saying why. In what respects do you regard his D850 as controversial? I really enjoyed the account in the RCA box.

[BBMmk2]

EG's rather stupendous recordings of the Brahms PCs1 & 2! can't be beaten. Yes I know rather majesterial accounts by today's standards but the superlative playing by all concerned is admirable.(Emil Gilels, Berliner Phil, Eugene Jochum)

[Richard Tarleton]

DON criticised EG's Schubert without saying why. In what respects do you regard his D850 as controversial? I really enjoyed the account in the RCA box.

I meant controversial in the sense that it seemed to divide opinion - EdgeleyRob and I were put off by the clangy tone - I couldn't listen to it (the version Rob Cowan played the other day) again with any pleasure.

[Nick Armstrong]

EG's rather stupendous recordings of the Brahms PCs1 & 2! can't be beaten. Yes I know rather majesterial accounts by to's standards but the superlative playing by all concerned is admirable.(Emil Gilels, Berliner Phil, Eugene Jochum)

I've always enjoyed No 2 considerably less than No 1, the latter being one of my favourite performances of anything.

Another Gilels touchstone for me has long been his LvB "Waldstein" piano sonata on DG... the one with this classic cover:

[Richard Tarleton]

Ah yes, The Wreck of Hope.....

Brendel on Brahms 2 - "I was never that taken by the B flat major. I've played it [indeed I've heard him play it] because it's a great challenge, and because I wanted to see to what extent I could master it. I have not been satisfied with my performances. I find the first movement wonderful, the others, however, not on the same level. I would defend every note of the D minor concerto".

[gurnemanz]

I meant controversial in the sense that it seemed to divide opinion - EdgeleyRob and I were put off by the clangy tone - I couldn't listen to it (the version Rob Cowan played the other day) again with any pleasure.

The version Rob played surely was the RCA. I didn't get the clanginess and was impressed enough by Gilels in D850 to start that thread. I had recorded it onto hard drive, being out when it was broadcast, and will certainly be keeping it.

I saw Gilels once but had to check old programmes to find out what he was playing. It was at the Gewandhaus in Feb 1975 with Kurt Masur in Mozart K595, coupled with Bruckner 2. I remember the evening quite clearly and can still picture him at the piano but I cannot really recall details of his performance. However, I do have a very good recording made the year before in 1974 with Böhm and VPO, which must be similar.

[BBMmk2]

I've always enjoyed No 2 considerably less than No 1, the latter being one of my favourite performances of anything.

Another Gilels touchstone for me has long been his LvB "Waldstein" piano sonata on DG... the one with this classic cover:

Yes, I think it's time for me to return to these recordings. I haven't heard them in a long while now. Thank you Cali for bringing this one up.

[Nick Armstrong]

Ah yes, The Wreck of Hope.....

Brendel on Brahms 2 - "I was never that taken by the B flat major. I've played it [indeed I've heard him play it] because it's a great challenge, and because I wanted to see to what extent I could master it. I have not been satisfied with my performances. I find the first movement wonderful, the others, however, not on the same level. I would defend every note of the D minor concerto".

Actually my comment was directed at the Gilels performance, rather than at the piece itself.

I think the second Brahms PC sings and flows much better in the Richter/Leinsdorf/Chicago RCA performance (we've canvassed this before somewhere).

That said, I return to the first PC more often than No 2....

[richardfinegold]

We heard him in recital at Eton College and he performed in a perfunctory way, seemingly detached from both audience and music. Main memory of this tedious evening is of two large minders at the back of the hall making sure he didn't do a runner...

I can't remember where I read it, but I remember seeing something about Gilels and his extremely close scrutiny by 'the Organs of State Security'. Apparently it was routine for them to threaten him of someone close to him with harm shortly before he would go on stage, which may have accounted for his Stage demeanor and perfunctory performances

[Nick Armstrong]

'the Organs of State Security'

https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/oct/19/emil-gilels-pianist-stalin-soviet-propaganda?CMP=share_btn_fb

[Richard Tarleton]

I can't remember where I read it, but I remember seeing something about Gilels and his extremely close scrutiny by 'the Organs of State Security'. Apparently it was routine for them to threaten him of someone close to him with harm shortly before he would go on stage, which may have accounted for his Stage demeanor and perfunctory performances

Richard I think this is absolutely right - and thanks Cali for that fascinating article. Life for Soviet artists who did not toe the line or who were suspect is some way could be pretty grim - look at the way poor David Oistrach was treated, Rostropovich, DSCH..... Dubinsky's book on the Borodins a case in point. Being Jewish didn't help, as Dubinsky points out.

They all loved Russia in spite of it all. When Rostropovich was leaving Russia in 1974 Oistrach (who died that year) advised him to buy a house with lots of land and plant birch trees to remind him of home.