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Emil Gilels plays Beethoven Concertos | Brilliant Classics 94291

Emil Gilels plays Beethoven Concertos

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Label: Brilliant Classics

Cat No: 94291

Barcode: 5028421942919

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 3

Release Date: 17th October 2011

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Contents

About

Emil Gilels belongs to a select group of the greatest pianists of the 20th century. Born in Odessa in 1916, he began his studies at the age of 5, and gave his first public recital at the age of 13. Odessa and Moscow Conservatories followed and, unusually in 1936, he was allowed to perform outside the Soviet Union. His American debut was delayed by World War II, finally taking place in 1955 to great acclaim. His UK debut took place in 1953. Gilels gave the premiere of Prokofiev’s 8th Sonata, of which he is the dedicatee.

Harold C Schonberg described Gilels as ‘a strong, clear player, rather objective in outlook, who did not allow himself to become emotionally overthrown by the music’: an approach which is ideally suited to Beethoven’s concertos, as can be heard on these CDs.

Interestingly, Gilels is not afraid of quite large gestures, sudden rhetorical gatherings of melody that, in lesser hands, would appear incongruous. There is one such in the coda of these variations, another at the launching (wonderfully angled on a delayed upbeat and a perfectly graded subito piano) of the G major Sonata's dancing second subject. In the greatly fascinating Adagio grazioso, Gilels equals Kempff in the coloratura elegance of his playing of the opening but surpasses him in his exquisitely grave rendering of the minor-key interludes.’ - Gramophone June 1976 (Sonata No.12)

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