Elena Fjedorowitsch

life of Emil Gilels

 

1916 - 1929

Childhood

Emil Gilels was born on October 19 (old style 6-th) 1916 in Odessa. His parents had nothing to do with music, his father was a clerk at the sugar refinery, mother was a housewife having many children. Both his father and his mother had children from previous marriages. However, due to inexplicable reason the meeting of Esfir and Grigory Gilels produced straight away two outstanding musicians into the world: three years after Emil a daughter Elizabeth was born into the family, who became an outstanding violinist afterwards.
In Odessa, in spite of the hard times, public enjoyed music very much. All attention was given to musically gifted children. In a modest Gilels’s flat in a poor and famous district of Odessa called Moldavanka there was a grand piano and already at the age of two little Emil showed interest in it touching keys and listening to them. He was also interested in other sounds: performance of brass bands, singing, tolling of bells.
Gradually it was found out that the boy had an absolute ear of rare accuracy: he could correctly determine even the pitch of unmusical sounds.
Aged five and a half Emil was taken to a well-known pianist teacher in Odessa Jakob Tkatch. Extraordinarily quickly and with ease Emil finished the first period of studies: there was no need to train his hands, they seemed to go along keys themselves; amazing musical ear and memory helped master all intricacies of musical ABC and in a few months he was able to play all three Leshgorn’s etude parts and soon Klementi’s and Mozart’s sonatinas.
J.I. Tkatch ‘s teacher was a famous French pianist Raul Pinjo and his pianist genealogy goes back to Chopin himself. Nevertheless, Tkatch’s pedagogical system was based on particular attention to technical development of pupils. The way of behaving was severe; little Emil surrounded by everybody’s love in the family suffered from his teacher’s sternness. Gentle and sensitive boy tried to hide his feelings.
He made unbelievably fast advance in piano playing. The teacher had to restrict his pupil all the time: Emil liked to play in a rapid tempo and the more technically and expositionally difficult was the piece, the more pleasure he got. Secretly he improvised thereby compensating his teacher’s lack of attention to the musical side of performance. He was fond of theatre too and he even composed a piece, he liked to imagine himself a conductor. However, it was all at home and at the lessons he had Tkatch’s strict drills due to which later he became such a virtuoso. At the age of 11-12 he already played Liszt’s and Chopin’s etudes.
In spite of a certain narrowness of his approach to Gilels’s development J.I.Tkatch was the first to notice the real talent of little Emil. When the boy was only 9 he wrote in his characteristics that Milya Gilels was a born pianist and with due attention to him the USSR will get a worldwide famous pianist in future.
Tkatch also did not allow his genius pupil waste his striking talent performing as an infant prodigy at concerts. It was a custom in Odessa and the boy liked to perform in public and was eager to play but his teacher limited the number of his concerts.

Aged 12 in May 1929 Gilels gave his first concert where he played Beethoven’s Pathetic Sonata, Liszt’s Des-dur etude, Scarlatti’s sonatas, Mendelsson’s scherzo, Chopin’s etudes and waltz and other pieces. The critics listening to him were amazed not so much by his great virtuosity but the depth of playing as well as astonishing clearness and fullness, devoid of everything careless, superficial or casual. Looking at Gilels’s artistic career we see that all these features in his art will remain essential.
Those interested in his unique talent realized that Gilels has already surpassed his teacher. Emil dreamed about having F.M. Blumenfeld as a tutor but he was ill at that time and soon died. In autumn 1930 Gilels entered Odessa Conservatoire, class of professor Berta Reingbald.

 

1929 – 1934

in the class of Reinbald

B.M. Reingbald coming from the family of famous architects studied with E. Chernetskaya-Geshelin, V.I. Safonov’s student. By the time of her acquaintance with Gilels Berta Mikhailovna had already a reputation not only of well-educated person but also an outstanding pianist teacher; such great musicians as B. Marants, T. Goldfarb, B. Kozel and others were her students. Having a big working experience with talented students Reingbald saw Gilels’s unique talent. She paid a lot of attention to him. Teenager Gilels was a lively youngster with plenty of interests, he found pleasure in many things including socializing with street teenagers and now and then stopped studying. Berta Mikhailovna was very patient with him and gave him daily lessons during several hours one after another. She could get along with him taking into account his strong character.
The most important thing she did for him was that she acquainted the teenager with new music, introduced him to the Odessa men of great learning and music lovers, aroused his interest in art in general. In addition to musical talent Gilels was also good at humanities. Aged 13 and a half he finished his secondary education and managed to enter the Conservatoire; his attitude to maths, similar to most musicians, was complicated, history and literature came very easy to him. Thanks to experience and skills he got from Reingbald he was able to enrich his incredible musical intuition with knowledge and comprehension of art regularities. Simultaneously he improved his piano playing and by 13 gained virtuosity most pianists reach by the end of their education, and at the next stage aged 14-16 Gilels got such pianist qualities which were inherent in only a few individuals in the history of piano playing.
The results were soon visible. At the turn of 30-s outstanding foreign musicians used to visit Odessa and Gilels was introduced to A. Borovsky and A. Rubinstein. After teenager’s performance they both, without any arrangement, said “it was marvelous”. A. Rubinstein predicted that Gilels would come to America and outshine everybody including Rubinstein himself.
Similar to Tkatch Reingbald did not allow her pupil to be engaged by concerts too often. She gave her permission for him to perform at All-Ukranian competition, though he could not take part in it because of his young age. The jury marked his performance and he was awarded an encouragement scholarship sparing him from earning money by giving concerts. The main goal of Berta Mikhailovna was Gilels’s participation in the announced First All-Union Competition of musician-performers to be held in 1933 in Moscow.

 

1933

First All-Union Competition

The competition was planned as a large event and was aimed at demonstration successes of the Soviet system in art to the whole world. The best young musicians of the USSR including those who became world famous at the Second Chopin Competition prepared to participate in it.
Since nobody knew Gilels in Moscow B.M. Reingbald decided to bring him to G.G. Neuhaus who was known as an outstanding piano teacher and whom she deeply respected as a musician. Half a year before the competition at the end of 1932 16-year-old Emil first came to Moscow and played to Neuhaus. However, Genrikh Neuhaus could not realize Gilels’s gift: he only appreciated his virtuosity, which he valued to a certain extent but did not notice what impressed Borovsky and Rubinstein: deep richness of content expressed without romantic eloquence using fairly simple means for a youngster. Thus, there appeared two points of view on Gilels’s art- one stated that he was a unique artist who has reached the highest simplicity; the other considered him to be a cheerful Soviet pianist virtuoso creating objectivistic interpretations.
The competition showed that Neugaus was mistaken. Gilels’s success was sensational: when he finished playing the audience rose in applause and even the jury joined the public. There was no discussion about the 1-st prize: it was unanimously given to Gilels.
What impressed the audience so much? He played pieces by Rameau, fugue by Bach-Godovsky, Brahms’s variations on the Handel’s theme, toccata by Ravel and Fantasy by Mozart-Liszt-Busoni on the opera theme “The Marriage of Figaro”. According to opinions of such musicians as D. Shostakovitch, Ya. Flier, D. Kabalevsky, L. Barenboym the most impressive things were intensity of artistic expression; uniquely warm, rich and varied sound; springy, “live”, beating rhythm, striking virtuosity combined with clearness, consistency, perfect taste and noble simplicity.
They confessed that have never heard anything of the kind before. At that moment, “the moment of truth” for the piano art all who were present realized: the pianist in front of them is great.
The competition has greatly changed Emil’s life: he became famous all over the country. His young sister Lisa performed as a violinist successfully and J. Stalin himself noticed talented brother and sister. Since this time his fame in the USSR had a tinge of politics that did not help him later on.
After the competition he embarked on a big concert tour in the cities of the USSR. Concert performances were accompanied by articles of critics who were searching at that time a new, “truly Soviet” style of performance. Gilels’s art has got courageous energy, springy rhythm, peace of mind; in his youth rapid tempo due to unique virtuosity and a certain simplicity of artistic performance due to a teenager’s inability to differentially reproduce nuances of feelings were added. As a result he was announced to be a herald of the Soviet style. His playing was characterized by production workshop terms, which hurt the young pianist very much. At this time he aimed at the opposite: he wanted to learn to express the lyrical sides of his gift to the full.
However, critics did not stop at “masonry of wide structures” as they characterized Gilels’s playing. Having proclaimed him a young experimental sample of “truly Soviet” in piano art; some of the writers decided that they had a right to constantly correct and instruct him; watch whether he follows the given trend. At that time Gilels was solving another much more urgent problem: being on concert tours he understood that he had no time to renew his repertoire and felt slowing down of his development as a pianist. Being exhausted by this feeling and constant admonitions of press Emil made up his mind and broke all contracts. He returned to Odessa in order to quietly continue his studies with his teacher B.M. Reingbald. He rejected a suggestion to be transferred to Moscow Conservatoire and decided to graduate from Odessa Conservatoire. Afterwards he would consider Berta Mikhailovna his real educator, teacher-friend.

 

1935 – 1938

Heinrich Neuhaus

In autumn 1935 Gilels graduated from Odessa Conservatoire and entered a post-graduate course of Moscow Conservatoire, with G.G. Neuhaus being his tutor. At the same time he renewed his concert tours. This period was hard for the young pianist: Neuhaus purposely did not take into consideration that Gilels was a famous and titled pianist and mocked at his small mistakes thinking it would save him from becoming self-conceited and less self-critical. However, being very modest, shy and self-critical by nature Gilels, on the contrary, needed a tutor’s delicate approach and praise in his creative search.
G.G. Neuhaus, in spite of Gilels’s triumph at the competition, saw only virtuosity of his playing and thought he should study hard to expand his horizon. The courageous elements of Gilels’s creative work was a bit alien to his refined Western culture. Neuhaus could not believe that clearness and “briefness” of Gilels’s performance is similar to the highest simplicity attained by few big musicians at the end of their life.
In spite of the fact that at that time and later Gilels obtained a lot of knowledge from Neuhaus, they did not achieve real mutual understanding.
For Gilels this period was difficult because he searched and could not find the richness of content-he knew he had it. The difficulty was in his transformation from a youngster mainly relying on intuition into an adult having a clear understanding of what he is doing in music. This is a way of most great musicians, however, it was more difficult for Gilels because he had a brilliant intuition embracing all range of feelings and all musical styles. In order to realize this intuition a complex emotional work was required. As he did not find response in Neuhaus Gilels did it himself. From time to time he asked K.N. Igumnov and S.E. Feinberg to help.
His living conditions were not convenient at that time. Before the government had given him a flat in Moscow he had to rent a flat. In conservatoire circles he did not find many friends. Ya. Flier and Ya .Zak should be mentioned, in general he did not feel himself at home. Among pianists from Conservatoire it was considered fashionable to play “interesting”, inventing something; Gilels thought it was bad taste. He was not understood, in turn, his playing was regarded to be too “simple”.
On the surface everything was wonderful. His brilliant virtuosity and art matured, he built up a good repertoire. His performance of Chopin’s B flat minor Sonatas and Ballade G minor, Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto, Liszt’s First Concerto, Liszt’s Spanish Rhapsody, Schumann’s Toccata was a treat. The public adored Gilels in spite of the critics’ admonition- common people felt what great musicians knew and what many professionals could not grasp, i.e. noble simplicity of his art.
Unique phenomenon called “Gilels” found its confirmation from outside. A brilliant conductor Otto Klemperer who came to Moscow at the beginning of 1936 performed the Third Beethoven’s Concerto with Gilels. He admired the young pianist- being partners they understood each other at once. As for that interpretation later Neuhaus wrote about it – “it was a perfect performance”, though some short-sighted conservatoire people called it “the first-year student performance”.
In 1936 Gilels first took part in an international competition, i.e. a competition of Vienna musical academy. He considered the second place to be bad luck, though it was undoubtedly, a great achievement and he was noticed in Europe. Gilels’s friend Yakov Flier, a pianist of romantic mould, took the first place.

 

1938 – 1941

Triumph in Brussels

In 1938 Gilels and Flier participated in the most difficult in programme international competition in Brussels that gathered bright and talented musicians. They were expected to win; there has already been such victory of Soviet musicians. Two years ago violinists with D. Oistrakh at the head triumphed in Brussels.
The programme of Brussels competition was extremely complicated. There were three difficult rounds, at the third in addition to solo programme and a concerto, it was required to play one more piano concerto written by a Belgium composer specially for this competition. The notes of this concerto participants of the final round got a week prior to performance.
The jury consisted of outstanding musicians, such as L. Stokovsky, O. Klemperer, V. Giseking, E. Zauer, K. Tsekki, R. Kazadezus, S. Feinberg. They realized that among finalists was the greatest pianist of XX-th century Emil Gilels who was awarded the first prize. Ya. Flier was awarded the third prize.
What did they hear in playing of a young genius? In addition to virtuosity and emotional push, consistency of the whole and reason , finished details, unique sound called “gold” by critically minded Neuhaus, and beating, springy, “live” rhythm, huge dynamic range; perfect possession of time; self-control, reliability and many other things, of course, they appreciated excellent taste, genuineness of feelings and classical laconism typical of great pianists. At that time Gilels has already been both a great artist and a pianist without “soft spots”. He could do anything as a pianist.
He was talked about in the musical world. Shortly after the competition he had to go on a tour including a trip to the USA. Due to the Great Patriotic War these plans did not come true. In the USSR Gilels became a hero: he was awarded an order, honoured on the border, his name was pronounced by Soviet people like the names of heroes polar-explorers, pilots, heroes of labour , film stars. Gilels became the embodiment of the epoch, it promoted his popularity when he was young but did not help during his lifetime in musical circles; he was thought to be a symbol of everything “Soviet” in art, not realizing that it had nothing to do with the contents of his art.
Though Europe and America heard Gilels mainly over the radio (he managed to play only several times in Belgium and France), the news about the unique pianist reached Rachmaninov himself whom Moscow friends wrote about Gilels after All-Union competition. Then Rachmaninov listened to Gilels’s playing over the radio and admitted that Gilels could be called his disciple in piano art. He passed a medal with A.Rubinstein’s profile and a diploma once given to him as a successor by Rubinstein to Gilels. In the diploma Rachmaninov wrote Gilels’s surname. Emil Grigoryevitch kept these relics all his life but being very modest, never told anybody about it.
In 1938 Gilels finished a post-graduate course and started to teach in Moscow Conservatoire (from 1952 -a professor). He did teaching with intervals till 1976 but could not pay much attention to it due to a colossal number of piano concerts he gave. Nevertheless, such famous pianists as M. Mdivadi, V. Afanasyev, I. Zhukov, pianist and composer V. Blok finished his master class.

 

1941 – 1945

Years of war

When the war began Gilels was not evacuated with the conservatoire. He joined the voluntary corps, when he was returned from there by a special order he started concert activity in hospitals and front. At the beginning of 1943 he visited Leningrad during blockade and played to war-wearied people the brilliant “Petrushka ” by Stravinsky.
During this period he played Rachmaninov and Prokofiev a lot. The Third Rachmaninov’s Concerto and preludes were in his repertoire all the time. After his brilliant performance of Prokofiev’s Toccata, Second and Third sonatas and numerous pieces, the composer asked him to present recently written Eighth sonata, his genius composition. Gilels successfully played it in the Big hall of Moscow conservatoire on 30-th of December 1944. He played wonderfully the Third Prokofiev’s concerto too.
During war years Gilels and G.G. Neuhaus had special relations. In November 1941 Genrikh Gustavovitch was arrested and placed in Lubyanka. He would perish if Gilels had not interfered. He had an opportunity to meet Stalin from time to time; the leader invited him to play at governmental and diplomatic events. After performance Stalin always asked Gilels about his needs, Gilels always refused, but this time he asked to release Neuhaus. Stalin was displeased but he carried out his request. Neuhaus was exiled; Gilels with other Neuhaus’s pupils B.S. Marants and S.S. Benditsky managed to help him to be left in Sverdlovsk and to be allowed to teach in the conservatoire. Gilels often visited him in Sverdlovsk and played with him making up for the lack of communication with a wonderful musician .
When the war finished Gilels was given a special mission: he had to present the art of victorious country. He stepped on the stage of destroyed Eastern European cities; shortly after the war he made a tour to Italy, England, France, Austria, Scandinavian and other countries. He, the Soviet pianist, ”the symbol of socialism” was met without enthusiasm. However, when he left the stage he was accompanied by a storm of applause; people stood up, rushed to the stage, asked for encores. It was everywhere. Gilels under any unfavourable conditions played brilliantly; he won Europe. European countries considered it an honour to invite him to play and for recording. He was awarded orders and honorary degrees, public adored him.

 

1946 - 1974

Post-war period, Debut in America,
world fame

In 1955 Gilels became the first Soviet artist who went on a tour to the USA. It was “the cold war” period, Gilels was the Laureate of Stalin Prize (1946) and People’s Artist of the Soviet Union (1954). He was met by the “Carnegy Hall” stalls in silence, without applause, but after his performance the crowd crying in raptures would not let him leave.
He played Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto, famous in the USA; Rachmaninoff and Horowitz also performed it, the conductor was J. Ormandi. Both the great conductor performing with Rahmaninov himself and critics, and public were unanimous: Gilels is a great pianist. Since then Gilels’s authority in the USA became as absolute as it was in Brussels and in practically all European countries. During all his life he constantly went on tours to the USA, Canada, he stayed there for three months a year, Soviet artist’s holiday.
In 1950-s-70-s was the peak of all kinds of his creative activity. As for its content it is impossible to divide Gilels’s way in art. According to Ya. Flier he presents a monolite. However, his activity, intensity of different kinds of activity was striking during that period. Gilels, evidently, gave about 100 concerts a year; in “Chronograph” of Gilels’s concerts comprised by L.A. Barenboym 50-60 annual concerts are mentioned but by far not all were included in it. In addition to intensive foreign tours Gilels played in the USSR: Moscow, Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Saratov, Kuibyshev, Omsk, Kazan, Sverdlovsk, Cheliabinsk, Gorky, Sochi, Tbilisi, Erevan, Baku, Lvov, Uzhgorod, Odessa, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Chernigov, Zaporozhye, Kiev, Kharkov, Novocherkassk, Voronezh, Rostov, Kislovodsk, Piatigorsk, essentuki, Kishinev, Minsk, Grodno, Smolensk, Vilnius, Kaunas, Riga, Dzintari, Klaipeda, Tallin, Tartu, Bryansk, Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Kaluga, Kalinin,Kursk, Orel, Barnaul, Novokuznetsk, Prokopyevsk, Tambov, Lipetsk, Ivanovo, Tula, Ryazan, Kolomna, Serpukhov, Pskov and others. In most even small towns he played several times.
Such outstanding conductors as Y?. Mravinsky, A. Melik-Pashayev, Ye. Svetlanov, K. Ivanov, N .Rakhlin, A. Gauk, L. Ginsburg, K. Eliasberg, Niyazi, N. Yarvi, D. Kitayenko, V. Dudarova, R. Barshai performed with him. Especially often he performed with K. Zanderling and K. Kondrashin.
At the same time touring many cities of the USSR Gilels played with different orchestras and many conductors; piano concertos with the orchestra Gilels played with I. Gusman, M. Paverman, M. Maluntsyan, D. Gokieli, T. Kolomiytseva, L. Shaposhnikov, T. Gurtovoy, N. Rabinovich, L. Kats, S. Feldman, A. Kats, L. Vigners, I. Sherman, A. Stasevich, I. Sokolov, D. Tiulin, P. Kravchenko, G. Karapetyan, V. Dubrovsky, V. Tolba, G. Provatorov, V. Katayev, Yu. Aranovich, N. Chunikhin, P. Yadykh, Yu. Nikolayevsky and others. He found talented young conductors such as V. Verbitsky and V. Ovchinnikov.
At every concert he played as if it was “Carnegy Hall” or Big Hall of Moscow Conservatoire; he played new pieces of wide range repertoire, was always fit. He played in all European capitals and not only, in the USA and Japan. He triumphed in his numerous tours of England, GDR, FRG, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Yugoslavia, Iran, Turkey and other countries. Concerts often took place every other day but he permanently showed something new. His repertoire already in 60-s was colossal including pieces of J. Bach, Handel, Rameau, Scarlatti, C.P.E. Bach, Clementi, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Grieg, Frank, Saint-Saens, Smetana, Alyabiev, Balakirev, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Skryabin, Metner, Glazunov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Debussy, Ravel, Faure, Poulenc, Stravinsky, Fal?a, Albenis, Vainberg, Kabalevsky, Khachaturyan, Krein, Vladigerov, Bartok and other composers. He played in ensembles with pianists Ya. Flier and Ya. Zak, later with his daughter Elena; violinists , i.e. his sister Elisaveta Gilels, D. Tsyganov and L. Kogan, with a quartet named after Beethoven and in a trio with D. Tsyganov and S. Shirinsky; in an organized by him trio – Gilels-L.Kogan-M.Rostropovich, with a flutist A. Korneyev and French horn player Ya. Shapiro. Abroad he played with “Amadeus-quartet” and “Sibelius-Academy” quartet.
It is a tradition to call pieces played by him masterpieces. To be more precise masterpieces became all pieces played by Gilels, he played all forte piano music but
on the stage performed only his favourite and each interpretation was brilliant. There are creations to be marked specially. First of all, one should mention a series of 5 Beethoven’s concertos performed in the season 1955-66 for the first time that became history. Gilels was able to impart Bethoven’s style and spirit, “passing” music through his emotional experience playing with incredible skill. This interpretation is unique due to its pure simplicity: Gilels did not “invent” anything. Beethoven’s pride and will merged with Gilels’s pride and will: many people noticed that Beethoven and Gilels looked like each other. He recorded this series not less than 7 times with conductors K. Kondrashin, K. Zanderling, L. Ludwig, V. Vandernoot, G. Sell, V. Zavallish and K. Mazur. One can not count the number of performances, he repeated it in many cities of the USSR and different countries. At the same time he played other Beethoven’s compositions – sonatas, variation series. At the end of his life he recorded all sonatas and variations. Having a huge repertoire, Beethoven takes a special place in it.
Mozart’s pieces that he played in 60-s and presented at Salzburg festivals were masterpieces. Mozart played by Gilels is unique due to its simplicity and genuineness. It became obvious soon that these qualities are the essence of Gilels’s art proper.
Everybody were greatly impressed by playing (and recording) of Chopin’s E-minor concerto; in Gilels’s interpretation it is perfect, Mozart-like transparent and is not a bit similar to one of the famous Chopin’s interpretations. Lyrical Grieg’s pieces and Grieg’s concerto according to Norwegian critics “were never played so well”.
The only rival for Gilels in playing the Third concerto by Rachmaninov was Rachmaninov himself. In performing Tchaikovsky’s First concerto he had no rivals and doubtedly will be. Nobody played it so brilliantly. He recorded three Tchaikovsky’s concertos with L. Ma?zel; First concerto was recorded many times (conductors K. Kondrashin, A. Klyitans, E. Mravinsky, Ye. Svetlanov, A. Gauk, S. Samosud, K. Ivanov, K. Ancherl, F. Rainer, Z. Meta, et al.).
Debussy and Ravel appeared unexpectedly for many in his repertoire, but could a pianist having the best sound of all present and past pianists pass by them?
Pianists stopped playing Second Saint-Saens’ concerto loved by many after Gilels’s performance and recording: the standard set by him was incomprehensible and unattainable.
Again it was a surprise for many who thought Gilels to be only a virtuoso, he embarked on performing a series “History of piano sonata”. He did not complete everything in succession, being a romantic he could not be limited by his repertoire frames. Old Scarlatti’s, Clementi’s, C.P.E. Bach’s, Haydn’s sonatas he performed at the beginning of the series became masterpieces for all times.
Liszt and Prokofiev, on the contrary, have always been “his” composers, he played them brilliantly and there was no standard of playing them until his performance of Spanish, Second, Sixth, Ninth and Fifteenth Liszt’s Rhapsodies, Second, Third and Eighth Prokofiev’s sonatas. Other pianists even outstanding, tried not to play pieces played by him. Richter confessed that he could not play Third Prokofiev’s sonata after Gilels’s performance. Both the First concerto and B-minor Liszt’s sonata in Gilels’s interpretation became masterpieces.
Brahms like Beethoven is undoubtedly, “Gilels’s” composer. Deep passion combined with strict reserve as if specially is created for Gilels. In 1958 his playing of Second Brahms’s concerto with Chicago orchestra under F. Reiner’s baton was found to be the best recording of the year in the USA.
Afterwards he recorded both concertos with O. Yokhum and this recording was found the best in 1973. Later he often played pieces Op. 10, 116 and also “Variations on Paganini’s theme”.
Gilels played Schumann all his life. Toccatas and other pieces he played when he was a youngster, he played sonatas fis-moll and g-moll, “Carnival” when was an adult and at the end of his life he turned to “Symphony Etudes”.
In all these and other masterpieces from the first notes one can recognize Gilels’s playing. He is characterized apart from other features by a special sound space that a Hungarian musician L. Hernadi aptly called “a chain of high voltage” from the very first note till the end the audience was all ears.
During this period he gave a lot of concerts and made plenty of recordings. Gilels has got a list of firms recording him longer than the whole list of recordings of most musicians, the most popular firms for his recordings were the following: “Melodia”, “Angel”,”Ariola”, “EMI”,”Eterna”, “Deutsche Grammophon” and others. They started to record him at the beginning of 30-s thanks to this we can now listen to the way young Gilels played Leye-Godovsky’s “Jiga”, Mozart-Liszt-Busoni’s Fantasy on the theme “The Marriage of Figaro”, G-minor Chopin’s ballade, Liszt’s Ninth Rhapsody, Schumann’s Toccata, Mendelsshon’s “Duet”.
Subsequently Gilels did approximately over 500 recordings (counting pieces and series; many pieces series he recorded manifold). The exact figure is hardly to be found because many from his encirclement realized that every note of his was “golden” and made amateur audio and video recordings of his concerts.
In 1950-70-s he continued teaching at Moscow Conservatoire and also was a leader in social life, the latter was not his cup of tea. However, he could not reject an offer to be the head of the piano jury of the Tchaikovsky Competition and was the chairman of the jury of the first four competitions; mainly due to his principles the first prize of the First competition was given to Van Cliburn, the best at that time. Gilels had to stand for justice in the rooms of party leaders of USSR. He could not refuse the invitation of the jury of Brussels’s competition where he was an authority and other competitions. He could not but play at Potsdam Conference in 1945 and on other governmental occasions, he was very attentive to people and always helped them solve problems: Neuhaus returned from his exile in Sverdlovsk to Moscow; thanks to him S. Richter was permitted to tour abroad; M.I. Grienberg got a flat, etc. In other cases, on the contrary, he did not respond, for example did not sign a letter written against Academician Sakharov.
All this required a lot of courage, however, he was not in a habit of publisizing things. Gilels was the most modest man, did not like agiotage. Subsequently some unfair writers accused him of being a Soviet ideology adept, an overcautious person bearing a tough disposition.
Those people who accused him especially liked to mention his membership in the Communist party, though they did not say that he had become its member in 1942.
When the war was in full swing patriotic impulse made many people do it and this action only tells about his patriotism and hatred of fascism. However, he played pieces of emigrant-musician Rachmaninov, one can see it in the news film; in Leningrad during blockade he played “anti-soviet” Stravinsky; in 1953 he actually
revived Metner’s music by not only playing it but having written an article “About Metner” in a magazine “Soviet Music”.
In 50-70-s Gilels- a famous artist, always a success with the public in the USSR and abroad. He found happiness in his family life having married at the end of 40-s Fariset (Lala) Hutsistova, a graduate of Moscow Conservatoire. He lived with her all his life; they had a daughter Elena, an excellent pianist who graduated from Flier’s class of Moscow Conservatoire. She played in an ensemble with her father. Among Mozart’s double Es-dur concerto, Schubert’s f-moll Fantasy played with Elena and recorded (conductors R. Barshai and K. B?em) were included into Gilels’s masterpieces.
Abroad, everywhere in the world, he was recognized as a genius not during his lifetime but already when he was a youngster. He was honoured by such great musicians of the XX-th century as V. Horowitz, A. Rubinstein, A. Borovsky, I. Stern, Ya. Heifets, F. Kraisler, M. Anderson. M. Shagal and S. Dali gave him their autographs. He was respected by C. Chaplin, F. Poulenc, J. Sibelius; he was welcomed in his residence by retired A. Toscanini who did not receive anybody, he made an exception for Gilels. I. Hoffman wrote about him to his friends. Such conductors as O. Klemperer, Yu. ?rmandi, L. Bernstein, G. von Karayan, R. Muti, G. Shell, L. Maasel, K. Mazur, G. Shalti, I. Markevich, V. Zavallish, A. Kluitans, F. Reiner, K. Boem, L. Ludwig, O. Yohum, F. Konvitchnyi, E. Linesdorf, P. Ardgento, S. Ozawa, M. Sargent, P. Berglund, Z. Meta.
He was a welcome guest in royal residences in London and Brussels, in the United Nations headquarters, in Pope’s residence in Vatikan. Crowds of reporters followed him (he did not like to give interviews and photos, he could not do anything about it). Having returned from the audience with the acting president or sovereign could come to see an unfavoured pensioner Khruschev. Many times he was offered to stay and live abroad where he could become a millionaire in several months but he did not even want to speak about it and always returned to his Motherland where he got one fiftieth of his foreign fees.
In the USSR he was highly respected by most authoritative musicians and artists such as S. Prokofiev, D. Shostakovich, A. Khachaturyan, D. Kabalevsky, R. Shchedrin, A. Eshpai, V. Sofronitsky, K. Igumnov, S. Feinberg, V. Merzhanov, M. Rostropovich, D. Shafran, D. Oistrakh, L. Kogan, I. Kozlovsky. When he was a youngster V. Kachalov appreciated his talent, F. Ranevskaya enjoyed his playing too.
In spite of the world-wide fame and recognition, the highest estimate of his activity by outstanding world and home artists Gilels’s estimate in the USSR did not reflect his real greatness as a musician and man; there was a lot of injustice in it. At the beginning it was G. Neuhaus who did not grasp his talent at once, in a post-war period he opposed Gilels to S. Richter. Some critics took advantage of this and started to admonish Emil when he was young. During Gilels’s life they repeated a legend about his virtuosity and his permanent “growth” and “learning music”.
The book “Emil Gilels” by S. M. Khentova that had 2 editions in 1959 and 1967 and contained a lot of valuable facts, though it did not reveal the essence of his art and personality, made a considerable contribution into this legend. His official glory in the USSR they explained by his Soviet ideology, which was not true. They did not comment on his world-wide fame, ignored it. The best book about him started by L.A. Barenboym was, in fact, unfinished: when the work was in full swing Barenboym suddenly died and then Gilels died. The book was published thanks to the efforts of T.N. Golland and help of families of deceased musicians.
Honoured everywhere in the world Gilels was not given due credit in the USSR. The People’s artist of the USSR, Lenin Prize Laureate (1962), on the occasion of the 60-th birthday he was awarded the highest state prize, a superfluous title of the Hero of Socialist Labour. Having masterfully performed on the occasion of the jubilee a series of Beethoven’s concertos in the Big Hall of the Conservatoire under the baton of Kurt Mazur and other concertos. Gilels did not read any articles in the Soviet press except that “ the virtuoso makes further progress as a musician” and only Ya. Flier wrote a truthful article.
Some critics were biased to Gilels. He was extremely modest, decent, genuine, however, could be harsh with those who did not meet his high morality and professional level, those people got offended. All his traits of character are felt in his playing.

 

1974 – 1985

Last period of creativity

In mid 70-s he ceased his activity in the jury as well as teaching. It was the last period of his life.
In the early 80-s he amazed public having performed Schumann’s “Symphony Etudes” and Brahms’s Variation on Paganini’s theme from his early repertoire. He also played Beethoven’s sonata, Op.106 “Hammerklavier” on the stage.
In slow Brahms’s and Schumann’s variations and a slow part of sonata he drew the sound in a way that seemed impossible for the piano. It was a special sound space filled with clear, slow music, sculptured polyphony; it was the bundle of philosophical ideas. In those days talks about Gilels being only a virtuoso stopped.
“Hammerklavier” brilliantly created by him was performed for Moscow public on 24, 26 January 1984 for the first time. Unfortunately, those were his last concerts in Moscow.
Last concert of his was on the twelfth of September 1985 in Helsinki. He played Scarlatti’s sonatas, Debussy’s suite “Pour le piano” and “Hammerklavier”. After his return to Moscow he felt unwell and had to go to hospital, however, nothing betokened the catastrophe: Gilels died on the 14-th of October.
He did not finish recordings of all Beethoven’s sonatas and variation series, i.e. sonatas 1,9,22, 24, 32 and 33 variations on Diabelli’s theme were not recorded, but he did a great job. His creative work should be comprehended (interpreted) in a modern way. It must be done after two decades of intended ignoring and disparagement of his name. It was due to the fact that he was a genius, by that, making it difficult to worship others.
Emil Gilels withstood it and remains in the memory of everybody a grand pianist. It is a must for all generations to comprehend his greatness, listen to his recordings and perceive his noble spirit.

Ekaterinburg, 2007

 

 

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