Emil Gilels Эмиль Гилельс | |
|---|---|
 Gilels and his sister, violinistElizabeth | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Samuil Grigoryevich Gilels (1916-10-19)October 19, 1916 Odessa, Russian Empire |
| Died | October 14, 1985(1985-10-14) (aged 68) Moscow,Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Genres | Classical |
| Occupation | Pianist |
| Instrument | Piano |
Emil Grigoryevich Gilels[a] (19 October [O.S. 6 October] 1916 – 14 October 1985; bornSamuil)[b] was a Russian and Soviet pianist.[1][2][3][4] He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time.[5][6] His sisterElizabeth, three years his junior, was a violinist. His daughterElena became a pianist.
Gilels was born to aJewish family on 19 October [O.S. 6 October] 1916 inOdessa,Russian Empire (nowUkraine) to Gesya and Grigory Gilels. His father worked as a clerk in a sugar refinery.
Gilels hadperfect pitch, and at the age of five-and-a-half, he began lessons withYakov Isaakovich Tkach [Wikidata], a piano pedagogue in Odessa.[7][8] A quick learner, he was playing all three volumes of Loeschhorn's studies within a few months, and soon afterwards Clementi and Mozart sonatinas. Gilels later credited this strict training with Tkach for establishing the foundation of his technique.[9] In turn, Tkach commented of Gilels, using a diminutive, "Milya Gilels possesses the abilities of one who is born solely for the purpose of becoming a pianist, and that with the required attention to his development, the USSR would in the future enrich itself with the acquisition of a world-renowned pianist."
In May 1929, aged 12, Gilels gave his first public concert.[9] In 1929, Gilels was accepted to theOdessa Conservatory [ru] into the class ofBertha Reingbald [uk]. Under the tutelage of Reingbald, Gilels broadened his range of cultural interests, with a particular aptitude for history and literature. In 1932,Arthur Rubinstein visited the Odessa Conservatory and met Gilels, and the two of them remained friends through the remainder of Rubinstein's life.[5] Like Tkach, Reingbald carefully guided Gilels in terms of allowing him to give live concerts, and protected her student from excessive concert performances. He competed in the All-Soviet piano competition, despite being below the age limit to participate, but won a scholarship from the jury.
In 1932, Gilels first visitedHeinrich Neuhaus. In 1933, Gilels participated in the First All-Union Competition of Performers in Moscow, and won first prize by unanimous decision. This win made Gilels famous throughout the USSR, and led to a nationwide concert tour. However, the stresses of touring led Gilels to curtail his touring and to return to Odessa, to conclude his studies, even declining an invitation to transfer to the Moscow Conservatory. Gilels subsequently regarded Reingbald as his true teacher, mentor and lifelong friend.
Gilels graduated from the Odessa Conservatory in the autumn of 1935. Subsequently, he was accepted into the class of Heinrich Neuhaus as a postgraduate student at the Moscow Conservatory, and Gilels renewed his commitment to giving concerts. In 1936, he participated in his first international competition, the International Vienna Music Academy Competition. Gilels took the second place award, while his friend and fellow studentYakov Flier was the first prize winner. Two years later, in 1938, both Gilels and Flier participated in the Ysaÿe International Festival (Queen Elisabeth Competition) inBrussels. Gilels was awarded first prize, and Flier took third prize. Gilels completed his studies in Moscow in 1938.
Following his activities in Brussels, a scheduled tour and American debut at the1939 New York World's Fair was aborted because of the outbreak of the Second World War.Sergei Rachmaninoff, living in exile from Russia, had heard of the reputation of Gilels, and began to listen to Gilels' radio performances. Rachmaninoff subsequently regarded Gilels as his pianistic successor, and sent him his medal and diploma. This medal, engraved with the profile of Anton Rubinstein, and the diploma were once presented to Rachmaninoff to symbolize his succession from Rubinstein, and Rachmaninoff himself added Gilels’ name to the document. Gilels treasured these relics all his life.[10]
In 1944, Gilels premiered Prokofiev's8th Piano Sonata.[11] During World War II, Gilels entertained Soviet troops with morale-boosting open-air recitals on the frontline, of which film archive footage exists.[12] In 1945, he formed a chamber music trio with the violinistLeonid Kogan (his brother-in-law) and the cellistMstislav Rostropovich. Gilels was awarded theStalin Prize in 1946.[8] After the war, he toured the Soviet Bloc countries of EasternEurope as a soloist. He also gave two-piano recitals with Yakov Flier, as well as concerts with his violinist sister, Elizaveta. In 1952, he became a professor at theMoscow Conservatory, where his students includedValery Afanassiev,Irina Zaritskaya,Marina Goglidze-Mdivani,Irina Smorodinova (a Laureate of theInternational Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud piano competition in Paris), Igor Zhukov, Vladimir Blok andFelix Gottlieb. He was chair of the jury of theInternational Tchaikovsky Competition at the inaugural competition in 1958, which awarded first prize toVan Cliburn. He presided over the competition for many years.
Gilels was one of the first Soviet artists, along withDavid Oistrakh, allowed to travel and give concerts in theWest. His American debut was in October 1955, with thePhiladelphia Orchestra andEugene Ormandy.[5] His British debut was in Coventry in 1951, where he performed alongside Igor Oistrakh, Galina Vischnevskaya, Mark Reizen and the composer Kabalevsky. In 1952 he played at the Royal Albert Hall.[13] Gilels made hisSalzburg Festival debut in 1969 with a piano recital of Weber, Prokofiev and Beethoven at theMozarteum, followed by a performance of Beethoven'sThird Piano Concerto withGeorge Szell and theVienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 1981, Gilels suffered aheart attack after a recital at theConcertgebouw inAmsterdam and suffered declining health thereafter. He died unexpectedly during a medical checkup in Moscow on 14 October 1985, only a few days before his 69th birthday.Sviatoslav Richter, who knew Gilels well and was a fellow student in the class ofHeinrich Neuhaus at theMoscow Conservatory, believed that Gilels was killed accidentally when a drug was wrongly injected during a routine checkup, at the Kremlin hospital.[14] However, Danish composer and writerKarl Aage Rasmussen, in his biography of Richter, denies this possibility and contends that it was just a false rumour.[15]
Gilels was married twice. He was first married to pianistRosa Tamarkina in 1940. His second wife was Fariset (Lala) Hutsistova, a graduate of Moscow Conservatoire, whom he married in 1947. They had a daughter,Elena, a pianist who graduated from Flier’s class at the Moscow Conservatoire, and who performed and recorded with her father.
Gilels is universally admired for his superb technical control and burnished tone.[16] Gilels had a repertoire ranging from baroque to late Romantic and 20th century classical composers. His interpretations of the central German-Austrian classics formed the core of his repertoire, in particularBeethoven,Brahms, andSchumann; but he was equally illuminative withScarlatti and 20th-century composers such asDebussy, Rachmaninoff, andProkofiev. His recordings ofLiszt'sHungarian Rhapsody No. 9 andSonata in B minor have acquired classic status in some circles.[17]
Gilels' recordings for most of his recording history were for the state record company for classical music repertoire,Melodiya. These recordings, in turn, were licensed in the west underEMI Records, and in the United States underAngel Records (and EMI's budgetSeraphim Records). In 2013Warner Classics absorbed EMI Classics, thereby acquiring the bulk of Gilels' recordings.
Gilels was in the midst of completing a recording cycle of Beethoven's piano sonatas for the German record companyDeutsche Grammophon when he died unexpectedly in a hospital in Moscow.[18][19] His recording of the"Hammerklavier" Sonata received a Gramophone Award in 1984. Gilels recorded with his daughter, including Mozart'sdouble piano concerto with Karl Böhm and the Vienna Philharmonic and Schubert'sFantasie in F minor for piano duet. He also made somechamber-music recordings with the violinistLeonid Kogan and the cellistMstislav Rostropovich.
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