Emil Gilels

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Emil with his sister Jelisaveta around 1930

Emil Grigoryevich Gilels ( Russian Эмиль Григорьевич Гилельс * 6 . Jul / 19th October  1916 greg. In Odessa ; † 14. October 1985 in Moscow ) was a Soviet pianist . Alongside Svyatoslaw Richter , he is not only considered the best Soviet pianist of his generation, but also one of the most important Beethoven interpreters of all.

biography

Emil Gilels was born to Esfir and Grigori Gilels. They belonged to the large Jewish community in Odessa. It turned out early on that Emil had perfect pitch . He started trying out the grand piano in his parents' apartment at the age of two. At the age of five and a half he took piano lessons from Jakob Tkatsch. The piano teacher handled the extraordinary talent wisely and avoided presenting Emil Gilels as a child prodigy. So the young pianist could develop carefree. When he was twelve he gave his first concert, in which he performed Beethoven's Sonate Pathétique, among other things .

In 1930 Emil Gilels was admitted to the Odessa Conservatory after passing the entrance examination. There he joined the class of piano teacher Berta Reingbald. In 1932 the piano teacher brought the sixteen-year-old to Heinrich Neuhaus , for whom he was allowed to play. Neuhaus was not convinced, but Reingbald let her student take part in the most important Soviet "All-Union" piano competition in 1933. There Emil Gilels practically played all the competitors against the wall, the hall raged after the last chord, and even the jury stood up and applauded. Winning the competition enabled him to tour the Soviet Union for the first time. In 1936 he played Beethoven's first piano concerto with Otto Klemperer as a conductor in Moscow.

In 1938 Heinrich Neuhaus accepted him at the Moscow Conservatory, despite previous reservations. Svyatoslaw Richter was another student of Neuhaus at that time. In 1938 Gilels won the Concours Musical Reine Elisabeth in Brussels, where he prevailed against Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli , among others . In the same year Gilels completed his music studies with the exam and was able to teach at the Moscow Conservatory. From 1952 he worked there as a professor. One of his students was Valery Afanassiev .

In 1940 he married the Soviet pianist Rosa Tamarkina . In 1947 he married for the second time. From this second marriage to Fariset Hutsistova, whom he had met at the Moscow Conservatory, the daughter Elena emerged, who also became a pianist.

Sergei Prokofjew dedicated his 8th Piano Sonata to Emil Gilels, which Gilels premiered on December 30, 1944 in Moscow. Along with David Oistrach, Gilels was one of the first Soviet musicians to give concerts abroad. He made his debut in 1955 with Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra in the USA . In contrast to many other Soviet artists who used their stays abroad to emigrate from the Soviet Union, Gilels kept returning there. From 1955 to 1956 he performed Beethoven's five piano concertos, which brought him world fame. “Gilels managed to match the spirit and style of Beethoven.” He played in all major cities of the USSR as well as in all capitals of Europe. Tours have taken him to the USA and Japan. He recorded Beethoven's piano concertos a total of seven times. Until his unexpected death in 1985 at the age of only 69, he played almost all of Beethoven's piano sonatas. These recordings are still considered significant interpretations today.

Repertoire and style

The focus of his extensive repertoire was on the Viennese classics , including above all Beethoven , but also works by Schumann and Brahms as well as compositions from baroque music and from the 20th century . Together with Gidon Kremer and Lazar Gosman, as a member of the Leningrad Chamber Orchestra, he has worked on more than 200 works of chamber music, including pieces by Dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten .

Christian Wildhagen certified Emil Gilels' style of playing as "flexibility, elegance and a wide range of precisely dosed colors" (NZZ 2016). His interpretations are considered balanced, he always found the "golden tone" . He delighted the audience, for example with Beethoven's piano sonata Appassionata . Joachim Kaiser mentions a live recording from 1961 in the same breath as Arthur Rubinstein and Vladimir Horowitz : The live recordings (from 1961) "reveal a mastery that hardly more than three virtuosos could perform in concert around the world" .

Emil Gilels Foundation

The international Emil Gilels memorial project of the Emil Gilels Foundation on the Internet provides insights into the life and work of the musician. The Emils Gilels Foundation organizes an Emil Gilels Festival every two years . The first took place from March 26th to 31st, 2012 in Freiburg .

Honors (selection)

Recordings on LP (selection)

Web links

Commons : Emil Gilels  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Donald Henahan: Music View. Who Will Replace the Old Guard of Soviet Music? In: The New York Times . October 27, 1985, accessed October 19, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Elena Fedorovitch: Biography. Childhood (1916-1929). Emil Gilels Foundation, accessed January 10, 2018
  3. ^ Boris Berman : Prokofiev's Piano Sonatas: A Guide for the Listener and the Performer. Yale University Press, New Haven 2008, ISBN 978-0-300-14500-7 , p. XII.
  4. ↑ Elena Fedorovitch: Biography. Post-war period, debut in America, world fame (1946–1974). Emil Gilels Foundation, accessed January 10, 2018.
  5. ↑ Christian Wildhagen: So - and no different. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . October 19, 2016, accessed January 9, 2018
  6. ↑ Joachim Kaiser : Great pianists of our time. Emil Gilels Foundation, accessed January 9, 2018
  7. ^ Robert Schumann Prize of the City of Zwickau. Award winners. Schumann portal, accessed on April 3, 2018 .
  8. ↑ a b Gilels Emil Grigoryevich. Musical encyclopedia, accessed April 3, 2018 (Russian).
personal data
SURNAME Gilels, Emil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gilels, Emil Grigoryevich (full name); Гилельс, Эмиль Григорьевич (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION soviet pianist
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Odessa
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 1985
Place of death Moscow