Gilels' (almost) complete cycle of Beethoven's piano sonatas is held in high regard, and indeed it should be too!

Beethoven is a mythical figure. According to Leonard Bernstein, no other human being was ever as close to perfection. His symphonies, piano concertos, his violin concertos and his piano sonatas are all regarded widely as the finest works in their respective genre. This does not make life easy for musicians. Any Beethoven interpreter will have to choose: Are they going to present Beethoven as the fiery revolutionary (Kovasevich), as the man who liked to do things differently (Pletnev), as a mythical figure (Brendel), as a titan (Arrau) or as a complex and vulnerable human being (Kempff)?

For me, Kempff always worked best. But that is just me. I like Kempff's vision of Beethoven best, even though I understand he was just as selective as anyone else in his presentation of the über-phenomenon that was Ludwig van Beethoven.

Then I listened to Gilels. Arthur Rubinstein once made a list of truly great pianists. To him, there were a few men, whose gifts far exceeded those of other pianists, putting them in a category of their own. The list included the following: Rubinstein, Horowitz, Michelangeli, Lipatti, Gieseking, Richter and Gilels. Known himself as a titan amongst pianists, larger than life from early wunderkind days on, Gilels, near the untimely end of his life, swung around to an incredibly complex musical understanding of Beethoven. Take all the approaches mentioned above, and blend them right back into one singular musical personality, and you have got Gilels' Beethoven.

Every movement played, I just cannot resist the feeling of inevitability. Everything seems to be quite simply right. Above all, nothing is over-emphasized. This is the most complex vision of the great composer yet. Absolutely fantastic!
Direct comparison shows just how outstanding this is. At some point I chose individual movements: The last of the 3rd, the first of the Moonlight, the third of the Hammerklavier. I'd listen to some of my other recordings, first: Kempff, Lill, Kovacevich, Lewis. Then I'd listen to the same movement played by Gilels, and I was just stunned each time. Like you local football club playing the Brazilian national team. They are both playing football, but that's where the comparison ends. I had initially dismissed Rubinstein's statement as arrogance, but now I am not sure at all. Different leagues, no kidding!

The sound of these late 80s/early 90s recordings is very good (which means just that: It is not mind-blowing, but far better than most recordings of these works). The booklet only offers info on Gilels as a Beethoven pianist, but none on the sonatas, which is a pity. But then, that info is readily available online. As for the reason why Emil never completed his Beethoven cycle, well according to his good friend Sviatoslav Richter who knew Gilels well and was a fellow-student in the class of Heinrich Neuhaus at the Moscow Conservatory, Gilels was killed accidentally when an incompetent doctor at the Kremlin hospital inappropriately gave him an injection of a drug during a routine checkup.

This is a must have by all means. 




Enjoy and Seed!!