Emil Gilels: The 100th Anniversary Edition (50 CD box set FLAC)

Performer: Emil Gilels
Audio CD
Number of Discs: 50
Format: FLAC (image+cue)
Label: Melodiya
Size: 12.8 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes

CD 01
Recorded in 1935–1949.
Franz Liszt – Ferruccio Busoni
Jean-Baptiste Loeillet – Leopold Godowsky
Francis Poulenc
Claude Debussy – Leonard Borwick
Franz Liszt
Johannes Brahms
Frédéric Chopin
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Carl Tausig
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Pieces

CD 02
Recorded in 1947–1949.
Frédéric Chopin
Pieces

Franz Liszt
Piano Sonata in B minor
Valse oubliée No. 1

Claude Debussy
Images, Book I

CD 03
Recorded in 1946–1950.
Ludwig van Beethoven
32 Variations in C minor
Piano Sonatas Nos. 21 & 28

Robert Schumann
Piano Sonata No. 2

CD 04
Recorded in 1954.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Concerto No. 1

Recorded in 1952.
Johannes Brahms
Piano Concerto No. 2
Emil Gilels, piano
The USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra
Conductor – Kirill Kondrashin

CD 05
Recorded in 1951.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Piano Concerto No. 1
Emil Gilels, piano
The USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra
Conductor – Konstantin Ivanov

Recorded in 1958.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Concerto No. 2
Emil Gilels, piano
The Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor – Kurt Sanderling

CD 06
Recorded in 1947–1951.
César Cui
Violin Sonata in D major

Alexander Borodin
Piano Trio in D major

Alexander Alyabiev
Piano Trio in A minor
Violin Sonata in E minor
Emil Gilels, piano
Elizaveta Gilels, violin
Dmitri Tsyganov, violin
Sergei Shirinsky, cello

CD 07
Recorded in 1951.
Antonio Vivaldi
Violin Sonata in A major

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Violin Sonatas Nos. 8 & 35

Joseph Haydn
Violin Sonata No. 1
Elizaveta Gilels, violin
Emil Gilels, piano

CD 08
Recorded in 1952.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Trio (Divertimento) in B flat major

Recorded in 1950.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Trio in E flat major
Emil Gilels, piano
Leonid Kogan, violin
Mstislav Rostropovich, cello

Recorded in 1958.
Gabriel Fauré
Piano Quartet No. 1
Emil Gilels, piano
Leonid Kogan, violin
Rudolf Barshai, viola
Mstislav Rostropovich, cello

CD 09
Recorded live on March 15, 1949.
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Piano Concerto No. 3

Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Piano Concerto No. 1
Emil Gilels, piano
The USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra
Conductor – Kirill Kondrashin

CD 10
Recorded live on November 1, 1948.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Sonata in B flat major, KV 570

Robert Schumann
Piano Sonata No. 1

Franz Liszt
Valse oubliée No. 1
La campanella from Grandes études de Paganini

CD 11
Recorded live on April 7, 1950.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Sonata in B flat major, KV 570

Robert Schumann
Carnaval

Frédéric Chopin

Maurice Ravel
Pieces

CD 12
Recorded live on 5 January, 1952.
George Frideric Handel
Chaconne in G major

Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 3

Dmitri Shostakovich
Preludes and Fugues Nos. 1, 5, 24 from
24 Preludes and Fugues

Alexander Scriabin
Piano Sonata No. 1

CD 13
Recorded live in 1948–1952.
Franz Liszt
Piano Sonata in B minor

Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Manuel de Falla
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Frédéric Chopin
Pieces

CD 14
Recorded live on March 3, 1950.
Alexander Glazunov
Piano Sonata No. 2

Sergei Prokofiev
Piano Sonata No. 2

Mily Balakirev
Islamey

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Pieces

CD 15
Recorded live on March, 3 1950.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Six Pieces, Op. 19

Recorded live on March 2, 1957.
Alexander Scriabin
Piano Sonata No. 4

Sergei Prokofiev
Piano Sonata No. 3

Franz Liszt
Piano Sonata in B minor
Valse oubliée No. 1

Isaac Albéniz
Manuel de Falla
Pieces

CD 16
Recorded live on January 23, 1951.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Concerto No. 3

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Piano Concerto No. 4

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Piano Concerto No. 1
Emil Gilels, piano
The USSR State Symphony Orchestra
Conductor – Kirill Kondrashin

CD 17
Recorded live on March 4, 1951.
César Franck
Symphonic Variations

Frédéric Chopin
Andante spianato et Grande polonaise brillante

Camille Saint-Saëns
Piano Concerto No. 2
Emil Gilels, piano
The Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor – Karl Eliasberg

Franz Liszt
La campanella from Grandes études de Paganini

CD 18
Recorded live on May 14, 1953.
Frédéric Chopin
Variations on Là ci darem la mano

Maurice Ravel
Piano Concerto for the Left Hand

Arno Babajanian
Heroic Ballade

Camille Saint-Saëns
Finale from Piano Concerto No. 2
Emil Gilels, piano
The USSR State Symphony Orchestra
Conductor – Kirill Kondrashin

CD 19
Recorded live on October 3, 1954.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Sonata in B flat major, KV 570

Claude Debussy
Images, Book I
Estampes

Sergei Prokofiev
Piano Sonata No. 2
Pieces

CD 20
Recorded live on February 23, 1957.
Domenico Scarlatti
Sonatas

Robert Schumann
Piano Sonata No. 1

Igor Stravinsky
Five Fragments from Petrushka

CD 21
Recorded in 1950–1957.
Mieczysław Weinberg
Piano Sonata No. 4

Johannes Brahms
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Claude Debussy
Isaac Albéniz
Pieces

CD 22
Recorded live on January 16, 1959.
Joseph Haydn
Piano Concerto in D major

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Rondo for piano and orchestra
Emil Gilels, piano
The Moscow Chamber Orchestra
Conductor – Rudolf Barshai

Recorded live on March 24, 1966.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Concerto No. 4
Emil Gilels, piano
The Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor – Neeme Järvi

CD 23
Recorded in 1952.
Frédéric Chopin
Andante spianato et Grande polonaise brillante

Recorded live on December 23, 1959.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Concerto No. 21

Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Piano Concerto No. 2
Emil Gilels, piano
The USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra
Conductor – Kirill Kondrashin

CD 24
Recorded live on January 22, 1959.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Aria variata alla maniera italiana

Franz Schubert
Impromptu in F minor

Robert Schumann
Piano Sonata No. 1

Dmitri Kabalevsky
Piano Sonata No. 2

CD 25
Recorded live on December 12, 1960.
Domenico Scarlatti
Sonatas

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Sonata in A major

Joseph Haydn
Sonata in C minor

CD 26
Recorded live on October 4 and 10, 1961.
Franz Liszt
Piano Sonata in B minor

Frédéric Chopin
Piano Sonata No. 2

Robert Schumann
Piano Sonata No. 1

CD 27
Recorded live on April 9, 1962.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Piano Sonata in C sharp minor

Igor Stravinsky
Five Fragments from Petrushka

Sergei Prokofiev
Piano Sonata No. 8

CD 28
Recorded live in 1959–1962.
Maurice Ravel
Franz Liszt
Igor Stravinsky
Frédéric Chopin
Muzio Clementi
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Johann Sebastian Bach – Аlexander Siloti
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Pieces

CD 29
Recorded live in Leningrad on February 15, 1963.
Joseph Haydn
Sonata in C minor

Frédéric Chopin
Variations for piano solo on Là ci darem la mano
Pieces

Aram Khachaturian
Piano Sonata

CD 30
Recorded live in Leningrad on February 15, 1963, January 26, 1953.
Claude Debussy
Maurice Ravel
Frédéric Chopin
Francis Poulenc
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Pieces

CD 31
Recorded live on October 12–13, 1962.
Frédéric Chopin
Piano Concerto No. 1

Francis Poulenc
Concert champêtre
Emil Gilels, piano
The Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor – Kirill Kondrashin

CD 32
Recorded live on October 12 (13), 1962.
Franz Schubert – Dmitri Kabalevsky
Fantasia in F minor
Emil Gilels, piano
The USSR State Symphony Orchestra
Conductor – Kirill Kondrashin

Camille Saint-Saëns
Le carnaval des animaux
Emil Gilels, piano
Yakov Zak, piano
Daniil Shafran, cello
The USSR State Symphony Orchestra
Conductor – Karl Eliasberg

Franz Liszt
Piano Concerto No. 1
Emil Gilels, piano
The Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
Conductor – Kirill Kondrashin

CD 33
Recorded live on March 21, 1965.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 28

Johannes Brahms
7 Fantasien

Franz Liszt
Piano Sonata in B minor
Valse oubliée No. 1

Robert Schumann
Arabeske in C major

CD 34
Recorded live in Kiev on April 6, 1965.
Franz Schubert
Piano Sonata in A minor
Six moments musicaux

Frédéric Chopin
Ballade No. 1

CD 35
Recorded live on April 22, 1966.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3
Emil Gilels, piano
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor – Neeme Järvi

CD 36
Recorded live on March 13, 1965.
Franz Schubert
Piano Sonata No. 14
Six moments musicaux

Dmitri Shostakovich
Piano Sonata No. 2

CD 37
Recorded live on December 21
and 23, 1968.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonatas Nos. 8 & 14

Nikolai Medtner
Sonata-reminiscenza

Frédéric Chopin
Franz Schubert
Sergei Prokofiev
Maurice Ravel
Pieces

CD 38
Recorded live on January 26, 1967.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 28

Sergei Prokofiev
Piano Sonata No. 8

Robert Schumann
Pieces

CD 39
Recorded live on October 18, 1967.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 21
12 Variations on the Russian Dance from the ballet Das Waldmädchen by P. Wranitzky
32 Variations in C minor

Carl Maria von Weber
Piano Sonata No. 2

CD 40
Recorded live on January 5, 1970.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Sonatas, KV 281 & KV 310
Six Variations on Salve tu, Domine
Ten Variations on Unser dummer Pöbelmeint
Fantasia in D minor

CD 41
Recorded live 1965–1972.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Sonata in F major, KV 533/494

Frédéric Chopin
Polonaise in C minor
Ballade No. 1

Franz Liszt
Rhapsodie espagnole

Sergei Prokofiev
Alexander Scriabin
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Robert Schumann
Pieces

CD 42
Recorded live on January 3, 1970.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Piano Concerto No. 2

Recorded live on February 20, 1968.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Piano Concerto No. 3
Rehearsal of Piano Concerto No. 3
Emil Gilels, piano
The USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra
Conductor – Evgeny Svetlanov

CD 43
Recorded live on December 24 and 25, 1977.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 12

Sergei Prokofiev
Piano Sonata No. 3

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Alexander Scriabin

Johann Sebastian Bach – Аlexander Siloti
Pieces

CD 44
Recorded live on February 12, 1976.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonatas Nos. 12 & 16

Robert Schumann
Toccata in C major

Franz Liszt
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

CD 45
Recorded live on December 27, 1977.
Frédéric Chopin
Piano Sonata No. 3

Robert Schumann
Johannes Brahms
Pieces

CD 46
Recorded live on October 20, 1980.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonatas Nos. 7, 25, 26, 27

Adolph von Henselt
Franz Liszt
Pieces

CD 47
Recorded live in 1970–1980.

Ludwig van Beethoven
Eroica Variations

Johannes Brahms
Robert Schumann
Frédéric Chopin
Pieces

CD 48
Recorded live on January 9, 1983.
Johannes Brahms
Variations on a Theme by Paganini
7 Fantasien

Robert Schumann
Symphonic Etudes

CD 49
Recorded live on January 9, 1983.
Robert Schumann
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Pieces

Recorded live on January 26, 1984.
Alexander Scriabin
Piano Sonata No. 3
Preludes, Op. 74

Sergei Prokofiev
Piano Sonata No. 3

CD 50
Recorded live on January 26, 1984.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 29, Hammerklavier

For the 100th anniversary of Emil Gilels, one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, Melodiya presents an anthology of his pianistic legacy.

“Titans of the piano like Gilels are born once in a hundred years,” wrote a Japanese correspondent in 1957; similar comments accompanied the musician’s performances throughout his performing career.

The performance of the young man from the Odessa Conservatory at the 1933 First All-Union Competition in

Moscow came as a bombshell: the audience gave him a standing ovation, and unfamiliar people congratulated each other on the emergence of a genius. Five years later, Gilels gained another unconditional victory at the international competition in Brussels. After WWII, in the period of the most strained relations between the Soviet Union and the West, Gilels conquered the public in the United States and Western Europe. The pianist never interrupted his concert life for half a century. Gilels’s art continued to develop through extending the repertoire and enhancing the interpretations of the works he had played many times, and at times the pieces already well known and “worn out” by other pianists received surprise readings from him.

The Melodiya anniversary release covers Gilels’s almost entire life in music from his first studio recording of 1935 (Liszt’s Fantasy on Themes from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, the number with which young Gilels caused a furor at the competition) to the artist’s last performance in Moscow in 1984 with Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata, one of the most difficult works in piano literature. Most part of the set is dedicated to live broadcasts that captured the pianist’s extensive repertoire – from Scarlatti and Bach to Shostakovich and Stravinsky, including a number of never-before-released interpretations such as Scriabin’s Sonata No. 1, Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, Handel’s Chaconne, Borodin’s Scherzo etc.

The art of Gilels as an ensemblist is represented with his collaborations with the greatest Soviet performers such as Leonid Kogan, Mstislav Rostropovich and Rudolf Barshai. The recordings with the pianist’s sister, remarkable violinist Elizaveta Gilels, are worth a special mention. There are genuine rarities among the chamber ensemble recordings – Gabriel Fauré’s Piano Quartet, Alexander Alyabyev’s Trio and César Cui’s Sonata for violin and piano.

Emil Gilels was a chairman of the panel of the Tchaikovsky International Competition for over twenty years and one of the few pianists who had all three piano concertos of the great Russian composer in his repertoire – all of them are featured in this set (two little-known recordings of the First Concerto made in 1948 and 1956 are particularly notable).

Emil Gilels played with the world’s best orchestras, and this release features the prominent Soviet conductors Konstantin Ivanov, Kirill Kondrashin, Rudolf Barshai and Evgeny Svetlanov accompanying the pianist.