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Grieg: Lyric Pieces
Emil Gilels' personal selection of favorite
lyric pieces is one of his most praised and best recordings.
The pianist obviously selected the pieces with which he felt
the strongest identification, and he plays them lovingly, with
sprightly rhythms and a rich, singing tone. Gilels was the one
who identified himself as second to Sviatoslav Richter--"If
you think I'm something, wait until you hear Richter," he
supposedly said. But this collection is just as beautiful in
its way as Richter's lyric collections. Along with some of his
Chopin playing, this Grieg set reminds us that Gilels was a major
Romantic pianist. --Leslie Gerber |
Reviewer: Toscha Dolittle from California,
U.S.A.
I heard this recording on LP about
a decade ago and I had a crash on this recording. Before I heard
this recording, I did not have a very good impression on Gilels.
Only other recording of him I heard till then was a brittle-sounding
Beethoven's "appasionata" sonata, recorded in Russia
back in the 1950s. In that, he sounded as if he was trying to
"outbang" Horowitz, so when I found this recording,
I was more interested in the pieces than their performer. But
when I put the needle on the LP, I was absolutely shocked. "My
God", I thought, "is this the same Gilels???"
In these pieces, Gilels became a poet of piano, a gorgeous minituarist.
Since then, I listened to this recording countless times, bought
a CD transfer, and managed to even learn some of the pieces myself.
This CD is really a jewel. Gilels is at his best. Never I heard
him play with such an intimacy of feeling and conviction. This
is an absolute "must" for anyone who loves romantic
piano music. |
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