When 17-year-old Ukrainian pianist
Emil Gilels won the USSR's All-Union Contest of Musicians and Performers in Moscow in 1933, the jury praised the "striking force of rhythm and sense of form in his playing, his unbending willpower, exuberant energy, emotional freshness and spontaneity." These qualities are manifestly present in these performances from only a bit later in
Gilels' career issued here in Appian Publications & Recordings' The Russian Piano Tradition series. Recorded in Moscow between 1935 and 1952 -- the period during which
Gilels went from studying at the Moscow Conservatory under pedagogue
Heinrich Neuhaus to winning international fame -- these 14 performances show the pianist at his most recklessly virtuosic. The earliest three -- the amazing Loeillet/Godowsky Gigue, the astonishing Schumann/Tausig Der Kontrabandiste, and especially the astounding Schumann Toccata -- were made in 1935, and one can only gasp at the young
Gilels' impetus tempos and imperious technique. A giddy performance of Schumann's Traumes Wirren followed in 1937 and then a breathtaking pair of Liszt performances in 1940 -- the Paganini Etude No. 5 known as "La Chasse" and the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 in D flat major. The next batch come from the early '50s -- a haunting
Prokofiev Sonata No. 2 in D minor from 1950, a blazing Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 9 in E flat major, a blinding Beethoven Sonata No. 3 in C major from 1952, and a pair of sparkling Scarlatti sonatas in C major and G major from 1955. While it's true that
Gilels sometimes lets his fingers get ahead of the music -- no piece goes by without a splash of smashed notes and some climaxes are positively drenched with wrong notes -- it's also true that
Gilels far more often performs with jaw-dropping dexterity -- try just Schumann's Toccata. Superlatively remastered in surprisingly clean sound by Bryan Crimp in 2007, this disc will enthrall anyone who loves great piano playing.