Emil Giles 5

The two concertos featured on this DVD are by composers indelibly linked to Emil Gilels’s career. Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto was the work in which Gilels made his triumphant 1955 American debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy. In this 1966 Moscow performance Gilels, at the height of his powers, delivers a non-hold-barred approach to the work’s thorny technical challenges. The pianism is thrilling, yet there is nothing of the showman in his reading. Gilels meets music on its own terms and his strong musical personality remains at its service. Schumann was a composer greatly loved by Gilels and his music was frequently the centerpiece of his recital programs. The composer provided a superb canvas for musical colorists and Gilels was one of the best. Previous issues in VAI’s Gilels DVD edition contain some of Schumann’s most sublime music for solo piano. With this release we now have Gilels as soloist in the composer’s only concerto for piano and orchestra in a scrupulously musical performance.