Emil Gilels: biography, photos and interesting facts

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The name of Emil Gilels is associated with the heyday of Soviet instrumental performance. He was one of the first domestic pianists who became laureates of international piano art competitions.

Gilels' playing style is majestic, solemn, in itself is one of the symbols of Soviet art.

Memory of a great musician

Emil Gilels was born in Odessa. This city is distinguished by its unique culture, special, easily recognizable flavor. Here, oral stories about famous Odessans, such as Leonid Utyosov, Mikhail Zhvanetsky and many others, are passed down from generation to generation. One of these characters of folk tales is the hero of this article.

He was even sung in the streets with comic songs at the time when he became famous and left his hometown. Now, in the homeland of pianist Emil Gilels, there is his name plate on the local Avenue of Stars.

His perfect interpretations of classical musicthe arts are immortalized in recordings produced in the world's leading studios. Emil Gilels' playing style remains modern even today, because right now there is not enough power of grace and accuracy in observing all the nuances in reading the masterpieces of past centuries, which distinguished his performance.

Inimitable musical signature

The teacher who studied with young Emil when he was 13 years old later spoke of the set of professional inclinations that nature endowed Gilels with. From birth, he had hands by which one can recognize the future brilliant pianist. Emil was also endowed with an absolute musical ear and performing flair.

The combination of such data, which the Almighty awarded this amazing virtuoso, allowed him to subsequently create his own unique style of musical performance, later called the monumental style of the Soviet era. Without going into specific details describing the style of playing, but speaking in a language that is understandable to most people who are not professionals in this field, then his specific interpretation of musical works can be described as energetic, aimed at creating an inspiring and life-affirming mood among the listeners.

Many musicologists say that the creative individuality of a performer is made up of such personality traits as character and temperament. If we consider the game of such an internationally recognized virtuoso as Glenn Gould, then we can make an unconditionala parallel to his mannered, refined game with an amazing sense of humor, the habit of behaving a little eccentric, with an ironic attitude towards the world and himself. Its complete opposite is the worldview of Gilels. The pianist believed that time required a special powerful energy message from him.

Connection of the biography of Emil Gilels with his work

According to his relatives, he was a man of few words, serious, who, however, was not alien to some ironic attitude towards himself and those around him.

His tall stature, large, almost athletic physique is fully consistent with the signature sound that he achieved by touching the keys of his instrument. This style of the performer was a reflection of his difficult, but at the same time heroic era. It was a time of grandiose construction projects, the birth of most of the large industrial enterprises of the Soviet Union. A significant event in the life of the performer was the Great Patriotic War, when he spoke to hundreds and thousands of soldiers at the front. All the severity of that time, as well as the special features of the pianist's personality, were reflected in his specific musical style.

Specialists said that his style incorporated all the best that was in domestic instrumental performance in the entire history of the Soviet Union.

Key Emperor

Gilels himself and the sound that he extracted from the piano can be compared by the effect of grandiosity and monumentality that he produces on the listener, withpersonality of Peter the Great. This is how Peter is depicted in the painting "Peter the Great" by Valentin Serov. The emperor is the only character in the canvas who does not bend under the pressure of the strongest seaside wind, and his gigantic figure is almost twice as large as the frail and slender images of the courtiers from his retinue. This effect is produced by the absence of any artificial embellishment, mannerisms, excessive artificial prettiness in the game of Emil Gilels. Restraint, precision and assertiveness - that's what distinguished the performance of this virtuoso.

As noted in many biographies, Emil Gilels led a modest life, did not like to communicate with the press. Those photographs that have been preserved in his archives and which are presented on the covers of discs are not distinguished by posturing or the desire for external effects to reach the attention of the public. Gilels seems to have spent his entire life trying to keep his fans focused on his music, thus freeing them from any other distractions.

Musician's childhood

Gilels, unlike many of his stage colleagues, was born not in a musical family, but in a working-class family. The artist's mother was a housewife and was engaged in raising her son. She managed to instill in the boy a love of art. Emil was fond of music, theater, followed with great interest the emerging Soviet cinema at that time.

Once again, drawing parallels with the Soviet era that brought up the pianist, it should be mentioned: Emil Gilels was born in 1916. That is, he appearedlight shortly before the Great October Revolution. The pianist's younger sister, Elizabeth, also became a musician. She chose the violin as her instrument.

A memorial plaque hangs on the house where gifted children were born.

First creative successes

As a child, Milya, as everyone then called the future musician, was so passionate about art and everything connected with it that sometimes he organized theatrical performances, in which children from neighboring yards participated as actors. The director of these performances was invariably himself. The first music teacher for the young talent was Tkach, a well-known music teacher in Odessa at that time, already mentioned in this article. The merit of this teacher was that the boy's natural inclinations very soon developed so much that by adolescence Emil was able to give small concerts, performing classical works of large forms. After graduating from a music school at the age of fifteen, Emil Gilels enters the Odessa Conservatory. At the same time, another future virtuoso, the world famous pianist Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter, is taking entrance exams there. Unlike Gilels, who easily passed the test, Richter failed the exams. During the entire period of study at the conservatory, Emil continued active concert activity.

World fame

After receiving a diploma, the young performer, who has already gained some fame in his city and its environs, leaves for Moscow, whereenters the Moscow Conservatory in the class of performing. Heinrich Gustavovich Neuhaus was his teacher and mentor for 5 years.

Svyatoslav Richter also studied in his class, whom he called his favorite student, despite his fastidiousness and some kind of musical, as he put it, obstinacy.

Already studying at the Odessa Conservatory, Emil Gilels became the winner of the All-Ukrainian competition of performers. Being educated in Moscow, the pianist became a laureate of all major competitions in the country. His creative activity was truly enormous. The tour route included hundreds of cities of the Soviet Union. He became one of the first Soviet musicians and the country's first pianist to perform in the United States of America.

Sound recording in the creative biography of Gilels

Emil Grigorievich is widely known for his activities in the field of sound recording. His interpretations of many of the musical classics, including all Beethoven concertos, were recorded by him and preserved for posterity in a stunning performance.

He has repeatedly misled journalists with his versatility. The critics, who applauded him as a Beethovenist, did not know what to do when a record was soon released with a stunning performance of Mozart's piano concerto, where Emil played his part with his usual brilliance.

Family

As for the personal life of Emil Gilels, the pianist first married while still a student at the Moscowconservatory, on one of his classmates. The first wife of Emil Grigorievich died suddenly at a young age. The pianist, before reaching the age of 30, remained a widower. The second time the musician married when he was already over forty.

His new wife, the poetess Farizet Khutsistova, was not a professional musician, but from childhood she was fond of art, including music, and was keenly interested in everything that was connected with her husband's performing activities. The daughter of Emil Grigorievich from this marriage - Elena - became a pianist. Subsequently, she repeatedly performed a duet with her father.

Universal pianist

The performing practice of Emil Grigorievich Gilels was as universal as his style and technique. He participated both in the performance of solo musical programs and played the piano parts in piano concertos with an orchestra of various composers.

Also, the pianist did not ignore piano duets and trios. After the death of the great musician about the creative biography and personal life of Emil Gilels, his wife wrote a book called "My Gilels".

Great-grandson of Chopin

Emil Gilels died in the late eighties, just a few years before the collapse of the Soviet Union - the country that raised him and which he glorified with his activities. He was the favorite pianist of the three rulers of this power: Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin and Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev. The artist's legacy includes hundreds of recordedworks, from the music of the Baroque era to the work of composers of the twentieth century. He perfectly performed both Shostakovich, whose contemporary he was, and Bach, and Frederic Chopin.

Academic musicians have a long tradition of tracing their creative pedigree. That is, every student of the conservatory or music school knows who his teacher studied with, the teacher of his teacher, and so on. For example, Alexandra Nikolaevna Pakhmutova considers herself the granddaughter of Rimsky-Korsakov, since she studied composition with Vissarion Shebalin, who, in turn, studied in the class of Nikolai Andreevich. Following a similar logic, Emil Grigorievich Gilels is Chopin's great-grandson.

Notable date

Last year, the centenary of the pianist's birth was widely celebrated. For this event, Melodiya released a collection of fifty discs by the artist, including early, little-known recordings. On the eve of the anniversary, Gilels' grandson - Kirill, a well-known musician - gave several interviews to various musical media. The successor of the famous dynasty also manages the archive of records and photos of Emil Gilels.

Among the most interesting questions about the life of Emil Grigorievich, which journalists asked his grandson, was this: “Was Gilels a man with a cheerful character?”. Kirill replied that grandfather, like any Odessa citizen, was terribly fond of jokes, but not vulgar ones. He liked the more subtle jokes. For example, jokes on a professional topic related to art, culture.