When
Emil Gilels died in 1985, he had completed recordings of most but not all of
Beethoven's piano sonatas. What's here is unimaginably good: superlative recordings of 27 of the 32 canonical sonatas, including the "Pathétique," "Moonlight," "Waldstein," "Appassionata," "Les Adieux," and the majestic "Hammerklavier," plus the mighty "Eroica Variations."
Gilels the Soviet super virtuoso had slowly mellowed and ripened over his long career, and by 1972 when he began these, his interpretations had matured and deepened while his superlative technique remained gloriously intact straight through to the last recordings of his final year. One marvels at
Gilels' virtuosity, his expressivity, and his sheer joy in music-making. It is through the intensity of
Gilels' interpretations, the way he seems to so thoroughly understand and identify with
Beethoven's music, that we understand it in a new and better way.