Emil Gilels: biography, photos and interesting facts

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

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

The memory of the great musician

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

Comic songs were even sung about him in the streets at a 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 works of musical art are immortalized in recordings made in leading world studios. Emil Gilels’s playing style remains up-to-date at the present time, since right now there is a lack of the power of grace and accuracy of observing all the nuances in reading the masterpieces of past centuries that distinguished its performance.

Unique musical style

The teacher, who studied with young Emil when he was 13 years old, so subsequently spoke of the set of professional inclinations that nature gave to Gilels. From birth, he had hands by which to recognize the future genius pianist. Emil was also endowed with an absolute ear for music and performing instinct.

The combination of such data, which was awarded by the Almighty to this amazing virtuoso, allowed him to subsequently create his own unique style of musical performance, later called the monumental style of the Soviet era. If you do not go into specific details that describe the style of the game, but speak a language that is understandable to most people who are not professionals in this field, then its specific interpretation of musical works can be described as energetic, aimed at creating an inspiring and life-affirming mood among listeners.

Many musicologists say that the artist’s creative personality consists of personality traits such as character and temperament. If you consider the game of such an internationally recognized virtuoso as Glenn Gould was, then you can draw an unconditional parallel to his mannered, exquisite game with an amazing sense of humor, the habit of holding himself a little eccentric, with an ironic attitude to the world and himself. Its complete opposite is the worldview of Hillels. The pianist believed that time requires a special powerful energy message from him.

The 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 artist 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 personality traits of the pianist, were reflected in his specific musical style.

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

Emperor keys

Gilels himself and the sound that he made from the piano can be compared by the effect of grandeur and monumentality, which he produces on the listener, with the personality of Peter the Great. So Peter is depicted in the picture of Valentin Serov "Peter the First". 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 almost twice exceeds the puny and slender images of the courtiers from his retinue. This effect is produced through the absence in the game of Emil Gilels of any artificial decoration, mannerism, excessive artificial beautifulness. Restraint, accuracy and assertiveness - that is what distinguished the performance of this virtuoso.

As noted in many biographies, Emil Gilels led a modest life, did not like communication with the press. Those photographs that have been preserved in its archives and which are presented on the covers of the discs do not differ in posturing or aspirations of external effects to reach the attention of the public. It seems that with his whole life Gilels sought to focus the attention of fans on his musical work, thereby relieving them of any other distracting factors.

Musician childhood

Gilels, unlike many of his colleagues on the stage, 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, and followed with great interest the Soviet cinema that was emerging at that time.

Once again, drawing parallels with the Soviet era, which brought up the pianist, it should be mentioned: the year of birth of Emil Gilels is 1916. That is, he was born shortly before the Great October Revolution. The pianist’s younger sister, Elizabeth, also became a musician. As a tool, she chose a violin for herself.

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

The first creative successes

As a child, Mila, as everyone called the future musician at that time, was so passionate about art and everything connected with it that he sometimes organized theater performances, in which the guys from neighboring yards participated as actors. The director of these performances was invariably himself. The first teacher of music for young talent was the music teacher Tkach already mentioned in this article, the then-famous music teacher in Odessa. The merit of this teacher was that the boy’s natural inclinations very quickly developed so much that by his teens, Emil was able to give small concerts, performing classical works of large forms. After graduating from music school at the age of fifteen, Emil Gilels enters the Odessa Conservatory. At the same time, another future virtuoso is passing entrance exams there - the world-famous pianist Svyatoslav Theofilovich Richter. Unlike Gilels, who easily passed the test, Richter failed the exams. Throughout his studies at the conservatory, Emil continued his active concert activities.

World fame

After receiving a diploma, a young performer who has already gained some fame in his city and its environs leaves for Moscow, where he enters the Moscow Conservatory in the performance class. For 5 years, his famous teacher and instructor was Heinrich Gustavovich Neuhaus.

Svyatoslav Richter, whom he called his beloved student, was engaged in his class, despite his fastidiousness and some kind of musical obstinacy, as he put it.

Already studying at the Odessa Conservatory, Emil Gilels became the winner of the All-Ukrainian contest of performers. Studying in Moscow, the pianist became the 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 first pianist of the country to perform in the United States of America.

Sound recording in a creative biography of Gilels

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

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

A family

As for the personal life of Emil Gilels, the pianist first married, while still a student at the Moscow Conservatory, one of his fellow students. The first wife of Emil Grigoryevich suddenly died at a young age. The pianist, not reaching the age of 30, remained a widower. The second time the musician got 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 related to the performance of her husband. 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 Grigoryevich Gilels was as universal as his style and technique. He participated in the performance of solo musical programs, and played piano parts in concerts for piano and orchestra of various composers.

Also, the pianist did not ignore the piano duos 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 at the end of the eighties, not having lived only a few years before the collapse of the Soviet Union - the country that brought him up, and which he glorified with his activities. He was a favorite pianist of the three rulers of this power: Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin and Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev. The artist’s legacy includes hundreds of recorded works, from Baroque music to the work of twentieth-century composers. He perfectly performed both Shostakovich, whose contemporary was both Bach and Frederic Chopin.

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

Significant date

Last year, the centenary of the pianist’s birthday was widely celebrated. For this event, the company "Melody" released a collection of fifty artist CDs, including early, little-known recordings. On the eve of the anniversary, Gilels’s grandson, Cyril, a famous musician, gave several interviews to various means of musical information. 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 Grigoryevich, which the journalists asked his grandson, was such: “Was Gilels a man with a cheerful character?”. Cyril replied that his grandfather, like any Odessa, terribly loved jokes, but not vulgar. He liked more subtle jokes. For example, jokes on a professional topic relating to art, culture.