Anniversary of the eminent musician and man Emil Gilels

MOSCOW. In the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, a series of celebrations in honor of the 100th anniversary of Emil Gilels ended.

The critic and teacher Grigory Mikhailovich Kogan compared the pianistic speech of Emil Gilels with an avalanche, which is worthless to decorate with bows of fractional nuances. So he countered the comments about the lack of shades in the interpretations of the famous pianist. Gilels himself throughout his life stubbornly did not fit into the framework imposed on him, refuted the current opinion about him. He could respond to those who blame for the lack of nuances with the pounding "Moonlight" by Debussy, the exquisite plays of Rameau (Jean-Philippe Rameau) or the piercing lyrics of the plays of the beloved Grieg. An unsmiling 16-year-old boy won the First All-Union Competition of Performers in 1933, first confusing the audience with his restraint, and then forced her to applaud while standing and wipe away the tears of joy from meeting with this talent.

But trying to label Hillels as the orthodox Communist, it’s enough to recall his decency and devotion to the memory of Berta Mikhailovna Reingbald. It was she who prepared him for the first, victory for him competition, opened the way for him to the heights that his talent deserved. Even after leaving for Moscow, being already in the status of a student of the legendary Neuhaus, he did not lose touch with his beloved teacher. The end of her life was terrible. Having lost after returning from evacuation an apartment occupied by an official from the NKVD, she could not again get a job at the conservatory. Unable to withstand moral bullying, in 1944 committed suicide. For several decades, the name of a talented teacher was forgotten. But Gilels did not touch this unconsciousness, he did not stop talking about her and called her the main musical mentor of his life, the only teacher. Emil Grigoryevich insisted that her name should not be extinct on the poster of the concert dedicated to the 30th anniversary of her tragic departure.

In the anniversary concert, held on December 12 at the Moscow Conservatory, the works of the favorite composers Emil Grigorievich - Grieg, Beethoven, Mozart, included in his huge repertoire, were heard. The concert was attended by the grandson of Gilels - Cyril. Accompanied by the Kaluga Youth Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Alexei Tkachenko, pianists Alexander Gindin, Boris Bloch, Basinia Shulman performed.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru