Any Emil Gilels recital is an eagerly awaited event for collectors. His live recital of Back, Prokofiev, Scarlatti, Schumann and Tchaikovsky on BBC Legends (BBCL40152) has been a best-seller since its release in 1999. Gilels first performed Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No.3, Op.10 as late as 1979 during a US tour which included the ‘Eroica Variations’, Op.35. Both were recorded in the studio but these live performances have a special atmosphere, Gilels having the uncanny ability to hold the audience’s attention throughout. Gilels often mixed early and late Scriabin, ending with the Preludes, Op.74, the last work of Scriabin’s to be published in 1914. Gilels conveys the extraordinarily unsettling power these works can still have when played by a master. Although he played three pieces by Ravel at this Cheltenham recital, the ‘Pavane pour une infante défunte’ had to be removed due to time constraints. All the French titles are played stunningly, ending as an encore with the delightful ‘Pastorelle’ by Poulenc. Hi-Fi News Christopher Breunig May 2009 Album of the Month “This 1980 Cheltenham recital (in fine BBC stereo sound) contains some passages f wonderful pianism. Was there another pianist so capable of nuances in Beethoven allegros without losing a leonine dynamism” MusicWeb International Colin Clarke “Gilels's clean articulation is a marvel in the rapid-fire Presto of Beethoven's Sonata...The 'Eroica' Variations comes wrapped in granite. Fingerwork here is stunning, and despite the hard-as-rock general demeanour, there are some moments of real fantasy. As the complexity of the Variations increases, so do Gilels's responses to the demands, resulting in some spectacular playing...he structure the Variations and Fugue brilliantly…”