Previously-unreleased recording of Emil Gilels, the 100th anniversary of whose birth falls October 2016, captured live in an acclaimed 1964 Seattle recital. Handsome 1CD Digipack.

On 6 December 1964 the great Emil Gilels gave a tempestuously acclaimed recital at the Seattle Opera. The concert was recorded live for private purposes but with professional equipment. With the exception of a single work, this recital has never before been made available to the general public and is now being released for the first time!

Between 1955 and 1983 Emil Gilels toured North America twelve times. Unlike his Soviet colleague and rival Sviatoslav Richter, Gilels loved the US. “I first came here 22 years ago,” he said in 1977. “I lost here in the United States very much of my heart. You know, I left here a good portion of my life.” This certainly held true for his fifth tour, an arduous three months of recitals, concerto dates and recording sessions that began and ended on the East Coast. In between came four West Coast appearances – in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland, as well as the present recital recorded in the Seattle Opera House on December 6, 1964 and released here for the first time.

As the concert unfolds, the give-and-take between the pianist’s inspiration and the public’s appreciation is palpable, boding well for future Seattle appearances. But it was not to be; Gilels would only return once more to the city, in 1979: yet another reason to treasure this previously unpublished document of one of the 20th century’s greatest pianists in a live concert – his preferred setting – and at the height of his powers.