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Emil Grigoryevich Gilels (Russian: Эми́ль Григо́рьевич Ги́лельс, Emi'li Grego'rievič Gi'lelis; October 19, 1916 – October 14, 1985) was a Soviet pianist, widely considered to be one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century. His last name is sometimes transliterated Hilels.^[1][2]

Gilels was born in Odessa to a musical family; both his parents were musicians. He began studying the piano at six under Yakov Tkach, a stern disciplinarian who emphasized scales and studies. Gilels later credited this strict training for establishing the foundation of his technique.^[3] Gilels made his public debut at the age of 12 in June 1929 with a well-received program of Beethoven, Scarlatti, Chopin, and Schumann.^[3] In 1930, Gilels entered the Odessa Conservatory where he was coached by Berta Reingbald, whom Gilels credited as a formative influence.

In 1933, Gilels won the newly-founded All Soviet Union Piano Competition at age 16. After graduating from the Odessa Conservatory (Ukraine) in 1935 , he moved to Moscow, where he studied under the famous piano teacher Heinrich Neuhaus until 1937. A year later, at age 21, he won the Ysaÿe International Festival in Brussels, beating such competitors as Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and Moura Lympany.^[4]

Gilels was the first Soviet artist to be allowed to travel extensively in the West. After the war, he toured Europe as a concert pianist starting in 1947, and made his American debut in 1955 playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in Philadelphia. In 1952, he became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. In his later years he remained in the USSR and rarely ventured abroad.

He was the winner of the prestigious Stalin Prize in 1946, the Order of Lenin in 1961 and 1966, and the Lenin Prize in 1962.

Gilels premiered Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 8, dedicated to Mira Mendelssohn, on December 30, 1944, in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.

He was in the midst of completing a survey of Beethoven's piano sonatas for the German record company Deutsche Grammophon when he died after a medical check-up in 1985 in Moscow (his recording of the "Hammerklavier" sonata received a Gramophone Award in 1984). Sviatoslav Richter, who knew Gilels well and was a fellow-student of Neuhaus at the Moscow Conservatory, reported that he was killed accidentally when an incompetent doctor at the Kremlin hospital gave him the wrong injection during a routine checkup. ^[5]

Gilels is universally admired for his superb technical control and burnished tone.^[6] His interpretations of the central German-Austrian classics formed the core of his repertoire, in particular Beethoven, Brahms, and Schumann; but he was equally illuminative with Scarlatti, Bach, as well as with twentieth-century music like Debussy, Bartók, and Prokofiev. His Liszt was also first-class, and his recordings of the Hungarian Rhapsody nº 6 and the Sonata in B minor have acquired classic status in some circles.^[7]

• 1935 - Liszt: Fantasia on Themes from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro.
• 1951 - Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 9.
• 1954 - Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22 (cond. Cluytens)*.
• 1954 - Medtner: Piano Sonata No. 5 in G Minor, Op. 22.
• 1955 - Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 (cond. Cluytens).
• 1958 - Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 83 (cond. Reiner).
• 1957 - Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 (cond. Ludwig).
• 1957 - Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 4 in F sharp major, Op. 30*.
• 1957 - Weinberg: Piano Sonata No. 4 in B Minor.
• 1959 - Schubert: Forellenquintett ("Trout Quintet") Quintet for Piano, Violin, Violoncello, and Contrabass in A major D667 Amadeus Quartet
• 1961 - Prelude in B minor (J. S. Bach, arranged Siloti)* (Moscow)
• 1968 - Medtner: Piano Sonata No. 10 in A minor, Op. 38 No. 1. ("Sonata Reminiscenza")
• 1972 - Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G major, Op. 44 (cond. Maazel).
• 1972 - Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 and Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 83 (cond. Jochum).
• 1973 - Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 Appassionata.
• 1973 - Debussy: Images, Book 1*.
• 1973 - Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major, K595 (cond. Boehm).
• 1974 - Grieg: Lyric Pieces.
• 1974 - Prokofiev: Sonata No. 8 in B flat major, Op. 84.
• 1977 - Rachmaninoff, Prelude in C-sharp minor Op. 3 No. 2* (Moscow)
• 1978 - Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58.
• 1982 - Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat major, Op. 106 Hammerklavier (Berlin)
• 1984 - Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat major, Op. 106 Hammerklavier* (Moscow)
• 1984 - Scriabin: Third Sonata* (Moscow)

* live.

1. ^ Johnson, Hewlett (1941). The Soviet Power; the Socialist Sixth of the World. New York: International Publishers, 214. OCLC 407142. 
2. ^ (1941) U.S.S.R. Speaks for Itself Volume Three: Democracy in Practice. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 46. OCLC 13487651. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Mach, Elyse (1991). Great Contemporary Pianists Speak for Themselves. New York: Dover Publications, 120. ISBN 0486266958. 
4. ^ Queen Elisabeth Music Competition prize winners since 1937. Retrieved on 2007-11-10. Michelangeli and Johnstone took 7th and 2nd place respectively.
5. ^ Richter, Sviatoslav; Bruno Monsaingeon, Stewart Spencer (trans.) (2001). Sviatoslav Richter: Notebooks and Conversations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 32. ISBN 0691074380. 
6. ^ "Emil Gilels", In Memory of Emil Gilels, 2007. Accessed June 3, 2007.
7. ^ International Piano Quarterly, Winter 2001, Orpheus Publications Limited

• Emil-Gilels.com - International web project in memmoriam Emil Gilels
• Extensive discography