Jorge Bolet & Emil Gilels

On 6 March 1983, Gilels performed in London's Royal Festival Hall:

Brahms    Variations on a Theme by Paganini Opus 35 (Book 1); Fantasias Opus 116Schumann    4 Klavierstücke Opus 32; Symphonic Studies Opus 13

Jorge was in London to record Liszt's Années de pèlerinage: Suisse S160 during 8-11 March 1983 in Kingsway Hall, which would constitute volume 5 of his Liszt series for Decca.

Peter Wadland, JB's producer for DECCA, remembers Bolet & Russian pianist Emil Gilels (1916-1985). ‘One of the most memorable occasions was when I took him to a Gilels concert around 1984 ( 6 March 1983 actually), at the Royal Festival Hall. At the end, he asked me if I knew Gilels. I did not, but felt sure that there would be some backstage who could introduce him. My main worry was that I thought Gilels would have no idea who he was. My fears were unfounded, for on introduction, Gilels kept embracing Jorge, exclaiming "Jorge Bolet—great. pianist", to which Jorge replied "So are you". It was a peculiar sight, with big Jorge (he was over six foot tall) being embraced by the diminutive Gilels. 

In October 1970, Emil Gilels had told Jacob Siskind of the The Gazette (Montreal): ‘I enjoy recordings – I don’t have too many, I’m not a collector in any sense, but they give me a great deal of pleasure.  

I remember that about 10 years ago I was shopping in Brussels and while looking through the bins I found a copy of the Prokofiev’s  Second Piano Concerto performed by Jorge Bolet.   I picked it up and I have listened to it very often.’

In 1988, Jorge spoke with Elyse Mach: 'I don't want to leave the impression that because I preferred pianists of old, I don't think any pianists today are good. There are some very great ones, not better than the old masters, but very great. Generally, however, I believe most of today's pianists are not in the same class as the masters of old. One of today's pianists whom I admired very much was Emil Gilels. I heard him live for the first time a few years ago in London. It was just magnificent, the greatest piano playing I'd heard in thirty years. He played two major works, as I remember: Brahms's Opus 116, which I happen to have played a great deal, and the other was the Symphonic Études of Schumann. There may have been something else, but I forget what it was.

'The greatest compliment I can pay him is that although he played the Brahms and Schumann in a way quite contrary to my own, he played them with such conviction, such personal idea, that I had to admire him for it. And that is what has disappeared from piano playing today.'

The video shows Gilels performing the same programme a couple of months earlier (9 January, 1983) in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Moscow.