Notes and Editorial Reviews
Here, surely, is a classic recording, one of calibre and status for all time. Rarely can a great artist have declared his love with such touching candour. By his own admission Gilels discovered in Grieg’s Lyric Pieces a “whole world of intimate feeling” and at the 1974 sessions fought tirelessly to capture their intricate mix of innocence and experience. The results are of an unblemished purity, grace and contained eloquence. Listen to the silvery transparency he achieves at 0'42'' in Solitary traveller (and again 11 bars later), to bittersweet reverie resolved in total lucidity, or to Melody, where he turns the composer’s gentle allegretto into an acute sense of elegy, autumnal withdrawal and introspection. With what apparent ease he
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locates the Scherzo’s central piu tranquillo, making it break like some magical dawn across the music’s hallucinatory flight. His realignment of voices at the end of Ballad captures precisely the way sadness turns to grief, to an eternal sense of loss, and – in supreme contrast – his Puck, taken at an electrifying pace, glints with malevolence as well as more acceptable pranks. At your feet, music which at times might be mistaken for one of Liszt’s late, dark-hued utterances, quivers with barely suppressed ardour and in the final Remembrances, where Grieg transforms his opening Arietta into the most subtle valediction, Gilels registers every nuance and modulation with an astonishing yet unobtrusive sensitivity.
Never can Debussy’s sniping estimate of Grieg, “a pink bonbon filled with snow” (or DG’s dreary accompanying notes), have seemed wider of the mark. The recordings remain as impeccable as the playing. This is a disc for everyone’s desert island.
-- Bryce Morrison, Gramophone [2/1997]
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Works on This Recording
1.
Lyric Pieces (8), Book 1, Op. 12: no 1, Arietta by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1866; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
2.
Lyric Pieces (8), Book 2, Op. 38: no 1, Berceuse by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1883; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
3.
Lyric Pieces (6), Book 3, Op. 43: no 1, Butterfly by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1886; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
4.
Lyric Pieces (6), Book 3, Op. 43: no 2, Lonely Wanderer by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1886; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
5.
Lyric Pieces (7), Book 4, Op. 47: no 2, Albumblatt by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1885-1888; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
6.
Lyric Pieces (7), Book 4, Op. 47: no 3, Melody by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1885-1888; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
7.
Lyric Pieces (7), Book 4, Op. 47: no 4, Halling by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1885-1888; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
8.
Lyric Pieces (6), Book 5, Op. 54: no 4, Notturno by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1891; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
9.
Lyric Pieces (6), Book 5, Op. 54: no 5, Scherzo by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1891; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
10.
Lyric Pieces (6), Book 6, Op. 57: no 6, Homesickness by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1893; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
11.
Lyric Pieces (6), Book 7, Op. 62: no 4, Brooklet by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1895; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
12.
Lyric Pieces (6), Book 7, Op. 62: no 6, Homeward by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1895; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
13.
Lyric Pieces (6), Book 8, Op. 65: no 5, In Ballad Style by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1897; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
14.
Lyric Pieces (6), Book 9, Op. 68: no 2, Grandmother's Minuet by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1898; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
15.
Lyric Pieces (6), Book 9, Op. 68: no 3, At Your Feet by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1898; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
16.
Lyric Pieces (6), Book 9, Op. 68: no 5, Cradle song by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1898; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
17.
Lyric Pieces (7), Book 10, Op. 71: no 1, Once upon a Time by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1901; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
18.
Lyric Pieces (7), Book 10, Op. 71: no 3, Puck by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1901; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
19.
Lyric Pieces (7), Book 10, Op. 71: no 6, Gone by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1901; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
20.
Lyric Pieces (7), Book 10, Op. 71: no 7, Remembrances by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Emil Gilels (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1901; Norway
Date of Recording: 06/1974
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review: 
( 2 Customer Reviews )
Pianistic Perfection March 19, 2013
By Walter Jacobsen (New York, NY) See All My Reviews
"I've loved the Grieg lyric pieces all my life, first as a piano student, now in my later years, simply as a lover of classical music, especially music for the piano. My first copy of this CD was damaged; I immediately bought a replacement, and what a delight to hear it again! Gilels shows his gentler side in these pieces; the music always comes first. This recording is like a visit from an old friend; its gentle perfection will stay with you long after the last piece has faded away. Bravo, Mr. Gilels!"
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Gilels and Grieg. Marvelous December 4, 2012
By Michel H. (Montreal, QC) See All My Reviews
"Super recording. I listen and listen again..."
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