Emil Gilels plays Mendelssohn (vaimusic.com)

[rockgrove3]

Thank you SO much - I enjoyed this immensely - how lovely to hear this performed with such feeling and interpretation.

[pelsie100]

Ik heb Gilils ooit life horen spelen. Onvergetelijk!!! Ook al is dit 40 jaar geleden. Zijn pianospel is zo indringend! Ik kan zijn uitvoeringen een oneindig aantal keer beluisteren.

[TheGreatPerahia]

Compared to Barenboim's version this is much better however. barenboim must be sprinting in his version nor walking when he takes 2 mins.19 secs to play it

[TheGreatPerahia]

andante con moto. moderately slow, walking with motion is the tempo. I am a great admirer of Gilels in many respects but this is just a little on the slow side and doesn't portray moderately slow walking but extremely slow. Although it has many qualities because it is Gilels playing.

[301250]

Gilels lives on in his music......beautiful...the touch of a master pianist.

[fingerriddles]

DG recently issued a CD of early recordings of Gilels...interestingly the 1947 recording of this piece is considerably faster with a recording time of 3'09.

[bobb60]

Simple , exquisite, direct, much like the man himself. I had the honor

of hearing Gilels in Westchester, New York 50 years ago. I never forgot how beautifully he played that night.

[purplepeoplepurple]

I'd consider buying the video, but it doesn't show his hands! A few shots of his face and his behind perched precariously on the bench are OK, but the most interesting part would be to see his actual playing. Boo on the director.

[armarmadillo]

What to say? Just - a beauty of music. Old russian school... the best school !

[schmitty135]

Not up to par. Phrasing needs some work. You should hear my neighbor's kid play this ballade.

[crologist]

@schmitty135

Real bad, Emil,  you fail - go to schmitty135 for some lessons about phrasing!

[qujingyuan]

@schmitty135 Yeah, and Zidane was a bad playmaker. Maybe your neighbor's kid can teach him, too.

[jerdawg553]

This is the most incredible performance of the piece I have ever heard, I play this piece truly aspiring to meet Gilels standards...and fail. He is incredible.

[RarDragon]

i dunno, i've played/heard it fast and slow. It just depends really upon the feeling each has to put into it. I've heard great fast and great slow. I like it a bit slower so when you're cranking out those massive octave sections it's really intense

[MrCapacitors]

This is soooooo good

[marcxopoco]

DUET in A flat--the greatest of Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words.

[Brighteyes1ful]

Wonderfully executed and played well may be my new favourite 10**********

[dannelo77]

göttliche Komposition - göttlich gespielt!!!

[keetner]

Is it just me, or is the piano a wee out of tune? Or maybe the recording doesn't capture it well...for example, you can hear it in the right hand melody at 0:11.

Certainly no disrespect to Gilel's though, as it is a wonderful performance :)

[Sylvain894]

Such a giant ! That guy did play outside for the Army in Europe in the end of the war(1945); The footage seems not so far for an eighties one; sorry we cannot hear the piano louder !

[Sylvain894]

Such a giant ! That guy did play outside for the Army in Europe in the end of the war(1945); The footage seems not so far for an eighties one; sorry we cannot hear the piano more clearful !

[saulboyjt]

Too slow, in my opinion.

Though a great  pianist.

[pianofortegermany]

He is playing very slowly and it is full of beautiful sense of lyrical sound. If his performance of this work, the right to queston the melody, there are great and convincing answer to the left. Pedaling was also very nice. I became very good study. I'll try too be like his beautiful playing, too.

[homerboy488]

Hey Axotrotl...you need more meds retard. Knock off the bible-thumping crap already. It's MUSIC you mental midget. Good God.

[Axotrotl]

@homerboy488 you shut the fuck up! I believe in God,cuz he is all,he has created everything,and by his will he created human!! =>and music too!!

[mamahenrobin]

Profoundly BEAUTIFUL!!

Thank You for posting~

Peace be with you~

[homerboy488]

You people are all escapees from a mental ward.

[grasscob]

Music isn't praying to God. That belittles the greatness that it is. rather, it is "praying" to the universe. An infinitely majestic human creation, more beautiful because of how it came to be, without design by some mystical giant in the sky. The emotion is human alone, and thus, exquisite.

[geertdehoux]

@grasscob

Music is not praying.

Geert Dehoux, pianist.

[Axotrotl]

@grasscob nope,i disagree...music is praying for God-it is His speech,all classical comosers wrote their beautiful pieces cuz they were geniuses,but who gave them their gift? God,and they in that case wrote music as some thanksgiving...i also am thakful to God,cuz he granted me too a musical gift-i can compose new thinks,i just am too lazy and young for now,but one day im gonna compose something smashing,that will have all styles of music...

[cjamesackley]

@Axotrotl obviously not the gift of spelling. spel fale

[musicpiano14]

You know what? It is example, very excellent example of what GREAT MUSICIAN should sounds like. This is not just good playing, no it is not just, IT is LIFE, Life itself look at you with sad eyes and talk to you. Only a few have this ability. Gilels among them. Rest in peace maestro

[homerboy488]

What retards.

[Magisterludy]

Much better than the others on You Tube. I tried to find what the correct tempo that I also use and I found it here.

[stefthe80]

women composers? just an exception

[stefthe80]

at least in classical music

[leonengard]

I'm sure God was listening to this...

[ekvanhiel]

This piece of music gives me the feel of a prayer flowing down a smooth river. I love it.

[3NUNS]

@Tibbershet theological nonsense

[mrsmetz1]

Mr. Gilels always played with his heart, that's why I love him so much.

This piece is really beautiful. Thank you Mr. Gilels for sharing all this richness with us, I will always remember you.

[SebastienLoong]

By far, a true Romantic, who is able to delve into the deepest depths of human emotion.

[seremerow]

Gilels是我最喜愛的鋼琴家之一。

他和Richter都師於紐豪斯門下。兩個人都是絕世奇才！他們­的演奏都具有十足的內涵。相較於現代年輕一輩的鋼琴家們的比快比­音量，真是該適時學習、瞻仰一下真正鋼琴大師的音樂丰采。

[rolex0071]

Master of Masters on the piano, unfortunate no longer with us - Dear Sir R.I.P.

[musicpiano14]

сразу видно играет большой музыкант! Какая фразировка! он словно разговаривает, а не играет. Deep Respect!

[00Rotem00]

I'm used to hear Gilels playing the really dramatic pieces- Rachmaninoff, Beethoven, & do so with such raw passion & the envelops you.

It's the first time I hear him play Mendelssohn & I'm stunned that he also has such softness & tenderness in his playing :)

A true virtuose!

[shiadani]

the opposite of barenboim

[AlwayzCurious101]

How can anybody criticize Gillels's performance? Gilels is Gilels!

[Bret6464]

@AlwayzCurious101 You are right :-)

This is immensely beautiful, nobody but Gilels could transform it into pure poetry :-))

[libetta]

not impressed either, i got "touched"

[istreba]

j'adore le tempo qu'il prend même si ce ne pas écrit il l'assume trés bien car il chante merveilleusement bien .Merci pour c'est magnifique video

[dannelo77]

Atemberaubend schön!!!

[michmcc]

Yay! I just found out that I can give "joannachhuang" the "thumbs down" and "pianocommy" the thumbs up two days in a row. :)

[pianocommy]

Your vulgar language reflects your vulgar tastes!

[wanjabelaga]

sorry,

nothing against this pianist,

i know he is very famous right now,

but i can understand it.

lets talk about Murray Perahia in 20-30 years

;-))

richter ( edwin fischers bach is important for his time, i know, but for me not so important as feinberg or landowska at same time, rubinstein, gould or gilels are giants.

i like sokolow, young people like kissin also, but would not think they are same planet....

maybe 20th century was golden age for classical pianism and now....we have 21th...

[punkpoetry]

I see no impediment to talking about Murray Perahia at this day and age: his three odd decades in the front ranks of contemporary pianists render him immune to the kind of patronage that you exercise in the name of past greats as if he were some modish young thing

somehow it hardly comes as a mighty surprise that your solipsistic spouts should be couched in dreadful syntax...

[lost686girl]

although you must think you sound intelligent, your writing is too pretentious to make a substantial argument. it sounds like you ran your paragraphs through a thesaurus...

[punkpoetry]

why I'm so lit-critty I ain't need no fuckin' thesaurus baby...

I can take these allegations coming from an American retard. whatever prejudices they instill in your poor little minds in "debating" classes notwithstanding, not everyone is content with the dry, tasteless, paper-thin shit that passes for the English language in the States. go back to your Christian emo idols, gurlygurlll111

[encipher]

Reel in that tirade buddy, don't paint everyone with the same brush because of their nationality; that's racist.

[wanjabelaga]

Murray Perahia???

sorry to tell you,

i heard him playing bach and did not like it.

hope he play mendelsohn better

but gilels is allways one of the greatest pianists of 20 century

[punkpoetry]

Murray Perahia is a one of the greatest pianists of our time and, specifically, a Bach interpreter on par with Richter and Edwin Fischer. you can express your sorrow about this as much as you like

having said that, while his interpretation of this piece is fine, it doesn't come close to Gilels' unfathomably profound and unbearably beautiful meditation upon love, life and death...

[unangevole]

'Gilels' unfathomably profound and unbearably beautiful meditation upon love, life and death...' - totally agree with this. Someone spoke about the tempo here... how can one discuss tempo when what Gilels gives here is beyond music or organisation of time? Once that's apparent let's leave shop aside..

[SebastienLoong]

Hey, who quoted Gilels? Who owns that quote? - It's beautifull.

[unangevole]

it was punkpoetry from 5 months ago.

[musicalidea]

@unangevole This comment is overdone. The performance, while beautiful, is fathomable, bearable, and within the organization of time. It's just this kind of unqualified praise that demeans the appreciation of any kind of art.

[unangevole]

@musicalidea A sensible approach. But ouch it hurts! :)

Nice though that the music makes people feel so involved, to elicit these comments.

my best regards (honest).

[philaufan6]

These pieces are songs without words and you hear the piece singing....who needs words with it played so wonderfully as this?!

[istreba]

magnifiquement grand

[prancingponies]

His playing is a bit too slow. Makes it sound draggy. Murray Perahia's version makes the piece move along much more smoothly without getting bored. The original tempo is much much faster than this.

[libetta]

he could use a little more speed, but as is the tempo marking is Andante con moto, and in Perahia's case he forgot totally the motion which is the essence of this piece. His tempi is a little too fast and this in turn took away the direction of his melody which sounded blunt as if he was being chased instead of a freely flowing cantabile which is the forefront of these pieces.

[justwarren]

Gilels was a master. Mendelssohn was also a master. This is a fabulous video. A tribute to two great musicians and a great treat for us.

[saulboyjt]

WOW!!!

Mendelssohn was the greatest composer ever!

Wonderful playing by Gilels

[slothvader]

gilels was one of the best.

[fatalerror1937]

what a difference to Perahia! Amazing performance

[pianocommy]

This is GREAT piano playing. It touches me deeply. As I write there are tears in my eyes.This is what music is really about!

[ratws]

Singt dieses Lied, ihr alle, singt dieses Lied! Es ist so einfach, ist so schön, so schön. Danke, dass Emil Gilels gelebt hat, der die Gnade geschenkt bekam, es so interpretieren zu dürfen.

[nairigrigorian]

es uno de los más grandes Maestros.

gracias de todo corazón...

[chad410]

bellissimo

[Engrmat32]

Great video! I have mixed feelings about the tempo. I have an old LP recording of Gieseking playing it at this tempo and that's what I listened to for years. Now that I play this, I have tried both tempos and I usually drift toward the faster. The slow tempo sounds sad at times while the faster tempo seems more romantic since this seems to be a duet between female and male voices. Superb expression!

[invention13]

Simply gorgeous.

[cityboy63]

My word!! What a magnificent piece of playing. The sound and the control of line. Gilels was simply superb even at the end of his career.

[invention13]

What a wonderful performance!

[istreba]

tout simplement merveilleux et incroyable

[homerboy488]

Wow.

[huhas1]

Great playing. All life experience, wisdom

and humaneness in this performance.

Thank you.