Pianist Emil Gilels (1916–1985) led the way to the West for the great post-war generation of classical performers from the Soviet Union. Before his amazing peers — pianist Sviatoslav Richter, violinist David Oistrakh and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich prime among them — Gilels was allowed to travel widely in the West, as a standard bearer for Russian culture.
He made a sensational American concert debut in 1955 with Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, going on to record the work with the Chicago Symphony under Fritz Reiner.
Five years later, he was the soloist for the first performance of a Soviet orchestra in the U.S., performing the Tchaikovsky concerto with the Moscow State Symphony at Carnegie Hall. He was recognized in the West for his performance at the keyboard — with “a Romantic bravura and imposing sonority that could penetrate any orchestra”
Just listen carefully to this music that was composed for us back in the 1700’s:
