This disc duplicates Testament SBT 1029, save for the addition of an extra Shostakovich Prelude and Fugue (No. 24) for filler’s sake. Collectors who missed the Gilels/Cluytens Rachmaninov Third and Saint-Saëns Second concertos on Testament will want to know that EMI’s transfers boast less tape hiss and marginally more definition and amplitude. More importantly, these recordings capture pianist Emil Gilels in his prime, on peak form. He commands every strand of Rachmaninov’s thick keyboard writing with effortless mastery, yet with a fullness of tone that never splinters nor loses body in the softest passages. If Gilels misses some of Horowitz’s diabolic edge and harmonic tension, he avoids the older pianist’s occasional rhythmic convolutions. As once was common, the finale’s meno mosso variation is cut, and Gilels opts for the easier, musically superior cadenza.
In the Saint-Saëns, note the nonchalant evenness and resplendence of Gilels’ rapid scales (what a brisk, scintillating honey of a Scherzo!) and an amazingly secure left hand. The few mishaps, smudges, and false entries matter little. However, colorful instrument deployment, imaginative concertante-like details, and crucial thematic material characterize both concertos’ orchestra parts: André Cluytens could be an alert and forceful accompanist when so inclined (his Ravel collaborations with Samson François, for instance). Yet for much of the time the orchestra hangs like an anonymous, amorphous backdrop. This won’t matter if your interest in these virtuoso showpieces mainly concerns the solo part and you couldn’t care less about the orchestra.
The Shostakovich D major prelude’s heavily dispatched arpeggiated chords are too outsized for the music’s slender dimensions, but Gilels brilliantly delineates the fugue’s difficult-to-voice repeated notes in close registers. As the D minor Prelude and Fugue’s peaks and valleys momentously unfold under Gilels’ watch, the old “iron hand in a mink glove” cliché seems more appropriate than ever.
