Beethoven: The Five Piano Concertos

“Emil Gilels stands out as a giant among giants,” wrote Gramophone when the Odessa-born pianist died in 1985. “In terms of virtuosity he was second to none, yet his leonine power was tempered by a delicacy and poetry that few have matched and none has surpassed.” Beethoven was at the heart of Gilels’s repertoire and in 1968 he recorded this complete cycle of the composer’s piano concertos with the Cleveland Orchestra and its long-standing maestro, another musical titan of the era, George Szell.