Emil Gilels, Fritz Reiner & Kirill Kondrashin - Emil Gilels plays Tschaikowsky and Rachmaninov Piano Concertos (2021)

Why a recording label would go through the trouble of restoring a historical recording, particularly one of concertos, and then provide no information on the soloist, conductors, or orchestra is truly baffling. Such is the case with this album on the Archipel Records label, on which the pianist's name (Emil Gilels) is not even mentioned on the cover of the disc. Joined by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Fritz Reiner for Tchaikovsky's First Concerto and the USSR State Symphony Orchestra under Kiril Kondrashin for Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto, Gilels provides exceptionally energetic and impassioned performances of both of these titanic Russian concertos. While technique is not flawless, it is very close to it, and he more than amply makes up for the rare slips in rapid-scale passages with a musical command of the works. The two orchestras and their respective recorded sounds could not be more different. Chicago and Reiner, even in this monaural recording, sound as rich and full as ever. The restoration process robbed the orchestra of a bit of its lower end, but everything else is quite clear. The same cannot be said of the USSR State Symphony, however. The orchestra itself is not as commanding as Chicago and the recorded sound of symphony and soloist alike is inferior. Recordings of these two works from this era with more uniform sound quality are certainly available, most notably the same Chicago/Reiner combination with Van Cliburn at the piano on the RCA Living Stereo label. ~ Mike D. Brownell