The great Russian pianist Emil Gilels was universally acclaimed for his
breathtaking performances of the most demanding concertos and most
challenging piano pieces of piano literature. But he was also a master of
the miniature form, and his "Songs Without Words" and other little pieces
by Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Grieg and others were nothing short of
mesmerizing. A specialist of the German repertoire, Gilels gave an all
German-Austrian program at the 1971 Carinthian Summer Festival in Austria,
where the "Spinnerlied" was recorded. |
