Gilels & Kogan - Live in Leningrad 1964 - A first!

[Lance]

TWO GREAT RUSSIAN MASTERS

Mention Russian pianists and violinists, and you will most likely get Gilels and Richter on the one hand, and Kogan and Oistrakh on the other. Odd that Gilels and Kogan didn't record more together. We must be thankful then for Doremi CD [DHR-7845, ADD, 74:03]. Published in 2004, the disc offers three Beethoven violin sonatas: No. 3 in E-flat, Op. 12/3, No. 5 in F, Op. 24 ("Spring"), and No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47 ("Kreutzer").

Leonid Kogan was close to the Gilels family. He did, after all, marry Emil's sister, Elizaveta Gilels, and a superb violinist she was from LP recordings I have on the Russian Melodiya label. Leonid and Elizaveta produced a son, Pavel (Paul), himself a fine violinist who is making a big name for himself as a conductor. Music runneth in families, so it is said (and proved) as it does here.

No need to discuss Beethoven's music, except that the Spring and Kreutzer are two of the composer's great pieces of chamber music. The performances are what you would expect: outstanding, hampered only by what sounds like artificial "enhancement" of the original recording, mostly an unnatural "hall" type of sound. What it does is to give Kogan's fiddle a sharp edge in the uppermost range, and I have never heard any recording, no matter the date of recording, showing Kogan with a strident tone. It would have been better to remaster the sound in its original form. (It could also be that this was all Doremi had to work with too.) The opening of the Kreutzer also has some distortion and jagged edges. These are big and bold concepts of these works. The Kreutzer has enormous power. Gilels gets a workout at the piano; there are just a few slight finger-slips here and there. Kogan handles his violin like the master he was. There are a few noticeable slight "pitch-changes" here and there as well, but not obtrusive.

These are all live performances, recorded on March 29th, 1964 in Leningrad, Russia as evidenced by the coughers in the audience. Balance between piano and violin is fairly good. It's the ambience of the recording I find unattractive. Still, Gilels and Kogan ... a dream collaboration, and is something you may want to pick up nonetheless. Near as I know, this is the only live collaboration of these two artists on disc.

[rasputin]

And if you add Slava, you'll have one of the best chamber trios of all time.
As a proof, IMO the best ever version of Tchaikovsky piano trio.