The history of the Russian chamber ensemble of the middle of the 20th century, in all possibility, did not know a more intricate yet remarkable brilliant group of musicians than the celebrated trio of Emil Gilels. Leonid Kogan and Mstislav Rostropovich. All to different in their essence were these three artistic individualities – these three virtuosos, spoilt children of fortune, who were brought together at various stages of disclosure of their outstanding talents. At that, there was not a great difference between their respective ages – Gilels was born in 1916, Kogan was born in 1924 and Rostropovich was born in 1927. Nonetheless, whereas Gilels was already able to reconsider and revise in many ways his principles of work, departing further and further from a pure demonstration of capabilities of his breathtaking technique, Rostropovich and Kogan were still passing through their lengthy period of thrill over their virtuosic powers, affecting their audiences in a straightforward manner. At that, the process of rehearsing turned out to be quite complicated – the spontaneity of a large number of performance solutions of Rostrоpovich could hardly satisfy Gilels, who tended to work on musical compositions meticulously and laboriously, which resulted in unusually brilliant effects from performances. Gilels here seemingly reminisced upon the years of his virtuosic youth, and the main “motor” element of the ensemble – the piano – was used in the fullest measure of its expressive powers, without troubling itself with excessive intellectual efforts.
It is proper to mention that this trio was, in all likelihood, the first chamber ensemble in the USSR of the contemporary sort, which was figuring out its musical interpretations on large halls rather than on small chamber halls, as was the case for many centuries prior to that time. The other celebrated ensemble of those days – the piano trio of Oistrakh, Oborin and Knushevitsky – still belonged to a previous era, being a chamber ensemble in the fullest sense of the term. In addition, the ensemble’s participants were able to submit their own individualities to the common artistic cause to a greater degree. In the case of Gilels, Kogan and Rostropovich, their proportions of performance – from the most minor details to the overall dynamic plan of performance – were determined on a large scale, consciously setting themselves up for a resonance of vast spaces, which is also perceptible in the small number of studio recordings. All three participants of the trio lost no opportunities of demonstrating themselves to the utmost capacity! This made a special impression during the star trio’s tours in the West, where at that time this kind of trend in chamber performance was also a novelty (let us remind ourselves that this happened in the 1950s).
Sometimes the trio was joined by violist Rudolf Barshai, as a result of whom it turned into a piano quartet. In this format the ensemble also recorded an additional number of compositions. The phonograph legacy of the ensemble also has a recording of a Piano Trio by Alexander B. Goldenweiser, where the piano part is performed by the aged master.
Despite the tremendous amount of success, the artistic collaboration of the three outstanding musicians constantly ran against what is usually called “hardships of maturation”. In order to remain at an achieved high artistic level, it was necessary to constantly develop one’s own capacities, and that was particularly the sole element that was not ingrained in this combination of such essentially diverse brilliant musicians. This is what St. Petersburg-based musicologist Sofia Khentova writes in her book about Rostropovich: “The ensemble was in existence for only a short span of time. The characters of the trio’s participants came to disagreements with each other: the harshness and circumspection of Gilels, who swayed towards slow and meticulous polishing of performance, did not correspond to the swiftness of coverage and energetic pressure of Rostropovich. His multifaceted restlessness was not in accord with Gilels’ character”. Nonetheless, despite the fact that the trio broke up, recordings have remained, presenting one of the most brilliant and unpredictable chamber ensembles of the Golden Age of Russian performance. After restoring them to an adequated auditory level, we offer them to your intent attention.
