Pianist “Gilels, Emil” was a great, full-blooded Russian pianist whose performance embodied a heightened sense of dynamics and expression. One could sometimes feel a nervous tension or anxiety in his playing, almost evident too in the twitch of his facial expressions.

Perhaps the frustration of being brought up, bah, imprisoned in the Soviet communist system left its toll into Gilel’s psyche. Perhaps the sheer madness of being stranded in a conformist unforgiving establishment is what enabled him to experience a catharsis of sorts on the concert platform.