This is the seventh volume from VAI of live performances of the great Russian pianist. It is sourced from two broadcasts by YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, which in visual terms is a good deal better than its Soviet counterpart, though if you insist on crisp colours and high definition you must look elsewhere: the second (?) generation picture quality boasts a characteristic hue of various shades of predominantly murky browns, greens and greys. No matter – the sound is fine.

As to the performances, it may be significant that whereas there are around 10 different commercially available accounts of Gilels in Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, there is only one of the Grieg (on Tahra, live with the Concertgebouw and Jochum in 1979, which I have not heard). The Beethoven is impressive without being outstanding (unlike, for example, Gilels’s incomparable Beethoven Fourth with Leopold Ludwig) with sharply contrasted episodes, eloquently clear phrasing, unhurried tempi – the second movement lasts nearly 11 minutes – and not a few smudges in the finale. The genial Paavo Berglund offers rock-steady support.

In the Grieg, the two outer movements seem to me altogether too portentous and heavy-handed. Grieg himself, according to Percy Grainger who studied the work with the composer, played tempi that “were faster than those usually heard in performances by…other artists” and that “the note of passion that he sounded was of a restless and feverish rather than of a violent nature”. Gilels makes the work sound like Tchaikovsky and in passages like the concluding poco più allegro of the first movement is decidedly flat-footed. There are, also, rather too many tutti downbeats where conductor and soloist fail to coincide (vide first crotchet, bar 2). In mitigation there is an exquisitely played Adagio. This is repeated as an encore after the enthusiastic reception by the Helsinki audience.

So – Gilels in familiar and unfamiliar territory: never less than stimulating and of vital interest. As is customary from this label, there are no notes on the music or performers on the assumption, I imagine, that those who buy this DVD either won’t need any or won’t care about their absence.