DIED. Emil Gilels, 68, burly Soviet pianist of powerhouse virtuosity and delicate nuance who with his 1955 U.S. debut reinaugurated a performers' parade of cultural exchanges between the superpowers that had ended before World War II; of undisclosed causes; in Moscow. A prodigy who gave his first public performance at 13, he was a Communist Party member from 1942 on, and his concerts in the West frequently drew pickets as well as enthusiastic audiences. In an attempt to defuse the protests, Gilels once confessed to Western reporters that, yes, he had played for Nikita Khrushchev--but on an American piano, a Steinway.
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