Albert McGrigor recalls
'Let me sketch him for you. Bolet was tall and physically imposing. Moody, self-effacing, reticent, intense, deeply serious, he lived in a world of thoughts, which he kept mostly to himself. He would rather talk about the latest car models than about music.'
'Sviatoslav Richter considered Bolet’s recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, in G minor (first recorded by Bolet in 1953, the year of the composer’s death), a paragon of execution. Few know that Bolet resurrected this concerto and gave it its second “premiere” in New Orleans in 1949. According to Boosey and Hawkes (publisher of the score), the concerto had not been played in 20 years; Prokofiev himself had last played it.'
(*You can hear Jorge play the Prokofiev with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande & Wolfgang Sawallisch in Victoria Hall, Geneva, Switzerland on 23 January 1974 here.)
Eventually, as an advanced student, Jorge studied Godowsky’s own compositions with the master himself. Jorge’s scores of these pieces bore Godowsky’s markings in red crayon—the daunting “Passacaglia,” based on themes from Schubert’s “Unfinished” symphony; the “Fledermaus” and “Künstlerleben” symphonic metamorphoses; the “Java Suite”; the Sonata in E minor; pieces from the “Triakontameron.” Jorge wrote in the foreword to Jeremy Nicholas’s biography of Godowsky (Godowsky—the Pianists’ Pianist, 1989): “Having studied a great many of Godowsky’s major works personally with the master, they have become an integral part of my musical personality and repertoire.”
Albert McGrigor is a publisher, journalist, writer, editor, scientist, and musician who studied conducting with Igor Markevitch. As a child, he met Jorge Bolet, the beginning of a lifelong friendship and, later, collaboration. He fondly recalls accompanying Bolet on concert tours throughout the United States, with Bolet and his personal manager, Tex Compton, sharing the driving of a Lincoln Continental and with a Baldwin grand piano in tow. These are some notes from the Marston Records volume 1.
Caracas, Venezuela
In late 1974, Jorge was one of the judges - his only time - on the Concurso Latinoamericano de piano Teresa Carreño in Caracas, Venezuela. He made a number of concert appearance in Caracas
Martín Ostermann, Tres Décadas de Pianistas en Caracas (Universidad Simón Bolívar, 2002) in conversation with music critic Benjamín Carlos Jenne Szmoll (b.1957) writes:
'The most important concert venues were the Teatro Municipal (1881) and the Aula Magna (1953) of the Universidad Central de Venezuela. There are many memories from the 1970s, but among the most transcendental I could mention hearing Martha Argerich in 1972 at the Municipal playing Liszt's 1st concerto. I remember that my father scribbled on his programme “Fantástica”.
'In the three decades of the 1940s, 50s and 60s, Venezuela did not lack the presence of artists who are today authentic world legends such as Artur Rubinstein, Wilhelm Backhaus, Rosita Renard, Walter Gieseking, Shura Cherkassky, Annia Dorfmann, Alexander Brailowsky or Ruth Slenczynska. And curiously, in the seventies, several artists performed here who, young then, are today world stars of Latin American origin, such as Martha Argerich, Nelson Freire, Horacio Gutiérrez or Bruno Gelber. And along with them also came other great world figures, who are no longer with us, such as Jorge Bolet, Gina Bachauer, Claudio Arrau, Arturo Benedetti-Michelangeli, Gyorgy Sandor or Witold Malcuzynski.'
The Teatro Municipal was inaugurated with the name Teatro Guzmán Blanco, on 7 April, 1885 by Antonio Guzmán Blanco. Its construction was started in 1876 by the French architect Esteban Aricar and completed in 1879 by the Venezuelan Jesús Muñoz Tébar. It is one of the oldest opera houses in South America after the Teatro Solís in Montevideo (1856), the Teatro Municipal de Santiago (1857) and before the Teatro Nacional Sucre in Quito (1886), the Teatro de Cristóbal Colón in Bogotá (1892), the Teatro Amazonas in Manaus (1896) and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (1908).
Jenne Szmoll, we are told, considers the most important musical influence on himself during his early years of study to have been his personal contact with Wanda Moszkowski, an elderly lady, a relative of the composer Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925, born in Breslau, Kingdom of Prussia [now Wrocław, Poland], who through anecdotes and memories linked him to the memory of the great artists of the early 20th century.
On 21 December 1921, when the composer Moszkowski was ill and heavily in debt, his friends and admirers arranged a grand testimonial concert on his behalf at Carnegie Hall, involving 15 grand pianos on stage. Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Percy Grainger, Josef Lhévinne, Elly Ney, Wilhelm Backhaus and Harold Bauer were among the performers, and Frank Damrosch conducted (Paderewski telegrammed his apologies). Harold Schonberg saw this as an inspiration for the 1970 benefit concert - in which Bolet took part - for the International Piano Archive.
1974 continued: Arnhem Festival, Holland
Diario Crónica (Buenos Aires), 25 February 1974 reports from Rome that Jorge Bolet is practically unknown in Italy; he has recorded Liszt there for Curci, most significantly the 12 Etudes.
Edizioni Curci is a famous Italian music publishing (founded 1860). 1960 gave birth to the Carosello record company, closely connected to the publishing house of origin, which Giuseppe Gramitto Ricci took over in 1973, when Alfredo Curci died.
The minutes of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University, 10 May 1974, state a grant to ‘Jorge Bolet , Professor of Music in the School of Music, [of] leave of absence without pay for the 1974-1975 academic year’.
Between mid-May and mid-June 1974, at Arnhem, Holland, a Festival of Romantic Music was presented for the first time. Frank Cooper's festival at Butler University had been the inspiration. Music from the Romantic period was advertised, to be played by the Gelderland Orchestra with soloists Aaron Rosand (violin), Jascha Silberstein (cello), Frank Cooper and Jorge Bolet.'
There was a big feature in the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant (11.5.1974): 'Strangely enough, Arnhem, a city that rightly or wrongly has the name of radiating a certain sedateness (een zekere gezapigheid), is the setting for the first Romantic Festival in Europe...Cooper and [music-director Leo] Driehuys immediately got down to business and a programme for a festival week with four orchestral concerts and three salon concerts - it could hardly be more romantic - was drawn up. Works were selected by composers such as Liadov, Davidov, Dreyschock, Joachim, Palmgren, Busoni, Tausig, Litolff, Hubay, Ysay, Popper, Vieuxtemps and Sgambati.
'With these completed plans, the gentlemen approached the municipality for the indispensable subsidy. Cultural Affairs gave a positive assessment, but went one step further. Arts minister Herman Hofman did not want an exclusively musical situation; rather, he wanted integration with all other expressions of the creative arts. The design of a music festival thus grew into a joint event of all bodies involved in Arnhem's art policy. The theme of Romance continued to function as a common thread. Kunstzaken itself published a brochure under the title De Blauwe Bloem ["The Blue Flower"], which author Evert van Eijndhoven calls "an attempt to define the phenomenon of romance". (The theatre is organising a number of special events; there is a performance by the New London Ballet with the famous dancers Galina Samsova and Andre Prokovsky... With a romantic carillon concert by Daan van Hoecke on the carillon of the Grote Kerk in Arnhem, the Romantic Festival will be opened to the outside world on Wednesday afternoon (4 o'clock).'
'Film will also be discussed during the festival. Park Sonsbeek will host a number of open-air performances (starting at 9 p.m.): Jane Eyre on May 16, The Hunchback of Notre Dame on the 18th and a "romantic film night" (in Dutch the title is "The Bellringer..."/ Klokkenluider...) including the premiere of the Hungarian film Romantica on June 7 and 8. Romantic Film Days will also take place in the Saskia Theater on June 4, 5 and 6. Theme: film between romanticism and realism, every morning there will be a discussion on the subject of the flowering and deterioration of German romanticism. Siegfried's Tod by Fritz Lang will be shown and fragments from films of the Third Reich. Afternoon screenings also include films by Bo Widerberg, Sam Peckinpah, Ingmar Bergmann and Francois Truffaut.'
On the Marston 6 CD set of Bolet, Ambassador from the Golden Age, we can hear selections from Jorge's concert on 26 May: Franck's Prelude, Aria, and Finale, Saint-Saëns/Godowsky, The Swan & Paul de Schloezer's ("Paul de who?!") knuckle-breaking étude.
Two days later, Jorge performed the Sgambati Concerto in G minor, with the Gederland Symphony Orchestra under Leo Driehuys. As an encore, he played the massive Wagner-Liszt Tannhauser Overture. Here is the Concerto finale (III.Allegro animato):
Frank Cooper stated that at Arnhem, aside from rehearsals ("and, of course, the concert"), he never seemed to see Bolet touch the piano!
Saturday, 6 July 1974, Caramoor Festival with Julius Rudel; in the Venetian Theater, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is a former estate near Katonah, New York. (Schubert, Rosamunde Overture, Beethoven 4, Bruckner 4, a Viennese evening. Perfect weather under the moon and stars brought a record sized crowd. Joge Bolet only occasionally plumbed the depths of this work. All too often the tone was edgy, not helped the piano is use. This is rather odd from a pianist who specializes in the big Romantic literature. One would expect lush tone and a broader scope to the playing. It was a disappointing performance. Muriel Brooks, Patent Trader, 11 July 1974
92nd Street Y, New York
In an interview for Madrid music magazine Ritmo (1 April 1974), Spanish conductor Enrique Garcia Asensio (born Valencia, 1937) states that it is definite he will record the Liszt concertos with Bolet for the Ensayo label in September in London, with the New Philharmonia. [But I don't think this happened.]
Sunday, 27 October 1974, 92nd Street Y, New York City (Upper East Side of Manhattan at the corner of East 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue)
'Jorge Bolet's standing among connoisseurs of pianism is so exalted these days that his recitals take on the air of lecture‐demonstrations by a renowned surgeon. One almost expects to see people pull out clip boards and take notes.
'The audience at the Cuban-born artist's recital on Sunday night seemed a particularly knowing one, possibly because the event was a benefit for the International Piano Archives, which is trying to raise $250,000 to purchase and remodel a small building on the upper West Side for its headquarters.
'It was a typical Bolet program, entirely concerned with the 19th century and winding up in a blaze of Liszt. The acoustic qualities of Kaufmann Concert Hall, made for extraordinary clarity, while depriving Mr. Bolet's piano of rich sonority in the bass, which somewhat inhibited his ability to build Liszt's “Funérailles” to the kind of thunderous climaxes one expected. And, for all its digital flash and its incredible control of dynamics, Chopin's Sonata in B minor (Op. 58) struck one as just a bit heartless.
'For carnival time, there was the “Hungarian Rhapsody” No. 12, taken as seriously as only a master can take it, and lifting the assembled connoisseurs, if not to music's Elysium, at leastt out of their seats. (Donal Henahan). Marston CDs Volume 2 contains the Hungarian Rhapsody on CD#2
On Wednesday 30 October, JB performed Tchaikovsky 1 with Bournemouth Symphony under Paavo Berglund, in the Royal Festival Hall, London. 'He dashed it off with vehement virtuosity. It was a reading of immense tonal strength and drive, but not of memorable tonal beauty or poetry. Mr Bolet's fortissimo was usually too strident; even the second subject lyricism in the finale was overdriven as was the coda. It was all a bit hectic.' On the other hand, Sibelius' Pohjola's Daughter was a 'feast of arresting sound' even if maidens on rainbows are a bit hard to swallow nowadays. (Joan Chissell, The Times)
9 December, 1974: Royal Festival Hall, London. This was a gala concert for the International Piano Library (nowadays International Piano Archives at Maryland), introduced by John Amis and with Victor Borge as conferencier. (It was televised). It included Beethoven/Blackford: Turkish March for 8 pianos (Gina Bachauer, Jorge Bolet, Jeanne-Marie Darré, Alicia de Larrocha, John Lill, Radu Lupu, Garrick Ohlsson, Bálint Vázsonyi), Schubert: Andantino Varié from Divertissement sur des motifs originaux français for Piano Four Hands, D.823 (Stephen Kovacevich & Radu Lupu), Milhaud: Brasileira, Op.165b No.3 (from Scaramouche) - Gina Bachauer & Alicia de Larrocha, Liszt/Borge: Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 in C-sharp minor, S.244 No.2, Victor Borge & Martin Goldstein (?), Debussy/Ravel: Fêtes (from Nocturnes) - Tamás Vásáry & Bálint Vázsonyi; Godowsky: Symphonic Metamorphosis on themes from J. Strauss II’s operetta Die Fledermaus - Jorge Bolet.
1975 RCA cancels
Joselson so impressed the RCA executives that they preferred him over Jorge Bolet for new concerto releases – one of classical piano’s everlasting regrets.
Chiang Tou Liang, classical music reviewer for The Straits Times (Singapore)
Jorge's days as an exclusive RCA Victor artist ended when his contract there was abruptly terminated in 1975, as Thomas Z. Shepard became director of classics at RCA and replaced Bolet with Belgian-born, American pianist Tedd Joselson. 'This was a crushing blow for Bolet. Once again, his high hopes and hard work had not been properly rewarded.' (Farhan Malik)
Allan Kozinn in The New York Times (8 January 1978) wrote: 'So far, Tedd Joselson (aged 25) has had everything a young pianist could hope for. While in his teens, he struck up a friendship with Arthur Judson, the influential concert promoter, under whose tutelage he prepared a dozen recital programs. At 21, when he made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut, conductor Eugene Ormandy called Mr. Joselson 'a rare and exciting talent' and advised RCA to offer him a recording contract.
'Eugene Ormandy, like Arthur Judson, was so impressed with Mr. Joselson's abilities that he decided to use his considerable influence to further the pianist's career. Mr. Ormandy invited RCA's Peter Deliheim and Tom Shepard to Philadelphia to hear Mr. Joselson, whom they signed immediately.'
Thomas Zachary Shepard (b.1936) is described as 'an American record producer who is best known for his recordings of Broadway musicals, including the works of Stephen Sondheim' (the original cast recordings include Sweeney Todd, Company, Sunday in the Park with George and Pacific Overtures [1976], but he also produced many classical recordings. Beginning in 1960, Shepard had worked for fourteen years for Columbia Records, eventually becoming co-director of CBS Masterworks. He joined RCA Records in 1974, where he was Division Vice President of RCA Red Seal, responsible for recording, signing and marketing of the label, until 1986.
'Soms leeuw, soms musicus'
(Sometimes lion, sometimes musician)
Walnut Street Theater, Philadelphia, 3:30pm, Sunday 19 January 1975: recital including Chopin, Frédéric, 1810-1849. Sonatas, piano, no. 3, op. 58, B minor. (Recording extant)
On 29 January 1975, Jorge was in the Auditorium Dufour, Quebec City, Canada playing Liszt's first concerto with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec and Franco Mannino. The concert began with a rarity, Luigi Boccherini's Symphony in D minor, op. 12 no. 4 ‘La casa del diavolo’ (1771). In an interview with Le Soleil, following upon his remark that he feels he is a 'born pianist', he states that he has never practised 7 to 8 hours a day. Conductors cause him a lot of trouble, but he singles out Erich Leinsdorf and Wolfgang Sawallisch for praise. He said he was due soon to play six concerts in six days with the Bamberg Symphony in Germany ('the country in which I most often play at the moment') conducted by none other than eminent baritone singer Dietrich Fischer Dieskau; he adds that his season consists of 85 concerts.
On 18 February 1975, he played Chopin's first concerto with the Bamberg Symphoniker under DFD in the Meistersingerhalle, Nuremberg; Schumann's second symphony completed the programme. Konzertdirektion was Georg Hortnagel.
On 27 February, 1975: Braunschweig, West Germany (Radio Broadcast : Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major - Heinz Wallberg / Nord-Deutschen Rundfunks Sinfonieorchester. A rare mention of Bolet in the Ravel concerto: listen here.
Jorge was to play the Ravel again on 13 April, 1975 with the Reading Symph. Orch. (Berks County, Pennsylvania) under Louis Vyner.
Overture from the Incidental Music to Goethe’s Drama Egmont / Ludwig van Beethoven
Don Juan, Op. 20 / Richard Strauss
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G Major / Maurice Ravel
Hungarian Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra / Franz Liszt
Capriccio espagnol, Op. 34/ Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
In an amusing comment, Jorge states that when he is old and no longer possesses the physical strength to play his present repertoire, he will then play a lot more Mozart. He also said that he has scarcely any time to visit his house in the little fishing village in northern Spain, Fuenterrabia.
On Sunday, 23 February, 1975 there was a recital in the Grote Zaal of the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.
Het Parool reports that the pianist had brought a Bechstein from Germany, complete with tuner. [Of interest is that Jorge played Chopin's Barcarolle, a work which does not seems to feature as much as it should in his repertory, one he has played beautifully on record in the 1980s.]
The reviewer Rutger Schoute thought 'the storm passage in the Barcarolle churned up the Venetian waters as if Chopin had imagined wind force 8 or 9'. De „storm"-pasage in de Barcarolle joeg bijvoorbeeld de Venetiaanse wateren op alsof Chopin an windkracht 8 of 9 had gedacht.
'The technical achievements of this instrumentalist border on the unbelievable,' states the critic of the NRC Handelsblad in a review headed: 'Jorge Bolet: soms leeuw, soms musicus' (sometimes lion, sometimes musician) 'The pianist most convinced me of his artistic qualities in the Barcarolle in F# major (opus 60) by Chopin, with which he opened the concert, and in Liszt's three Petrarch sonnets (from Années de Pélerinage). The interpretation of Chopin's Sonata in B minor opus 58, however, produced a more contradictory picture. Bolet accentuated the separate character of each part to such an extent that the whole irrevocably made a fragmented impression. That he played the presto non tanto of the final prestissimo immediately afterwards was incomprehensible. The musical passion had to give way here to empty mechanical passage playing.
The Barcarolle can in fact be heard in a recording from 7 April, 1974 in New York (Marston Volume 1)
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837)
19 March 1975, Alice Tully Hall, New York
Hummel, Piano Concerto in A flat (Op. 113)
'We have had some aquaintance with the A minor and B minor Hummel concertos, if only through records. Listening to those works, one realizes where Chopin got some of his ideas. The A flat Concerto, played last night by Jorge Bolet, under the baton of Newell Jenkins, is not so good as the earlier concertos, but it is a well‐constructed three‐movement work that is often of absorbing interest.
'Mr. Bolet played it beautifully. He is a master, and the ease of his playing, the subtle colorations, the utter relaxation, recalled the work of the great romantic pianists of the past. Technically, of course, he was flawless. He did something peculiar for an encore. First he played Schubert's F minor “Moment Musical.” Then he followed it in the Godowsky transcription. He gave it a scented performance, but one did wonder what it was doing on this kind of program. Something like Hummel's E flat Rondo would have been more appropriate.'
'Opening the program was the Overture to “Afventyraren” (“The Adventurer”) by Joseph Martin Kraus. He was a German‐born composer active in Sweden, and was virtually an exact contemporary of Mozart: born the same year, died a year later, in 1792. Mr. Jenkins has been digging out his music. This overture is a well‐crafted work, sturdy, with a good deal of personality.'
Harold Schonberg, The New York Times 20.3.1975
'The sixth concert of Summer of Music on the Hudson, on Saturday August 9at 8:30 p.m. at Lyndhurst in Tarrytown, features pianist Jorge Bolet as soloist with The County Symphony. Concert-goers may picnic on the lawn area before the concert. Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, then following intermission Jorge Bolet will be the soloist in the Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor for Piano and Orchestra, Opus 23.' Scarsdale Inquirer, 7 August 1975
Jorge performed the concerto in early September 1979 at a Haydn Conference/Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria. 'The climax of was certainly the gala concert in Esterházy Castle - after Mozart's Symphony No. 35 (Haffner) came the almost unknown Concerto for piano and orchestra in A flat major op. 113 by Johann Nepomuk Hummel in a delightful romantic interpretation by the American master pianist Jorge Bolet.'
Burgenländische Freiheit 6.9.78
Johann Nepomuk Hummel, (born November 14, 1778, Pressburg, Hungary [now Bratislava, Slovakia]—died Oct. 17, 1837, Weimar, Thuringia [Germany]), Austrian composer.
Hummel studied at an early age with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, at whose house in Vienna he lived for two years. Later, accompanied by his father, he toured Bohemia, Germany, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, and England for four years as a child-prodigy pianist. In England he studied a year with Muzio Clementi. Returning to Vienna in 1793, he took instruction from J.G. Albrechtsberger, Joseph Haydn (whom he had met in London), and Antonio Salieri. From 1804 to 1811 he was chapelmaster to the Esterházy family (a post formerly held by Haydn). After further successes as a pianist, conductor, and teacher, he became chapelmaster at Weimar (1818).
Jeremy Nicholas writes: 'As a keyboard improviser Hummel was held to be the equal of Beethoven, and a significant number of their contemporaries held him to be Beethoven’s equal as a composer as well. His piano works certainly had a remarkable influence on the young Romantics: Mendelssohn, Schumann and Liszt all revered him and Chopin was captivated by his music. It is hard to escape the similarities between the openings of Hummel’s A minor (1821) and Chopin’s E minor (1830) concertos, while Hummel’s B minor concerto (1819), a work frequently played by the young Liszt, contains some remarkable anticipations of the Polish composer.'
Switzerland, April 1975
The Journal de Genève, 1 May 1975 reports on a performance of Brahms' second concerto with Silvio Varviso (1924-2006) and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, Switzerland. This was broadcast on radio on Wednesday evening 30 April.
'In Jorge Bolet, Varviso finds a top class soloist, but one whose conception is unfortunately the opposite
of his own.'
'The pianist conveys the tragic grandeur of the work, with superb power, lyricism and poetry. But his contemplative, somewhat dreamy conception was not that of Varviso. Let's remember,
however, that Bolet replaced, in this programme, the late David Oïstrakh, who was to perform the violin concerto of Brahms too.' The concert also included Concerto for two string orchestras, timpani and piano by Bohuslav Martinů, and Till Eulenspiegel by Richard Strauss
The Swiss conductor had studied with the Austrian conductor Clemens Krauss in Vienna; he spent most of his life in opera. There was a live recording of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Bayreuth Festival in summer 1974 (with Karl Ridderbusch, Jean Cox, Hannelore Bode, and Klaus Hirte), issued by Philips. He also conducted the first German-language performance of Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel, and on 10 October 1961 he was in San Francisco to conduct the United States premiere of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Varviso lived in Basel and on the Côte d'Azur; he died in Antwerp on 1 November 2006 at the age of 82.
6/7 May 1975: Rachmaninoff 3 with the New Orleans Symphony. 'Maestro Werner Torkanowsky will conduct the orchestra in performances of Sinfonia for Double Orchestra by Johann Christian Bach (11th and youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach); and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2.' (The Clarion Herald)
Fall of Saigon, April 1975
The end of the American presence in Vietnam.
The Paris Peace Accords of January 1973 saw all U.S. forces withdrawn from Vietnam. The Peace Accords were broken almost immediately, and fighting continued for two more years. Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge on 17 April 1975 while the 1975 Spring Offensive saw the capture of Saigon by the People's Army of Vietnam on 30 April; this marked the end of the war, and North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year.
Chaos, unrest, and panic had begun to break out as South Vietnamese officials and civilians scrambled to leave Saigon. Martial law was declared. American helicopters began evacuating South Vietnamese, U.S. and foreign nationals from various parts of the city and from the U.S. embassy compound. Operation Frequent Wind had been delayed until the last possible moment, because of U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin's belief that Saigon could be held and that a political settlement could be reached. Frequent Wind was the largest helicopter evacuation in history. It began on 29 April, in an atmosphere of panic, as crowds of Vietnamese vied for limited space. Frequent Wind continued around the clock, as People's Army of Vietnam tanks breached defences near Saigon. In the early morning hours of 30 April, the last U.S. Marines evacuated the embassy by helicopter, as civilians swamped the perimeter and poured into the grounds.
On 30 April 1975, PAVN troops entered the city of Saigon and quickly overcame all resistance, capturing key buildings and installations. A tank from the 304th Division crashed through the gates of the Independence Palace at 11:30 am local time and the Viet Cong flag was raised above it.
Eleazar de Carvalho, Brazilian maestro
On 19 and 21 September 1975, Bolet played Rachmaninoff's Paganini Variations, with OSESP (Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo) under Gerard Devos in the Teatro Municipal de São Paulo, Brazil, as part of a series of Concertos Matutinos e Noturnos, Morning and Evening Concerts.
In 1973, after a break of more than five years, the orchestra had undergone a new restructuring, led by the conductor Eleazar de Carvalho (1912-96). The second rebirth of the orchestra is inseparable from the Festival de Campos de Jordão Winter Festival (July in the southern hemisphere), conceived by Eleazar along the lines of the Tanglewood Summer Festival (Massachusetts, USA), which he knew well.
Jorge and he had worked together, for example in Prokofiev's second concerto on Sunday, 5 August, 1951 at Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony. Jorge was also to appear at that Winter Fesitival.
After Brazil, Jorge played in Buenos Aires. Diario Crónica 26 September 1975 announces that at 9:30pm that evening, Sociedad de Conciertos de Buenos Aires 'presents the sensational pianist in a “marathon programme” of Bach/Busoni, Chopin, Strauss and Wagner-Liszt. The venue is the Teatro Coliseo (on Marcelo T. de Alvear 1125) in the Retiro neighbourhood. (The Coliseo was opened in 1905 by the British clown Frank Brown, and was of great importance in the origins of the Creole circus and theatre in Argentina. In 1961 the current theatre was naugurated with the performance of The Saint of Bleecker Street of Giancarlo Menotti.
25 October 1975 Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor Op.23 at the University of Exeter, England with the Bournemouth Symphony under Paavo Berglund. There was a live BBC Radio 3 broadcast (see link below).
Jorge's performance of Mozart/Liszt, Réminiscences de Don Juan, S. 418 can be heard on Marston CDs Volume 2, from a performance on 9 November 1975, New York City.
Milan's Corriere de la Sera carried a review on Monday 24 November 1975. (The paper's edition of 21 May 1935 was the only previous time it had reported on Jorge, during his European début. The next notices would be on 5 October and 11 December 1982.)
15 December 1975. 'Between the musicians who were on the stage of Carnegie Hall last night, and those in the audience, there must have been a couple of billion dollars' worth of talent on the premises. The occasion was the 50th anniversary celebration of the W. W. Naumburg Foundation. It was a concert in which every single participant except one was a Naumburg award winner. And the hall was full of Namburg winners who, for logistical reasons, did not appear on stage. In addition, every musician in the city who could get into the Hall seemed to be present.
'Where else in a lifetime of concertgoing could a comparable cast be savored at a single concert? Jorge Bolet and Andre‐Michel Schub in Liszt's “Don Juan” Reminiscences for two pianos. The youngest winner was Mr. Schub, who won last year's first prize.'
Harold C Schonberg
Music in the Mountains
On a clear, bright winter day, a small crowd curiously follows the orchestra playing in the open air. The central square of Vila Jaguaribe, the oldest centre in the city of Campos do Jordão, had just been the stage for a special performance of the 1812 Overture.
That afternoon of July 31, 1976 was etched in the memory of the then governor Paulo Egydio Martins, but also in the memory of several residents of Campos do Jordão, as well as in the memory of all those who witnessed it. It was the closing of the seventh edition of the Campos do Jordão Winter Festival by conductor Eleazar de Carvalho, director of the event.
“I hope this pioneering project does not die here!…”
In 1967, the then Governor, Roberto de Abreu Sodré, had decided to open the doors of the Boa Vista Palace to the public, giving greater use to the official “summer” residence of the state government. On 24 July 1970, Magda Tagliaferro had given an evening recital on the opening day of the first festival. Concert will take place in the palace until 1979, when a new Auditorium was inaugurated on land found close to the Boa Vista, a place where 'the view of the sunset is of rare beauty'.
Jorge would perform at the Winter Festival in July 1978. The British pianist Sir Stephen Hough played Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op.18 on the opening night of the 53rd festival of July 2023 in the Claudio Santoro Auditorium with Thierry Fischer.
Campos do Jordão, Brasil
Música nas Montanhas
Campos do Jordão is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil.
The city, due to its elevation, is relatively cold by Brazilian standards. The winter was normally the dry season and the colder weather allowed for warm fireplaces and winter foods such as fondue, soups and hot chocolate. In spring and summer, you could see Hydrangea macrophylla blossoming all over the town. The city's attractions throughout the year included German and Swiss food and a cable car.
Polish architect George Przirembel designed the concert hall Palácio Boa Vista, which was inspired by the English neo-gothic style.
The company Girimport was founded in 1977 to represent exclusively Baldwin pianos in Brazil. At that time the market for pianos was high in the country, but imports of any kind for Brazilian operations were complex. It began its activities by bringing to Brazil two Baldwin grand pianos, which were inaugurated by Bolet at Sala Cecilia Meireles in Rio de Janeiro, and which are now in the Maksoud Plaza Hotel in São Paulo.