Better the sun through the clouds...
In the 1980s, the DECCA / London recording company and enterprising producer Peter Wadland came to the rescue. From 1983 onwards they issued a series of recordings, principally of the music of Liszt, setting down a large section of Bolet's repertoire and leaving an invaluable legacy. 'We would be much the poorer if Decca had not been strongly committed to capturing Bolet’s late years so comprehensively.' Donald Manildi (November 2024)
The music critic mentioned in this short video is the distinguished British opera and song specialist John Steane, who was writing about the experience of listening to the Spanish mezzo-soprano Conchita Supervia on difficult, scratchy 78s).
Tex Compton dies
Tex Compton, manager and partner since the early 1940s, died on 9 December 1980. Jorge said to a friend that when he visited Tex in hospital at the end, he didn't recognise him - "Just imagine... after 40 years together."
'His death created both a breathing space and an impossible gap, and Bolet was left, once more, to search for someone who could attend to the practicalities of his life and fully engage with a nature at once imperious and submissive. Such considerations may seem both marginal and intrusive, but they are vital to an understanding of a pianist who reached out in his playing to communicate in a manner he found exceptionally difficult off-stage.'
(Bryce Morrison, International Piano Quarterly, Winter 1997)
Bolet certainly took a rather imperious view of the relationship between conductor and soloist, believing (as he said in a masterclass) that the conductor should have a good enough ear to be able to follow what the soloist was doing, and if not, well... In concertos, there does not seem to be much of a connection or rapport - at least visually - with the conductor. One of the BBC Scottish Symphony musicians said as much, referring to rehearsals with Bryden Thomson and to the (televised) performance of Rachmaninov 3 in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh.
'I spent two beautiful holidays with Jorge in Edinburgh when he was invited for the festival by John Drummond. During one of these occasions, Jorge received a message that Tex was in very bad condition. It was even considered that Jorge could be replaced by Louis Kentner. This did not happen and Jorge continued his obligations without further mentioning Tex's health, but I can tell you this was very, very difficult for him. It was simply not his style to talk health issues. Jorge liked it when I told him that Liszt always said: "Mann ist nicht Krank!" (One is never ill)'
'When Tex died in 1980, times were very difficult for Jorge. Huge medical bills, poorly booked itinerary - Tex, during his illness, could not take care after it. At that moment Mac [Finley] stepped in, making many changes and actually accelerating Jorge' career tremendously. My first meeting with Mac was in Vienna when Jorge played the Joseph Marx concerto. It was also at this event that I met Adela Maria, daughter of Alberto Bolet. We all had a wonderful time together.' (Mattheus Smits)
Jorge Bolet and
Chopin's two concertos
New York, Panamá, Johannesburg... 1980
12-13-16, February 1980): Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor” with the Kansas City Philharmonic Orch. and Peress.
A recording which is often forgotten is one Jorge went into the studio to set down on 29 February -
2 March,1980 in Kingsway Hall, London:
BRAHMS Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel Op.24
REGER Variations & Fugue on a Theme of Telemann Op.134
(It was issued in November 1981)
Friday/Saturday, 21/22 March, Jorge played Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor Op.11 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under the young Japanese conductor Kazuhiro Koizumi (who was making his debut with the orchestra) in Music Hall, Cincinnati (Ohio).
Nancy Malitz in The Cincinnati Enquirer 22.3.80 amusingly - but with considerable justice - says Bolet 'can play Chopin so soft and sweet you would swear he was stroking a baby's skin. The Concerto is a youthful work and the orchestral accompaniment is quite conservative. But as these collaborators demonstrated, it is also full of irresistible melodic filigree, astonishing pianistic challenges, and plenty of red-blooded wanderlust with regard to harmonic territory.'
The programme also included Berlioz' Roman Carnival Overture, 'a masterpiece of imaginative orchestral writing, and the score repays close study'. He uses the multiple resources of the orchestra to make the music more varied and colourful than it is in the opera. And how many listeners are aware that the music of the saltarello was originally in the opera a chorus sung to words?' (hberlioz.com)
I am very pleased to inform you that this overture... is built from two themes from my opera Benvenuto Cellini. The andante is derived from the duet between Benvenuto and Teresa, the allegro is built from the double chorus of jugglers and masks, which is sung and danced on Colonne Square on the last evening of the Carnival. But the blending of the two themes which you will notice in the middle of the allegro is only to be found in the overture.
29, 30 March 1980: Buffalo PO [New York State] and Irwin Hoffman, guest conductor: Mendelssohn – Symphony No.5 in D major, op.107 “Reformation”; Franck – Symphonic Variations for Piano and Orchestra; Liszt – Piano Concerto No.2 in A major; Debussy – La Mer. This was in the orchestra's home, the Kleinhans Music Hall, a National Historic Landmark designed by the Finnish father-and-son team of Eliel and Eero Saarinen in 1940.
Hoffman (1924-2018) had studied at the Juilliard School and was a protégé of Serge Koussevitsky. He was music director of the Bogotá Philharmonic, Colombia for one year, the Chile Symphony Orchestra for three seasons (from 1995 to 1997) and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica from 1987 to 2001. The Tampa Bay Times (23 March 2018) wrote of him: 'Orchestra musicians respected and feared Irwin Hoffman, the founding conductor of what is now the Florida Orchestra. They describe him as old-school, unsparing in criticism, even dictatorial. The same musicians credit Mr. Hoffman with establishing the high standards that kept the orchestra afloat during its first 20 years [....] He was a border collie of notes, nipping at the shape of a piece while interpreting its sound. Mr. Hoffman was known for singling out musicians he thought were playing incorrectly in rehearsals. "To some, he may have been very, very cruel," Brian Moorhead, 65, the orchestra's former principal clarinet, said, "because if he saw a droplet of blood of vulnerability, there were some who said he may go for the draw and quarter and decimate someone, whether they were a principal or a section player." [...] Increasingly, the authoritarian style modeled by Arturo Toscanini fell out of favor. Dissension increased, until in 1987 the Florida orchestra's board eased Mr. Hoffman out."
The Buffalo Courier Express, 23 March 1980 has an interesting article by Thomas Putnam on the programming of the orchestra’s concerts. An impressive range of avant-garde music had been performed since 1963, when Lucas Foss began his tenure with Ives’ The Unanswered Question, a practice continued by Michael Tilson Thomas (from 1971). 'Aaron Copland, 80 years old this season, has been well attended to, but Julius Rudel is doing his third symphony for first time.' Foss didn't do a lot of his own music but the Baroque Variations - which prompted the writer to call him the newest "bad boy" of music - 'could easily be revived'. Keene this season was conducting Ralph Vaughan Williams's glorious 5th symphony, the only time an RVW work had been performed. 'Perhaps he is not our cup of tea.'
New York City, April 1980
9 April 1980 Alice Tully Hall with Guarneri Quartet: Schubert, Quartet in G minor, Faure, Quartet in E minor, Dohnányi, Piano Quintet in C minor.
18 April 1980 a recital at Carnegie Hall. The programme included Schumann's Carnaval (Scènes Mignonnes sur Quatre Notes) Op.9, Weber/Godowsky, Contrapuntal Paraphrase on 'Invitation to the Dance' Op.65 and Liszt's Dante Sonata. It has always struck me that this Godowsky transcription is just too bulky and ungainly, however, great the pianist's technical equipment. David Dubal described it thus: 'Fluff it may be, but more dangerous for the pianist than a tightrope act.'
Francis Crociata writes:
'Here is the history of this April 18, 1980 Bolet Carnegie Hall recital recording.
At this point in his career, Mr. Bolet was without a commercial recording contract. His days as an exclusive RCA Victor artist ended when his contract there was abruptly terminated in 1975, as Thomas Z. Shephard became director of classics at RCA and replaced Bolet with pianist Tedd Joselson. Bolet’s association with British Decca didn’t begin until 1981. Given his chronic career bad luck, Bolet embraced every opportunity for recording that came his way: chamber music with the Juilliard Quartet for Columbia, stand-alone discs for L’Oiseau-Lyre including his justly famous Chopin-Godowsky Etudes and Waltzes, and in 1979 a three-LP deal with Vox Records that called for Liszt Concertos with David Zinman in Rochester, Tchaikovsky with Jerzy Semkow in St. Louis and this Carnegie Hall recital, which would have been a sequel to the now legendary 1974 Carnegie recital issued by RCA. (At the time, Horowitz was the only pianist who had two full Carnegie Hall recitals published on commercial recordings.)
'The Liszt concertos were made in Rochester, but when Bolet arrived in St Louis for the Semkow recording, he was informed that Vox’s financing had fallen through. For the second time in Bolet’s rocky career, Gregor Benko, a co-founder of the International Piano Archives, stepped in to assist by enlisting friends of the pianist (including Ward Marston and me), to join in underwriting the cost of having the recital recorded “on spec”. This was with Bolet’s permission. That tape has been in the IPAM collection ever since. Those of us involved in the Marston Bolet series considered including this performance of the Godowsky Invitation, but found two other performances we liked better. We did include one of the 1980 Carnegie Hall encores, the Strauss/ Godowsky Ständchen, but wound up having to use an audience recording for, unaccountably, the encores were missing from the professional master tape made at our behest.'
Panamá City, Ciudad de México & Costa Rica
Monday 26 May 1980 National Theatre, Panamá City, Panamá: recital. The Teatro Nacional was located in the old city, next to the church of San Francisco and the Plaza Bolívar; it was designed by Italian architect Genaro Ruggieri, and opened on October 1908. 'To get to the theatre from the Canal area, follow Avenida Balboa out past the YMCA, cross Avenida Cuatro de Julio onto Avenida A and follow Avenida A down to Calle 5.'
(The Panama Canal Spillway 21 March 1980, advertising one of 6 musical events that year: the Dallas Ballet was there on 9 April)
Thursday 12 June 1980, Teatro Nacional, San José, Costa Rica. Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4, Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms, Debussy's "Afternoon of a Faun". (La Nación 10.6.1980) Conductor Agustín Cullell (Barcelona, 1928 - Madrid, 2017) had lived in Chile, but fled to Costa Rica in 1974 as a result of the military takeover by Augusto Pinochet. Seemingly this was Jorge's first time in Costa Rica (?), or at least he hadn't been there for a long time - there had actually been feature article on him in La Nación, 27 December 1961.
Heterofonía 70, México, July-September 1980 mentions that JB performed Liszt 1 and the Hungarian Fantasy in Mexico City with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional under Guatemalan conductor and composer Jorge Sarmientos (San Antonio Suchitepequez, 1931- Guatemala City, 2012). In 1947 Sarmientos had entered the National Conservatory of Music, in Guatemala City, where he studied piano under the guidance of Jose Arevalo Guerra and Georgette Contoux del Castillo; composition with Ricardo Castillo and Franz Ippish. In September of 1972, in the city of Bologna, Italy, he took a long course in conducting with Romanian maverick Serge Celibidache. He was musical director and artistic of the National Symphony Orchestra of Guatemala from 1972 to 1991. You can hear his Marimba Concerto (1957) in a performance from Caracas, Venezuela in 2022.
Cape Town/Johannesburg/Pretoria, SA
In an interview in 21 July 1980 with the Rand Daily News, Jorge states that he hasn't played in Israel but his friend Thomas Mann of the Mann Auditorium has promised to help. (Heichal HaTarbut
[Hebrew: היכל התרבות], officially the Charles Bronfman Auditorium, until 2013 the Fredric R. Mann Auditorium, is the largest concert hall in Tel Aviv, and home to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.)
26 July, a recital for the Cape Town Concert Club (Die Kaapstadse Konsertklub) in the Baxter Concert Hall, 16 years since he last played there (Die Transvaler 24.7.80). The Baxter is located in Cape Town's Southern Suburbs, nestling at the foot of the University of Cape Town and beneath Devil's Peak. Established in 1976, it played a pivotal role during apartheid, showcasing groundbreaking multiracial performances. In 1985, it made history with the first interracial kiss on a South African stage.
'He will be at the Civic Theatre (Stadskouburg), Johannesburg on 3 August at 3:30pm and also a recital at the Pretoria Musaion on 5 August.'
On 30 July 1980, it is noted that he has changed his programme for the Civic Theatre on Sunday. Instead of the all-Liszt which he will play in Pretoria and Potchefstroom later, he has decided to perform the same programme that he gave in Carnegie Hall on 18 April. He believes he will be the first to play the Weber-Godowsky in South Africa.
In the RDN, 4 August, Harold Steafel declares Bolet "A Colossus". He ended with the Dante Sonata, displaying 'not only technical mastery but superb musicianship'. Die Transvaler 6.8.80 headlines: "Bolet had his audience in ecstasy. He succeeded in giving the well-known and popular Schumann Carnaval Op.9 a new glow ('n nuwe gloed). 'Although there was a single small uncertainty the Weber-Godowsky, the listener was more intensely aware of the superhuman technical "magic power" (towerkrag) hidden in the hands of this pianist. All that Bolet conjured up in the Dante Sonata will ensure that the performance is remembered as a Liszt interpretation par excellence.' E. Ahlersvall
The critic of Die Transvaal André Ras for the Pretoria recital (5 August) found the actual music of the Schubert/Liszt Lieder - bizarrely, we must admit - empty. 'Many times I wondered why a world-leading Liszt performer would include such "ghost-breath-music" (spookasemmusiek).' Other items included the Don Juan Fantasy and the B mior Sonata (Liszt)
7 August 1980, Johannesburg (?), South Africa. 'The world famous Cuban pianist, Jorge Bolet , and the Israeli conductor, Elyakum Shapirra (1926-2014) receive the applause of the crowd after a performance by the National Symphony Orchestra of the SABC (South African Broadcasting).' This information is from The University of Johannesburg Institutional Repository (UJ IR), but the entry for some reason has been removed.
Shapirra had been the first guest conductor of 1980 of the Cape Town Symphony (Cape Argus, 16 November, 31 December, 1979). He had won a conducting competition at a very young age, and had been the assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic (he had studied with Leonard Bernstein). During his stay in America, he had conducted most of the major American orchestras. At the time of his first visit to Cape Town in January 1980, he was Director of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. [In 1972 Shapirra made the first commercial recording of Anton Bruckner's Symphony in F minor ("Study Symphony"), with the London Symphony Orchestra.]. JB had performed Rachmaninov with him in Adelaide, Australia in August 1977.
Haydn territory, Austria
12 August 1980 (as advertised): piano recital in Eisenstadt, Austria followed by --
15 August: Beethoven's 4th piano concerto in G major, with Schubert's symphony No. 3 and Joseph Haydn's Heiligmesse (Mass no. 10 in Bb Major) in Esterházy Castle
Eisenstadt & Haydn
(Hungarian: Kismarton; Croatian: Željezni grad; Željezno)
Few small country towns have such an important place in the history of music as Eisenstadt. It is now in the Burgenland, the small province comprising the plain south-east of Vienna which before 1919 was part of Hungary. Dominating the townscape is a vast mansion, the principal seat of the Esterházys, the richest and most powerful noble family in Habsburg Hungary. Successive princes, but especially Nicholas (1762–90), were lovers of music who maintained a choir, orchestra and Kapellmeister whose duty it was to conduct and compose. For over forty years their Kapellmeister was Joseph Haydn.
The wooden floor that Haydn insisted be laid on the marble original to improve the acoustics is still in the Great Hall of Schloss Esterházy; here orchestral concerts and operas of the Haydn festival take place.
1761–1766: Joseph Haydn was Vice-Kapellmeister to the Esterházys. In these early years, the Esterházy court spent some of the time in its palace on the Wallnerstrasse in Vienna, some of the time in the family's ancestral seat, Schloß Esterházy in Eisenstadt about 40 km. away. Haydn bought a house in Eisenstadt in 1766, on his promotion to full Kapellmeister.
During the period 1766–1790, the Esterházy court gradually shifted its time away from the old Vienna-Eisenstadt arrangement to a system involving the new palace at Esterháza, built starting in the 1760s at Fertőd in modern-day Hungary, about 40 km. from Eisenstadt. Initially, Esterháza was visited only during the summer; by 1778 this had expanded to ten months per year; and Haydn sold his house in Eisenstadt. At Esterháza Haydn lived in a house in the grounds of the palace (at Madach sétány 1).
Europe, autumn/winter 1980
Here are details of selected recitals during the months October to December 1980. Such details offer an interesting insight into the life of an international musician, and Bolet had always done a lot of travelling.
With regard to the Freemasons Hall recital in August, Kate Molleson, reviewing the "Jewels of the Edinburgh Festival at 70" from the BBC Archives in July 2017, wrote in The Herald Scotland:
Rudolf Bing, general manager of the young Glyndebourne opera, was strolling through Edinburgh one night in 1942 when he looked up at the castle, spotted a resemblance to Salzburg – one of the great music centres of Europe – and had an inkling that Edinburgh would make the right place for a festival. It had the grand beauty, the historic tourist industry, the centuries-old links with Europe. (...)
Poulenc playing Poulenc, Dohnanyi playing Dohnanyi, composer-performers from a time when the festival really championed new music. Jorge Bolet, the Cuban pianist whose lineage goes straight back to Liszt via his teacher Moriz Rosenthal – you’d be hard-put to find that kind of huge romantic sweep delivered today with such dignified authority. Clara Haskil, a tremendous Romanian Mozart interpreter of the mid 20th century, playing Mozart with supreme elegance in 1957.
August
He had given a recital in the Freemasons Hall for the Edinburgh International Festival on 25 August.
Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Handel Op.24
Liszt: Petrarch Sonnet 123, Dante Sonata
Weber arr. Godowsky: Invitation to the Dance (available on Marston CDs volume 2)
Conrad Wilson, in The Scotsman, felt overwhelmed by the programme; the Weber/Godowsky seemed 'vulgar and cluttered' as music. The Brahms Variations, 'heard when one's faculties were still fresh, were more acceptable. They unfurled with expert understanding of their tensions and relaxations, and of the smoky, sinister touches which sometimes darken the Brahmsian lyricism'.
September
25 September: JFK New York to London flight
28: Brighton, Tchaikovsky B flat concerto – rehearse 12:00 noon, concert 2.45pm
29 (Monday) lunch with Peter Wadland. Flight to Hamburg. Staying at the Hotel Basler, Esplanade 11. Press conference.
October
2 October (Thursday): Hamburg, Tchaikovsky No. 1 – Mendelssohn Songs without words, Schumann Carnaval, Chopin Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor
3 Hamburg – JFK New York flight
18 October 1980: California Theater, San Bernardino, CA. Ray Cooklis of the San Bernardino Sun enthused: 'Seldom does a performing artist of the international stature of pianist Jorge Bolet bring his art to San Bernardino. But that's what will happen Oct. 18, when Bolet will perform concertos by Mozart [No. 15 in B flat major K450] and Prokofiev with the San Bernardino Symphony in the local orchestra's 1980-81 season opener. It promises to be the most significant classical music concert of this season in San Bernardino. The Cuban-born pianist is the brother of Alberto Bolet, conductor of the San Bernardino Symphony since 1977 a fact that adds even more to the attractiveness of Saturday's concert. The two have performed together on many occasions, and have a musical affinity that should make for a special evening. As an arts columnist and critic, I must be' cautious about appearing' to "promote" a particular" event over others. Some semblance of journalistic, objectivity is needed in order to give fair and credible coverage of the local arts. But Saturday's concert defies that supposed objectivity. The sheer significance of having Bolet in town, teaming up with his brother to play a piece of music with which he identifies closely, makes this event one not to miss. If the public in this city truly desires to support the fine performing arts,I can think of no better place to express that support than in the California Theatre Oct. 18.'
22 (Wednesday): Liszt Ferenc Társaság, Budapest. Jorge was presented with an award for his disc of the Don Juan Fantasy and concert etudes by the Hungarian Liszt Society,con anniversary of the composer’s birthday. The ceremony was held in Budapest and was followed by a festive concert.
The 14 members of the jury were led by Pál Kadosa with secretary Mihály Meixner of Magyar Rádió (Pest Megyi Hírlap, 10 July 1980). Professor Kadosa's students included such leading musicians as György Ligeti, György Kurtág, András Schiff, Zoltán Kocsis, Dezső Ránki, Jenő Jandó, and Balázs Szokolay.
November
9 November: Rachmaninoff 3, Metropolitan Museum, New York City
15/16 November (Sat/Sun) Vancouver, Canada: rehearsal Brahms Piano Concerto No.2
22: JFK – London flight
23 staying at the Midland Hotel, Manchester
24 Royal Northern College of Music: 2 masterclasses, 11am – 1pm and 2.30 – 4.30pm
25 Recital at College, Manchester inc. Haydn’s E flat sonata, Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No.12, Liszt Sonata, Brahms/Handel variations. 7.30 drives to Preston, Lancashire.
26 Vernon Gallery, Preston; same recital as Manchester
27 Fly from Manchester to Amsterdam
28 Groningen (Holland) recital
30 Amsterdam
December
1 December (Monday) Amsterdam-London flight
2 Twickenham, St. Margaret’s Church, Chopin 4 scherzi, Liszt Sonata and Rhapsody #12.
(Jorge seems to be staying in Richmond-upon-Thames, a delightful leafy town in Surrey. The body of James IV of Scotland who died at the battle of Flodden on 9 September 1513 was for a time buried near here in Sheen.)
3 London – Bilbao, Spain flight
14 (Sunday) Chicago USA, recital
14 December 1980 saw a (private?) student of JB, the Greek pianist Panayis Lyras play at Xavier University Cincinnati. Panayis Lyras, earlier known as Panaghis/ Panayis Lykiardopoulos is an American classical pianist, born in Athens, Greece in 1953. He had attended Juilliard, studying with Adele Marcus. The booklet for his recital in the University of Montana in October 1979 had announced “Future tour engagements will take him to New Zealand and Japan. He is presently studying piano with Jorge Bolet.”
Late 1980 (Hamburg) and 1981
On the 11 December 1980, Jorge was in Hamburg. HAYDN: Andante and Variations in f; BRAHMS: Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op 24; LISZT: Sonata in B minor; Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12
Rather charmingly, Jan Weinhold comments on YouTube: "Wow, I joined this recital as 13 year old boy - great memories!"
'He threw Liszt's Sonata in B minor onto the keys. The Cuban thrilled the growing crowd of his Hamburg fans with a performance that didn't shy away from any risk. Such great piano playing could not be marred by a blemish just before the end. Bolet surpassed this feat with the 12th Hungarian Rhapsody, which flashed in all its aspects and stirred with a singing touch. Bolet did not immerse Brahms' Handel Variations in the glaring light of virtuosity, but allowed them - with all their bravura - many moments of mysterious penumbra.' (Brahms' Händel-Variationen tauchte Bolet nicht ins gleißende Licht der Virtuosität, sondern ließ ihnen bei aller Bravour die vielen Momente von geheimnisvollem Halbschatten.)
Hamburger Abendblatt (11.12.1980)
The Vancouver concert on 16-18 November was with the Symphony Orchestra under Kazuyoshi Akiyama. The Vancouver Sun 17.11.80 states that this was the city's debut of the fabulous musician whose career of some 45 years has never really broken internationally. He was replacing Lazar Berman, whose cancellation was announced early on the season. It was like the substitution of one with another of equal if not greater brilliance. Lloyd Dykk reposts that 'I've never heard a more confiding, yet august performance of the Brahms second concerto. Even in the moments when he slid off a chord or lost some notes in a run - 'They mattered absolutely not at all. The majesty of his line sealed right through them.'
Manfred Gottfried wrote a letter to the Vancouver Sun on 22 November pointing out that it was erroneous to claim that this was Bolet's debut with the Vancouver SO. 'Vancouver audiences had the pleasure of Mr Bolet's great artistry in a number of concerts, when the orchestra was under the direction of Mr Irwin Hoffman. Many concertgoers will remember the brilliance demonstrated by this outstanding musician. Regrettably, for whatever reason, Vancouver audiences have been denied the privilege of hearing him over these many years.' (*Bolet there, for example, on Sunday, 1 November 1953, and was advertised for the 1954-55 season. On 12/13 January 1964 he played Beethoven's fourth piano concerto.)
February 1981: with Arpad Joo and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. Arpad Joo was a Hungarian-born pianist who was the conductor of the CPO between 1977 and 1984. He died 8 July 2014 in Singapore, aged 65. Zoltan Kodaly taught Joo when he was a boy growing up in Budapest. 'By all accounts — and there aren’t many, owing to the CPO’s bankruptcy in the late 1990s — it was also a stormy tenure.' (Stephen Hunt)
A recital in Hamburg the following year, on 24 March 1981 can be heard here.
BEETHOVEN: Sonata No. 31, Op 110 in A flat; REGER: Telemann Variations; LISZT: 3 Petrarch Sonnets, 47, 104, 123; MOZART/LISZT: Don Juan Fantasy.
'This only happens in Hamburg: you always follow the same names that have been known for decades. Bad luck for the American master pianist Jorge Bolet, who is only giving solo recitals here for the second season. The Great Hall of the Music Hall was half-empty again yesterday. But the connoisseurs in the hall gave him a great welcome.
'He had Reger's Telemann Variations on the programme as a special gift, 23 pieces of magic based on a minuet from "Tafelmusik". (Ms Tomzig is gratifyingly a fan of the work!) This gigantic work with the technically most brilliant fugue that has ever been written can probably only be mastered by a piano titan of the supersize of Bolet!'
Sabine Tomzig, Hamburger Abendblatt 25.3.1981
"A special gift..." Georg Philipp Telemann (1681 – 25 June 1767). Telemann entered the University of Leipzig to study law, but eventually settled on a career in music. He held important positions in Leipzig, Sorau, Eisenach, and Frankfurt before settling in Hamburg in 1721, where he became musical director of that city's five main churches.
Tafelmusik is a collection of instrumental compositions by Telemann, published in 1733. 'Max Seiffert proved 18 different citations from the Tafelmusik in Handel's works — in their time this was not considered plagiarism. Quite on the contrary, Telemann felt flattered, the more so as Handel reciprocated by procuring rare plants for his old friend.' Wikipedia
Sunday, 15 March 1981, at 3pm in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London: Mendelssohn, Prelude & Fugue in E minor Op 35 No 1; Franck, Prelude, Choral et Fugue; Weber/Godowsky, Invitation to the Dance; Chopin, Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise, Sonata in B minor Op 58.
Thursday 19 March 1981, Festival Theatre, Paignton, Devon (UK): Rachmaninoff 3 with the Bournemouth Symphony and George Hurst. 'He looked like a businessman rather than a musician. And how he knew his business! Overall this was a performance which one felt privileged to have heard. It left one with the happy reflection that life on this earth can be bountiful, despite the efforts of Sir Geoffrey Howe [Chancellor of the Exchequer (in charge of the country's finances) in Margaret Thatcher's government].' Torbay Express and South Devon Echo
March, 1981: with Heribert Esser and the Orchester des Staastheaters Braunschweig
June, 1981: Mexico City with Enrique Diemecke and the Orquesta Filarmonica de le UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)
Australia, July/August 1981
'Statuesque immobility of an Easter Island idol'
The review in the box above is by Fred Blanks of Saturday, 22 August 1981
Vančo Čavdarski was the resident conductor of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, 1973-1976 and also of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. He was born in the former Yugoslavia, trained at Zagreb and Belgrade. He worked with Opera Australia, the National Opera of New Zealand, Caracas Opera (venezuela), and the Macedonian National Theatre.
The itinerary notes that "Mr Bolet has requested (his agent) to book a double room in Sebel Town House for 14 July." This was in Elizabeth Bay, a harbourside suburb in eastern Sydney, named after Governor Lachlan Macquarie's wife. During the 1970s and 1980s, the Sebel Townhouse became the unofficial home of the Australian music industry. An ABC programme called it "one of the world's great rock and roll hotels, part of a glamorous tourist precinct in and around bohemian Kings Cross. The hotel staff made a point of meeting any request, no matter how difficult, and their ability to turn a blind eye to the excesses and idiosyncrasies of the guests made it a favourite haunt of entertainers [!]"
JB was travelling with his business affairs manager Mac Finley. The schedule notes: "Mr Cummings will arrive in Sydney on August 16. From that time Mr Cummings will accompany Mr Bolet and Mr Finley. The cost of his fares within is to be recovered from Mr Bolet's artist fee."
JB requested one single room for himself and a double for Messers Finley and Cummings at: Melbourne (Hotel Windsor), Adelaide (Gateway Inn), Perth (Sheraton), Brisbane (Lennons Plaza Hotel), and Sydney (Sabel Town House).
Clive O'Connell writes in The Age (Melbourne), 20 July 1981: 'Last Saturday's [18th] programme came as something of a surprise. Sandwiched between Mendelssohn's Reformation Symphony and the Chopin E minor Concerto [No. 1] was Melbourne composer Brian Howard's Il Tramonta della luna.' It retained its mysteries totally! 'What we heard and the moon's setting remained quite disjunct in my mind (...) It would be difficult to find a Chopin executant as assured as Bolet. His approach to the concerto is more introspective and closed than is normal; yet his playing on this night made one feel that a pianist could do worse than ignore the temptations to thunder that this work offers."
(Same programme for all 3 nights.)
Thursday 13 August 1981 at Dallas Brooks Hall, (East) Melbourne 8.15 pm. Andante favori; Sonata No. 31, Op. 110 (Beethoven) Andante spianato and Grand Polonaise, Op. 22 (Chopin) Years of Pilgrimage, Book 2: Petrarch Sonnets Nos. 47, 104,123, (Liszt) Rhapsodie espagnole (Liszt)
There was also a solo recital in concert hall of Sydney Opera House on 15 August. The Sydney Morning Herald (17 Aug 1981) had a most memorable description by Fred Blanks:
‘Slowly striding on stage like some patriarchal walrus, then bending over the keyboard with the statuesque immobility of an Easter Island idol, Jorge Bolet presents a monumental image. His first notes announce mastery. He commands a wonderful kaleidoscope of tone and his technical security has come a long way since we first heard him here in 1965. He has more than five decades of concert-giving in his fingers, so that he conveys all the poise and insight that develop only with the cultivation of musical sagacity over a long time-span. [Schumann's Carnaval] was the zenith of delight. The Liszt pieces, though intermittently exciting (especially when Bolet pounded the keys so fiercely during the Dante Sonata that Steinway must have feared for his offspring) concentrated on musical soap-box oratory. But at its best this was an experience to treasure.’
The tour continued on 18? August (Newcastle, recital) and then 19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26 (in Sydney with East German maestro Kurt Sanderling).
Fred Blanks in The Australian Jewish Times (10 September 1981) reviewing some concerts wrote: 'The Sydney Symphony Orchestra also showed itself in good form when partnering pianist Jorge Bolet for the Beethoven Emperor concerto in the Town Hall (26 August). Again we had an instance of how a conductor as good as Kurt Sanderling can transform the orchestral routine into something special.' In the SMH (21.8.81) he wrote of the Opera House concerto of Wednesday 19th that 'a supremely intense performance of Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony by Kurt Sanderling made it necessary to suspend at least one charge which is often made against ABC music moguls: when it comes to conductors, for musical and/or financial reasons, we rarely hear the really famous ones. Now we have an exception.' He goes on: But even in the tedious meanderings of Chopin's E minor concerto - surely the ultimate musical insomnia cure - there was room to admire the orchestral partnership for the even more admirable solo performance by Jorge Bolet. He played it like a true large-scale romanic concerto, not some drawing-room intimacy. With a conductor and soloist like these, it was no wonder that the demon of romanticism had a marvellous night out.'
Friday/Saturday 28/29 August in the Canberra School of Music. "He has a powerful, artistic personality, more interested in the uses to which a piece of music can be put than in the letter, or even the spirit, of what the composer wrote," writes John Small. "The three Mendelssohn Songs without Words opening the programme provided a striking example of this. On the original score, Bolet superimposed an elaborate, brilliantly conceived and executed applique work of tone, attack, volume and tempo, which transmuted Mendelssohn's delicate rather palid romanticism into something richly and powerfully expressive." But his ceaseless use of rubato drained the Prelude & Fugue in E minor Op. 35/1 "of most of the energy that comes from its steady Bach-like rhythms".
Schumann's Carnaval was more orthodox than his Mendelssohn "and gave a full play to the work's mercurial changes of mood and its difficult piano writing. There were a few wrong notes and in a few places Bolet seemed more inclined to let the difficulties alone rather than deal with them." Weber/Godowsky Invitation to the Dance ("ornamentation relentlessly piled on it by the transcriber", then Liszt. In the Dante Sonata Bolet "came completely into his own... It was not quite note perfect - Bolet displays a kind of regal indifference to occasional slips - but in other respects the performance was as good as one is ever likely to hear of one of the finest works of one of the greatest composers of the 19th century."
30 August departed Sydney for Singapore on Qantas flight QF95 arriving 5.15pm.
2 Sept: a flight from Singapore to Bangkok
4 Sept: Bangkok to Hong Kong flight
On Saturday, 11 July (or Sunday12?) Bolet flew on Qantas QF 4 (via Honolulu) from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia.
He gave concerts on:
16 (Hobart, Tasmania),
18/20/21 (Melbourne),
24/25 (Adelaide, with orchestra under Jose Serebier) &
27 (Adelaide, solo recital in Town Hall);
29 (Perth, solo recital),
31 July & 1 August (Perth, orchestral)
5 August (Albury, recital),
8 & 11 (Brisbane, orchestral with Vančo Čavdarski),
13 August (Melbourne)
19-26 August (Sydney)
Liszt, Concerto No. 1, Sydney Opera House
25 August 1981
A couple of extracts (3m27s), in case this video disappears from YouTube
The conductor is Kurt Sanderling (1912 – 2011), a German conductor, born in Arys, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire (now Orzysz, Poland). His early work at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he served as repetiteur (rehearsal director) for Wilhelm Furtwängler and Erich Kleiber, was cut short when the Nazi regime removed him from his post because he was Jewish.
He then left for the Soviet Union in 1936. During the siege of Leningrad, he worked in Novosibirsk, Siberia. From 1942 to 1960, he was joint principal conductor with Yevgeny Mravinsky of the Leningrad Philharmonic. Around 1942–1943, Sanderling first met Dmitri Shostakovich, which marked the start of their professional working relationship and personal friendship.
In 1960, Sanderling returned to East Germany to take up the chief conductorship of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, where he remained until 1977. From 1964 to 1967, he was chief conductor of the Dresden Staatskapelle. He made his British debut in 1970. His first guest-conducting appearance with the Philharmonia Orchestra was in 1972, as a substitute for Otto Klemperer. The Philharmonia appointed Sanderling its Conductor Emeritus in 1996.
1981 continued (October)
"He gave the Schubert/Liszt transcriptions an iridescence that was just astonishing."
14 September, 1981: with Rainer Miedél and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Jorge opens the orchestra's 1981-82 season. The concert featured Gabrieli, Mozart and Tchaikovsky. 'Bolet, who played with the Tacoma Symphony this season, will play a Mozart concerto.' Tacoma New Tribune 30 .1.81.
Miedél was a German conductor (Regensburg, 1937 - Seattle, 25 March, 1983). He studied conducting with István Kertész in Salzburg, and then was asst. conductor of the Stockholm Philharmonic, (1969–76). From 1976 until his death he was music director of the Seattle Sym. Orch.
Friday, 2 October 1981
DELAWARE SYMPHONY opens season, 8 p.m., Grand Opera House, 818 Market Street Mall, Wilmington. Stephen Gunzenhauser conducts Berlioz " Roman Carnival"
Overture, Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, Hanson " Romantic" Symphony and
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1, with Jorge Bolet.
Daniel Webster in the Philadelphia Inquirer, 4.10.81: 'Soloist for the opening was pianist Jorge Bolet, who plunged into the Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1, bent on at least matching the full orchestra's volume. Conductor and soloist were not flawless collaborators. The joining of orchestra with the piano was often patchy enough to slow the flow of the music. However, Bolet's volcanic, powerful playing swept everything before it. This was grand romantic pianism with bigger-than-life effects, whispered contrasts and cascading passages notable just for themselves. Even the flaws were magnified, but the music itself was still larger.'
18 October 1981: concert at 9pm in the Teatro Degollado, Guadalajara (Jalisco) in Mexico with conductor Hugo Jan Huss (but listed as Thursday 15th in the newspaper El Informador). This was Beethoven's Eroica Symphony and Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto. In the publicity, Washington Roldan of El Pais (May 1980) is quoted as saying 'El mecanismo de Bolet tiene algo de brujería', The Bolet mechanism has something of witchcraft about it.
The first concert of the 1981-2 season of the Florida Philharmonic was with the Swedish guest conductor Sixten Ehrling (Jorge had performed with him. e.g April and July 1963, June 1964 in Stockholm):
Samuel Barber, Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance
Prokofiev, Concerto No. 2 in G minor for Piano and Orchestra, op. 16
Brahms, Symphony No. 1 in C minor, op. 68
Tuesday, 27 October, de Doelen, Rotterdam (Holland): recital. (The Ensemble Guillaume de Machaut de Paris had played there the previous evening.) Jorge had played there in December 1965 when they were testing the acoustics for the hall's reopening (q.v.). He then played in Utrecht on 4 November.
'The early romance of Mendelssohn's Fantasie in F sharp op.28 (alias 'Scottish Sonata') is one of the healthiest and purest kind. The pianistic writing of this piece, which dates from the same period as the Hebrides overture, is somewhat conventional and not focused on virtuosity, so that it could easily be overshadowed later by the piano works of Chopin and Liszt. It is to his credit that the Cuban-American pianist Jorge Bolet set this fantasy at the beginning of his recital (the work is still neglected), but it seemed as if Bolet had spent too little study time on it: mistakes and memory disturbances marred it. And Mendelssohn's unremarkable, classical pianistic skills seemed to impose too many limitations on this rather expansive virtuoso. The work certainly deserved a more fervent plea. (Het werk had zeker een vuriger pleidooi verdiend.)
Schumann's great Fantasy in C major op.17 turned out to suit Bolet much better, although his apparently somewhat reduced responsiveness also resulted in many a mistake here (al resulteerde zijn kennelijk wat teruggelopen reactievermogen ook hier in menige misslag). Bolet included five Schubert songs in Liszt's arrangement on his programme, and the fact that these settings are very precarious in terms of accuracy was clearly evident from his playing. He certainly came up with stunningly brilliant passages, but you only enjoy listening to these (rather superfluous) arrangements if everything runs effortlessly. I did not expect that - after this 'battle of attrition' - he would be capable of such pianistic fireworks and such a satanic expression in Liszt's first Mephisto waltz. All in all, a changeable recital that left one wondering whether it belonged in the "Master Series"/ Al met al een wisselvallig recital waarvan men zich kon afvragen of het wel in de Meesterserie thuishoorde. (NRC Handelsblad, 28.10.81)
Saturday, 14 November 1981: recital in Kobacker Hall, Bowling Green State University, Ohio (Mendelssohn, Schumann Fantasy, Schubert/Liszt Lieder, Mephisto waltz). 'His immense virtuosity, experience and sheer intelligence all concentrate on the music's lyricism. Take the Mendelssohn fantasy as an example. It has gossamer wings and must be played as if a feather touches the keys, and Mr Bolet succeeded in doing just so. He gave the Schubert/Liszt transcriptions an iridescence that was just astonishing.' It is noted that had played with the Toledo Orchestra in 1957,'67 and '74.
Toledo Blade 16.11.81
Friday 20 November: Teatro Nacional, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schubert & Liszt (announced in El Caribe 19.11.81). The Teatro Nacional Eduardo Brito was a newish venue, constructed during the presidency of Joaquín Balaguer and inaugurated in 1973.
It was in November of this year that he recorded his first Liszt pieces in the Kingsway Hall, London for the Decca series (music which turned out to be Vol. 2 Liszt/Schubert songs, one of the finest of his recordings.
The producer was Michael Haas and the date was 24-27 November, 1981 Kingsway Hall. It was issued in November 1983. The source of this and subsequent DECCA recordings is a breathtakingly detailed catalogue by Philip Stuart.
27 December, 1981: Hayes Street Grill, San Francisco, California. Mendelssohn: Fantasy in F-sharp minor, Op.28 (Sonate Écossaise) on Marston 56003-2. 'This concert was arranged by a close friend of Bolet’s, who hired the restaurant and invited 60 or so people. The event was very much in Bolet’s honour, who probably played without fee. After the concert and the following dinner Bolet sat down and socialised and played informally for a number of the guests, mostly music at their request – including an improvisation.'
(Christian Johansson)
At Fortnum & Mason, London
His face changed when I asked about Tex, and he looked at me with downcast face. Tex Compton had died the previous year in San Francisco, leaving, at same time, a break and a great void in Jorge’s life ('un respiro y un gran vacío en la vida de Jorge). He told me sadly that in the last weeks, when he visited the clinic, he did not recognize him. "Imagine that, after living together for nearly forty years."
(This seems therefore to place the start of the relationship in the early rather than late 1940s.)
A blog by "Isabel" on the internet (later in printed from under initials R.R., Ramón Rodamiláns Vellido) has the following reminiscence. ‘One afternoon in early 1981, we met by chance in London, in fact almost bumping into each other in the shop Fortnum & Mason [a world famous luxury emporium, known for its grocery at 181 Piccadilly, where it was established in 1707]. Surprised and delighted, we made a date for dinner together that night. I took him to one of my favourite fish restaurants, which was also to his liking. With great enthusiasm, he announced that he had signed a major contract with Decca to record the complete - if that is possible - piano works of Liszt. It was of course a task that would last several years, and he talked about it in genuine astonishment.
'It was a single, short book, discovered in a Hong Kong bookshop, that prompted Ramón Rodamiláns to establish contact with its author Austin Coates, an expatriate Englishman, Orientalist and former special magistrate. And so a new, brilliant and illuminating chapter opened in their lives, revealed in an elegant and amusing exchange of letters, which covered a decade of great change, and only cease with Austin's death in 1997. Hong Kong at the crossroads, sightseeing in Macao, Singapore, Spain and Portugal, family visits, musical soirees, projected publications and forays into colonial history.'
Austin Coates wrote extensively on topics related to the Asia-Pacific region, particularly Hong Kong and Macau. He was first connected to the East through his service for the Royal Air Force intelligence in India, Burma, Malaysia and Indonesia in the Second World War. After the war, he worked for the Hong Kong government as Assistant Colonial Secretary and Magistrate in the New Territories from 1949 to 1956. As a magistrate, he gained insight on the Chinese customs and character, and he applied Chinese laws to solve many of his cases.
After Hong Kong, he was the Chinese Affairs Officer in Sarawak from 1957 to 1959; First Secretary of the British High Commission, Kuala Lumpur and Penang from 1959 to 1962. In 1965, he settled in Hong Kong and continued travelling and writing extensively.
Baldwin pianos in Europe
The Prinsengrachtconcert is an annual open-air classical music concert held annually in Amsterdam in August since 1981. It occurs on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam; he musicians are situated on a pontoon anchored in front of the Hotel Pulitzer. Many of the audience watch and listen from boats moored nearby.
Pianist Barbara Nissman likes to tell the story about the minor disaster forever associated with the first concert. “The piano mover was using a crane to move the Baldwin piano onto the barge, when it slipped and landed on top of his Volvo! It destroyed the poor man’s car, scaring a nearby herring vendor so badly that he fell into the water. But the piano tuner decided we could still use the Baldwin if we removed the lid and retuned the instrument. So we did, and the show went on!”
Mattheus Smits (who was a friend of Jorge) adds:
'During the second half of the 1970s, Baldwin had been thinking of opening a centre in Europe. This project was investigated by Arnie Benneke, the Baldwin manager for the very small European market. Among the potential dealers were Voermans in Amersfoort and Cristofori (Hans Duijf) in Amsterdam. Hans Duijf, together with the director of the Amsterdam Pulitzer hotel had the idea to organise a concert in the Prinsengracht where the piano would be placed on a boat. The artist would be Barbera Nissman.
When the selected Baldwin had to be placed on the boat, the piano came loose from the cables and dropped onto the boat; it was considered a write-off. (This event was even mentioned in The New York Times). In order to show his craftsmanship, Hans Duijf [later] worked on restoring this instrument. He went so far that even all brass parts became gold-plated. All this was done under supervision of my Polish friend Lezsek Blach.
‘Later when Jorge had some concerts in Holland, he was so unhappy with the Bechstein provided by the Dutch dealer that I proposed he play the following concert (in Utrecht) on the restored Baldwin. This was arranged and became a big event. Baldwin had just opened their warehouse in Spijkenisse, close to Rotterdam, and Tony [Antonio] Caravia had become its director. Caravia and Bolet knew each other from Baldwin USA, and both shared a Cuban background. Caravia organised a big lunch in Keyzer restaurant in Amsterdam. After the concert, Jorge said that playing this instrument felt to him like driving a racing car. One critic - Hans Heg - was not so pleased. He wrote the instrument looked as if it had come from a brothel! He concluded that everything in the concert was more focussed on beauty than on substance.
‘The brilliant idea [a summer concert on the water] of Hans Duijf and Theo Inninger became an important cultural event in Holland.
‘It should be mentioned that Baldwin and Hans Duijf did not continue their business. Baldwin returned to the USA; Hans Duijf sold Cristofori and opened a famous Italian restaurant in Amsterdam: Pasta et Basta.’