1983
"Notes were thrown off in Liebesleid like sea spray caught in sunlight."
What might have been... 'Around 1983, Decca committed to record Jorge and [the First Lady of Spanish piano,] Alicia de Larrocha in two-piano repertory and had chosen the repertory --two movements each from the Rachmaninov Suites, the Godowsky 4-hands Invitation to the Dance and the Mozart two-piano sonata. It was Alicia who opted out...at the last minute.' [Francis Crociata]
Thursday, 6 January, recital in the Metropolitan Museum New York City. John Rockwell writes in The New York Times:
'Jorge Bolet's piano recital Thursday night at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was cleverly assembled, both in terms of musical relationships and in its congeniality to his interpretive gifts. It began with more than just the perfunctory Haydn - both the dreamy Andante con Variazione in F minor and the Sonata in E flat (Hob. XVI/52). From there, Mr. Bolet proceeded to the similarly sturdy Germanisms of Brahms, and reinforced the connection by choosing the Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel (Op. 24). After the intermission it was all Liszt - the Sonata in B minor and, as a programmed encore, the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 - which in this context seemed like a vanguard, Hungarian-flavored extension of the German school.
'Mr. Bolet has a flair for splashy, powerful effects, but they were rather muted in the acoustics of the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. In any case, he has other gifts besides. The Haydn and the Brahms were both dispatched with a sturdy directness of feeling, and the Liszt had more than that: a convincing sympathy for the febrile ebb and flow of Liszt's Romantic invention.
'What was missing was the crisp security that one often encounters in both Haydn and Brahms, and the sheer, note-perfect control that many virtuosos now bring to Liszt. Not that cold perfection is everything, or even the most important thing. But to this taste, Mr. Bolet's always intelligent, sensitive and frequently exciting interpretations were not so revelatory on a spiritual level as to compensate for the slack and slurred moments that persisted throughout his perfomances. It was certainly an impressive recital. But Mr. Bolet must be judged at the highest level, and on that level he disappointed.'
27 February 1983 : Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, with the BBC Scottish SO and Bryden "Jack" Thomson, a twinkling Scottish conductor with a witty turn of phrase. "He despised what he called, in private conversation, 'the deodorant school of conductors whose profile, carefully turned to the audience, suggests sexual ecstasy: it's our job to be in control; the enjoyment belongs to the audience.'" There has been a suggestion that he had in mind Herbert von Karajan.
This would be broadcast on BBC television in the summer of 1983, as the culmination of three programmes of masterclasses on the concerto.
28 February: recital in St. John’s, Smith Square, London, including Mendelssohn, Fantasy Op. 28 in F sharp minor (‘Scottish’), Chopin’s Third Sonata and the Kreisler/Rachmaninov lollipops.
Joan Chissell, in a review from a more gracious age, said in The Times [1.3.83] that the presto section was, on this occasion, ‘very much the province of elves, sprites and hobgoblins. Mr Bolet did the composer a real service’. On the Chopin, she said that ‘it was a reading of mature years, of someone recollecting emotion in tranquillity, but doing so with quite exceptional keyboard authority as well as musical sympathy’. ‘Notes [were] thrown off in Liebesleid like sea spray caught in sunlight...and the ‘richer melodic succulence’ of Liebesfreud was achieved ‘without textural clotting.'
Hear the magic Ms Chissell was describing from a later London performance at St John's Smith Square, June 1987, one of my favourite performances (I will admit that the DECCA recording of these two gems is slightly constrained by comparison).
8-11 March 1983 Kingsway Hall, Lodnon
Pr: Peter Wadland Eng: John Pellowe
Liszt Années de pèlerinage : Suisse S160
“Vol.5” (Sep84)
"Brahms and His Vienna"
Butler University's Romantic Festival XVI was called "Brahms and His Vienna". Seven days (25 April - 1 May 1983) of recitals, concerts, lectures, and ballet were complemented with dinners on the lawns of Clowes Hall: magnificent fare, from crêpes to fried chicken. (Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has six colleges.)
'Our Indianapolis correspondent writes: All was at hand but the Lippizaners...The celebration of Brahms's sesquicentennial was a grand event. Festival participants
enjoyed concerts and lectures, tent pavilion dinners beforehand and Viennese desserts and coffee after; they admired exhibits of art, antique furniture, and period musical instruments; they heard serenades of Viennese light music during interim moments.
Festival concerts were under the direction of Jackson Wiley, whose university orchestra performed the Third Symphony on the occasion of its own centennial and joined guest pianist Jorge Bolet for the Second Piano Concerto.'
[19th-Century Music, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Autumn, 1983)]
The Sydney Morning Herald (20 March 1983) advertised "Music Festival at Sea" Royal Viking Line cruises departing Athens's (Greece) harbour Piraeus on 25 April and 9 May, 'sailing on the sparkling blue waters of the Mediterranean and the Adriatic', enjoying performances at sea by such renowned artists and Jorge Bolet and Victoria de los Angeles [distinguished Catalan operatic lyric soprano and recitalist whose career reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s], with stops in Dubrovnik and Venice. 'Music-filled days and nights when Europe enjoys the transition from spring to summer.' Wilh. Wilhelmsen Agency (Sydney/Melbourne)
June 1983 in Chile - for the first time?
14 and 16 June, 1983 in the Teatro Municipal, Santiago de Chile, with Juan Pablo Izquierdo (born Santiago de Chile, 1935) and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Santiago. "Entre los extranjeros, e aguarda con impaciencia al pianista cubano Jorge Bolet, con superlativos elogios de la crítica especializada, quien interpretará el tercer Concierto de Rachmaninoff."
"Among the foreign artists, we eagerly await the Cuban pianist Jorge Bolet, who has received superlative praise from expert critics. He will perform Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto."
(A magazine article of 1 April, 1983).
A review of the concerto by Federico Heinlein in El Mercurio (who spells the composer Rajmáninov) noted that this was the 8th concert of the season and that Bolet and Izquierdo took the Teatro Municipal by storm. "Tan apoteóticas fueron las ovaciones que el solista tuvo que añadir dos piezas al programa. Un Estudio pueril, de escaso interés, solo confirmó la destreza mecánica del intérprete." ("So apotheosic/enthusiastic were the ovations that the soloist had to add two pieces to the programme. A childish/youthful Study, of little interest, only confirmed the mechanical skill of the performer - was this Paul de Schloezer?) Liebesleid confirmed the pianist's Romanic refinement. The Overture to Wagner's Meistersinger and Stravinsky's Firebird completed the programme.
Federico Heinlein Funcke (Berlin, 1912 - Santiago,1999), was a Chilean composer and journalist. In Buenos Aires, he had worked between 1935 and 1940 as an assistant to Fritz Busch and Erich Kleiber at the Teatro Colón. From 1954 he was music and dance critic for the newspaper El Mercurio.
There's some confusion as the season schedule lists Tuesday and Thursday 14/16 June 1983 as conducted by Franz Paul Decker; the Rachmaninoff is there but it's framed by Hindemith's Mathis der Maler symphony and Richard Strauss's Rosenkavalier Waltzes. Indisposition? Jorge was back in Chile again in May 1984.
From the Archivos Patrimoniales, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Avda. Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins 340, Santiago - Chile
Politics
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean army officer and military dictator who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990. He was the leader of the military junta from 1973 to 1981, and was declared President of the Republic by the junta in 1974 and thus became the dictator of Chile, and from 1981 to 1990 as de jure president after a new constitution which confirmed him in the office was approved by a referendum in 1980.
On 11 September 1973, Pinochet seized power in Chile in a military coup, with the support of the United States, that toppled Salvador Allende's democratically elected left-wing Unidad Popular government and ended civilian rule. In December 1974, the ruling military junta appointed Pinochet Supreme Head of the nation by joint decree, although without the support of one of the coup's instigators, Air Force General Gustavo Leigh [Ascanio Cavallo, La Historia Oculta del Régimen Militar, 1997 (Grijalbo, Santiago)]. After his rise to power, Pinochet persecuted leftists, socialists, and political critics, resulting in the executions of 1,200 to 3,200 people, the internment of as many as 80,000 people, and the torture of tens of thousands. According to the Chilean government, the number of executions and forced disappearances was at least 3,095. Operation Condor, a U.S.-supported terror operation focusing on South America, was founded at the behest of the Pinochet regime in late November 1975, his 60th birthday.
Pinochet's 17-year rule was given a legal framework through a controversial 1980 plebiscite, which approved a new constitution drafted by a government-appointed commission. In a 1988 plebiscite, 56% voted against Pinochet's continuing as president, which led to democratic elections for the presidency and Congress. After stepping down in 1990, Pinochet continued to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army until 10 March 1998, when he retired and became a senator-for-life in accordance with his 1980 Constitution. However, while in London in 1998 Pinochet was arrested under an international arrest warrant in connection with numerous human rights violations. Following a legal battle, he was released on grounds of ill-health and returned to Chile on 3 March 2000. In 2004, Chilean Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia ruled that Pinochet was medically fit to stand trial and placed him under house arrest. By the time of his death on 10 December 2006, about 300 criminal charges were still pending against him in Chile for numerous human rights violations during his 17-year rule.
Brazil, July 1983
Jorge was in Brazil during July 1983. On Friday 29 July, he gave a recital in the Cine-Teatro Embaixador, Gramado (Rio Grande do Sul). Saturday was chamber music (Schubert's Trout Quintet) with cellist Peter Dauelsberg and violinist Viktoria Mullova who had just sought asylum in the West (as reported in Jornal do Brasil 6.7.83) - I assume Bolet was the pianist - and on Sunday 31 at 11am he played one of the two concertos by Brahms with the Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre (a city 126km away), presumably under Eleazar de Carvalho, the driving force behind the festival.
Gramado is "like a Swiss mountain village – boutiques sell avant-garde glasswork and gourmet chocolate, local restaurants specialise in fondue, hotels are decked out like Swiss chalets". [Lonely Planet Guide]
The pianist Roberto Szidon was born in Porto Alegre in 1941; studied with Claudio Arrau and was a distinguished performer of the 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies of Liszt. Although born in Brazil, Szidon was of Hungarian descent. Even though a remarkably gifted child, he avoided the life of a child prodigy, studying medicine alongside his musical education and becoming a medical officer in the Brazilian army.
Listen to No.9 in E flat, S.244 "Pesther Carneval" which he recorded in March 1972 in Plenarsaal der Akademie der Wissenschaften, Munich). Liszt used five themes in this rhapsody, including authentic Hungarian folk songs, A kertmegi káposzta ("Garden cabbage") and Mikor én még legény voltam ("When I was still a bachelor"). Szidon's technique is ear-ticklingly immaculate.
Rachmaninoff filmed (1983)
In the first programme, JB was interviewed by Robin Ray (1934-1998), an English broadcaster, actor, and musician, famous among other things for an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Köchel numbers of Mozart works, which he displayed on a popular Sunday evening music panel show, Face The Music. (His cheerful manner and boyish good looks made him a great favourite with viewers.). The theme music for the show was the Popular Song from the Façade suite by Sir William Walton (who was a guest on the programme in his 70th birthday year). Jorge himself was also a guest - along with Labour MP the Rt Hon. Denis Healey (Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979, later Baron Healey) - on the programme which went out on Sunday afternoon 2 December 1984.
‘Four television appearances can do for
an artist what music critics fail to achieve
in twice as many years'
There was a BBC 2 broadcast on 13 August at 7:40 pm of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 3 in D minor Op. 30, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Bryden Thompson. It had been recorded before an invited audience in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, earlier in the year on 27 February.
In the previous few weeks there had been masterclasses on BBC television from Edinburgh on the concerto which brought Bolet considerably wide publicity in the UK. The programmes set the seal upon the DECCA Liszt volume 1 which had appeared earlier in the year to a very favourable review in Gramophone by Max Harrison. Students included Barry Douglas from Belfast, Ira Levin, USA and Jose Feghali, Brazil
Photo: Edinburgh (Kenny Lam)
On Sunday, 18 September 1983 Bolet gave a recital in Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, at 7.15pm (Brahms, Rachmaninov, Liszt). It was reviewed in the Financial Times [20.9.83] by Dominic Gill. He refers to the BBC Scotland Rachmaninoff masterclasses broadcast in August, and says that ‘Four television appearances can do for an artist what music critics fail to achieve in twice as many years'.
Such a statement is a great tribute to the BBC whose role in Bolet’s career was considerable.
The QEH was sold out. ‘A Gondoliera of silken sensuousness and a Tarantella of irresistible (though too constrained and benign to be truly diabolical) urgency.’ Jorge was represented at this time by Basil Douglas Ltd., an agency founded by the aforenamed Scottish music administrator and agent (1914 -1992). Mr Douglas read Classics at Magdalen College, Oxford. From 1951 to 1957, he was General Manager of the English Opera Group; he was invited to take the position by Benjamin Britten.
On 19-22 October 1983 in Kingsway Hall, London, Jorge recorded Liszt's Années de pèlerinage : Venezia e Napoli S162, Les Jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este S163/4, Ballade No.2 in B minor S171 and Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude S173/3. This was Volume 6 of the series and it was issued in August 1985. The producer was Peter Wadland and the sound engineer, John Pellowe.
Jorge gave a recital in The Netherlands on Saturday, 29 October in Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, Utrecht (this can be heard in great sound from a recording by Dutch radio).
Années de pèlerinage: Deuxième Année (Italie) S.161: Sonetti 47, 104 & 123 del Petrarca
Après une lecture du Dante. Fantasia quasi Sonata (S.161/7)
Sposalizio (S.161/1)
Il Pensieroso (S.161/2)
Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa (S.161/3)
Venezia e Napoli: Supplément aux Années de pèlerinage S.162
This recital formed part of a Holland festival of Liszt; other pianists included John Bingham, Ronald Brautigam, Cyprien Katsaris and Arnaldo Cohen (De Volksrant, 29.10.83). Liszt's Faust Symphony was to be performed again the following week in Rotterdam, 'after the great success in the previous season'.
"Gaan we met Bolet, een van de giganten van de piano, een afgezant, weer even terug naar die Gouden Eeuw?" (Are we going back with Bolet, one of the giants of the piano, an emissary, to that Golden Age?) asks journalist Henk de By.
In this recital, Bolet played on a Bechstein E 280. Peter Lemkin has stated that this piano 'is the one that basically traveled with him in Europe for all of his performances and recordings in the 1980s. This particular Bechstein is now in the small concert hall of the Bechstein factory in Hradec Králové, Czechia'. But in fact many of the DECCA recordings list the instrument as EN280, which was the successor to E 280.
28 November, 1983: Milan, Italy (Sala Puccini of the Conservatorio di Milano). This concert was advertised as being in honour of Godowsky's appearance in Milan in 1913. Jorge had played before for the Serate Musicali ("Musical Evenings") in 1975 and was to do so again in 1986. It was under the aegis of the Cultural Association for the Promotion of Chamber Music.
Brahms: Three Intermezzi, Op.117; Piano Sonata No.3 in F minor, Op.5
Godowsky: Elegy for the left hand alone
Schubert/Godowsky: Ballet Music from Rosamunde
Godowsky: The Gardens of Buitenzorg (Java Suite, Book III No.2) - *on MARSTON CDs
Chopin/Godowsky: Four Études
o Op.25 No.1 in A-flat major (Study No.25 in A-flat major)
o Op.10 No.7 in C major (Study No.15 in G-flat major | Nocturne)
o Op.10 No.6 in E-flat minor (Study No.13 in E-flat minor | for the left hand alone)
o Op.10 No.5 in G-flat major (Study No.12 in G-flat major | inversion)
Kreisler/Rachmaninoff: Liebesleid & Liebesfreud (from Three Old Viennese Dances)
3 December, 1983: Salle Gaveau, Paris, France
Brahms: Three Intermezzi, Op.117; Piano Sonata No.3 in F minor, Op.5
Rachmaninoff: Variations on a theme by Chopin, Op.22
Liszt: Tarantella, S.162 No.3 (from Venezia e Napoli)
A programme for the Théâtre de Champs-Elysées (23.11.87) states that Paris first discovered Bolet at the Salle Gaveau in 1984, a year out to judge by some similarities with the Milan programme.
Sunday, 11 December 1983, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam: Brahms' Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Rachmaninoff's Chopin Variations. Sabine Lichtenstein in Het Parool delared it an 'overwhelming success for Jorge Bolet.
The management might try out the idea of never engaging Bolet in the winter again, but only in late spring and early autumn: every cough - and it was a real cacophony yesterday - is a battering for the nervous system of the listener and confronted many with loss of concentration. In his hands, these works require so much attention because his playing is much more effectless than is often claimed; not a decibel more, not a note longer and not a silence longer than necessary to clarify the structure. (In zijn handen vragen deze werken zoveel aandacht doordat zijn spel veel effectlozer is dan vaak wordt beweerd; geen decibel meer, geen noot langer en' ook geen stilte gerekter dan noodzakelijk voor het verduidelijken van de structuur.) However, on Sunday it became clear how the fairy tale of his 'frequent thundering fortissimi' must have originated. (Zondag werd echter duideüjk hoe het sprookje van zijn 'veelvuldige denderende fortissimi' moet zijn ontstaan.) Bolet presented Brahms' Intermezzi opus 117 as if through a gauze curtain; they seemed more like old myths than romantic words without words. The forte that follows quite quickly, with which Brahms' Sonata begins, thus comes across as a thunderclap from a misty sky. By the way, Jorge Bolet, unhindered by a slender body and hand build, of course knows Amsterdam, Concertgebouw, Main Hall.' He ended with Gondoliera and Tarantella from Venezia e Napoli.
Naumburg, September 1983
British pianist (now Sir) Stephen Hough won first place in the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation International Piano Competition on 27 September. The award included a $5,000 prize, two subsidised recitals in Alice Tully Hall, orchestral and recital appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Chicago Symphony, among others.
Hough, 21 years old, was currently studying at the Juilliard School with Adele Marcus. The jury panel consisted of Jorge Bolet, Ruth Laredo, Gaby Casadesus, Martin Canin, Gilbert Kalish, Jerome Lowenthal, Jacob Lateiner, Edward Gordon and Nathan Schwartz.
Founded in 1925, the Naumburg Competition is one of the more highly regarded music contests in the United States. Writing in the Boston Review (December 1985), Michael Kimmelman stated that 'Until the late 1950s, probably the most important classical music competition was the Queen Elisabeth, in Belgium. Started in 1937, its first two winners were no less than violinist David Oistrakh, and, in 1938, pianist Emil Gilels. But the Belgian contest lost its preeminence in 1958 when the young Texan Van Cliburn rode into Moscow in the aftermath of the Cold War and grabbed top honors in the Tchaikovsky. The win made that competition the primus inter pares of music contests and made Cliburn an Arnerican hero. A ticker-tape parade in New York capped the pianist’s victorious return from the Soviet Union.
'Since then—and very much as an outgrowth of that dramatic event—literally hundreds of music competitions of various sizes and for virtually every kind of player and ensemble have sprung up around the world.
Stephen Hough
'“There are so many musicians today, there has to be some way of filtering the lesser ones out,” says pianist Hough. Yet, like many contest regulars, Hough is well aware of the pitfalls in the system; he wonders whether the right ones are being filtered out. “Competitions can ignore so many important aspects of music, particularly the artistry. The ones who play it safe and get the notes right are too often the ones who emerge victorious,” he says.'
'It took only twenty minutes for the jury to reemerge that late September afternoon two years ago. [...] First prize, Robert Mann [President] contended, had been a simpler matter, because the choice was recognized by all the judges to be an artist “with a rare portion of individuality.” English-born Stephen Hough, a much-heralded twenty-two-year-old, was their unanimous choice as winner of the 1983 Naumburg Competition.'
1984
'I've had a frustrating career in many ways. It has come late but it has finally arrived.'
8 March, 1984 at Barbican Hall, London: LSO with Ivan Fischer. Symphony no.8 (Schubert); Hungarian Fantasy; Totentanz (Liszt); Symphony no.8 (Dvorak).
On Saturday 10 he performed Chopin's PIano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, and on Sunday 11 a recital, both again at the Barbican. Horacio Gutierrez, a compatriot of Bolet, has said of Chopin's first concerto: 'The idea is to give it a feeling of effortlessness, spinning it out like a song.' (Gutierrez was born in Havana, but he left Fidel Castro's Cuba at age 12 in 1961, emigrating with his family, who eventually settled in Los Angeles.)
Sandwiched between these concerts, on 7 & 9 Mar 1984 in Walthamstow Assembly Hall, Bolet, Iván Fischer and the LSO record: Liszt's Malédiction S121, Fantasia on a Theme from Beethoven’s “Ruinen von Athen” S122, Hungarian Fantasia S123 and Totentanz S126. The "Ruins of Athens" went unpublished: perhaps it was not completed within the time available. The disc was released in April 1985.
Friday, 30 March 1984 in Fairbanks, Alaska in the Hering Auditorium. Fairbanks Daily News Miner (22 March) had already announced the imminent arrival of the 'Cuban-born superpianist'. 'Jorge Bolet is definitely a one man show.' Fairbanks is the second-largest city in Alaska (after Anchorage), and its origins can be traced to the founding of a trading post by E.T. Barnette on the south bank of the Chena River on 26 August, 1901. Gold was found! A later report in the same newspaper (October 1984) says that Jorge Bolet is performing 150 times this season and has signed a contract to open a new hall in Köln/Cologne, West Germany in 1987. 'I've had a frustrating career in many ways. It has come late but it has finally arrived.'
On 14 March, he played the Schumann Concerto with the Czech Philharmonic and Jiří Bělohlávek - a familiar figure to British audiences thanks to his work with the BBC Symphony and at Glyndebourne, - in Carnegie Hall in an otherwise very Bohemian concert of Janaček's Cunning Little Vixen suite, Suk's Serenade for Strings, and three of Dvorak's Slavonic Dances.
16-22 April: Curtis Institute 60th anniversary
8/9 May 1984 with the Fort Lauderdale SO, Florida, at the War Memorial Auditorium. (Earl Wild performed there on 4/5 October 1983)
In May 1984 there was a tour (?) of South America (as stated by JB on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in March 1985 when discussing the thousand of miles travelling he does every year). On 11 June 1984 (as reported in Cidade de Santos), Jorge played Rachmaninoff's second concerto with the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado/ Eleazar de Carvalho in the Teatro Cultura Artística, São Paulo (rua Nestor Pestana 196), Brazil.
Saturday 8 July, 1984 in Quebec City, Canada – a solo recital in the Salle Octave-Crémazie (Grand Théâtre) of three well-known Beethoven sonatas, Moonlight, Les Adieux and Apassionata, as part of a local Beethoven festival. The reviewer in Le Soleil (9.7.84) felt that he was perhaps intimidated by these sonatas but that this was not a view shared by the enthusiastic audience. With Simon Streatfeild (sic) and the OSQ he had also performed Beethoven's 4th and 5th concertos the evening before, Friday 7th, in the Salle Louis-Fréchette of the Grand Théâtre de Québec. The second pianist in the first three Beethoven concertos was Garrick Ohlsson, who had studied with Claudio Arrau (two dozen lessons during 1973/74) and whose age - it was observed - JB doubled.
The 4th was found pleasing but 'son "Empereur" m’ est toutefois apparu moins convaincant. Au-delà de certaines défaillances techniques, c'est surtout la conception quelque peu extérieure dans sa noblesse qui empêchait cette exécution de trouver une plus grande dimension musicale.' (Marc Samson)
'His "Emperor", however, struck me as less convincing. Beyond certain technical failures, it is above all the somewhat external design in its nobility that prevented this performance from finding a greater musical dimension.'
[14 July] Town Hall, Cheltenham, England – solo recital
16-20 July City of London Festival at Bishopsgate Hall, opposite Liverpool Street Station: magnificent performances of Liszt's Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude and Chopin’s third sonata, broadcast on BBC Radio 3. The BBC could do a real service to Bolet by issuing these recordings.
21 July 1984 St Nicholas’ Chapel, King’s Lynn, Norfolk. Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Chopin's wonderful Barcarolle in F # major Op.60 - not often seen on programmes thus far - Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No 12 etc.
JB with Joseph Cooper, in 1984, Kings Lynn, UK
In July 1984 he recorded a series of masterclasses on Rachmaninov's second piano concerto in C minor for the BBC (broadcast November 1985). Kathryn Stott was among the students. (On Sunday 15 Dec 1985, as the culmination to masterclasses, workshops and discussions on the work, Michael Oliver introduced a performance of Rachmaninov's Concerto played by Jorge Bolet with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Berglund, probably also recorded in 1984. There is a valuable video of a section of the rehearsal.)
Claudio Arrau returns to Chile, May 1984
Claudio Arrau made a 15-day tour of his homeland Chile, arriving on Thursday 10 May, after a 17-year absence. On Friday 11 May, there were rehearsals with conductor Juan Pablo Izquierdo and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Santiago
at the Teatro Municipal, whilst anti-government street protesters clashed with police forces resulting in one
18-year-old dead and 170 arrests.
'Mr. Arrau had stayed away from Chile largely because of, first, his questions about the democratic intentions of the Marxist Government of President Salvadore Allende Gossens that was elected in 1970 and, later, his abhorrence of totalitarianism following the Pinochet coup in 1973.
He [had] returned often to play in Santiago, but the last time was in 1967. Since his arrival Thursday, Mr. Arrau has been accorded the national attention normally reserved for heads of state and rock stars. He travels in a long sleek Daimler limousine with a police escort, and has so dominated the country's newspapers for the last two weeks that even the arrival of his Steinway piano was worthy of a front page color photograph in El Mercurio, the leading newspaper. He said after the 'heavy side' of his German influence, the return has 'awakened a sort of easy going part of me that was asleep...'
(Edward Schumacher, New York Times 14.5.84)
Lautaro, a music student from Argentina, speaks about Arrau's return
An article in Chilean newspaper El Mercurio (17.3.84) led with "there is a great probability that Claudio Arrau will come to Chile this year" and "the great Cuban American pianist Jorge Bolet will play Liszt's two concertos" (May 1984). On Wednesday 21 March, the autumn-winter season at the Teatro Municipal (Santiago de Chile) will begin with Mahler's monumental third symphony.
In a bank vault in Perú!
Sometime in 1984 (perhaps in May- see above) Jorge made his only appearance in Peru, giving a recital in a bank, Banco Continental whose principal offices are located in San Isidro, Lima.
Two extraordinary events that occurred in the cultural life of the country in the course of this year were the result of the dynamic action carried out by Banco Continental in the field of artistic manifestations. The first event was the recovery, in an auction held at the world-renowned Sotheby's Gallery in New York, of 120 watercolours painted at the end of the 18th century by native artists, commissioned by Baltasar Jaime Martínez Compañón, Bishop of Trujillo and later Archbishop of Bogotá, of the flora and fauna and uses and customs of the Diocese of Trujillo. Another singular event was the presentation of the Cuban-North-American pianist Jorge Bolet in the Auditorium of the Banco Continental. It was the only recital of his visit to Peru and offered works by Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt.
Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana 10, No. 20 (1984), Antonio Cornejo Polar
Spanish pianist Joaquín Achúcarro had played in Lima on 22 May 1984, a recital of Bach, Schumann, Debussy and Albéniz in the Auditorio of Colegio Santa Ursula in San Isidro. (El Comercio, 22.5.84)
At this time, there was an ongoing armed conflict between the government and the Maoist guerilla group Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso). The conflict began on 17 May 1980, and from 1982 to 1997 the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement waged its own insurgency as a Marxist–Leninist rival to the Shining Path. At the time of Jorge's visit, Fernando Belaúnde Terry (1912 – 2002) was served as President (his second time, 1980–1985). In December 1982, he had declared a state of emergency and ordered that the Peruvian Armed Forces fight Shining Path, granting them extraordinary power. Military leadership adopted practices used by Argentina during the (erroneously termed) Dirty War, committing many human right violations in the area where it had political control, with entire villages being massacred by the Peruvian armed forces while hundreds of civilians were forcibly disappear by troops. The Indigenous peoples of Peru were specifically targeted by killings, with 75% of those killed speaking Quechua as their native language.
SUNDAY, 7 OCTOBER, Festival Hall, London at 3.15pm. LPO - Klaus Tennstedt. Oberon Overture (Weber); Piano Concerto (Schumann); Symphony no.9 (Schubert). The Schumann was issued on a BBC Legends disc.
The same programme had been performed the previous evening Saturday, 6 October, up north in Leeds.
'Though Bolet is an authentic virtuoso, nobody who has followed his recitals in recent years would have expected him to impose fireworks upon the Concerto. (I still wince to recall that when a colleague at the Edinburgh Festival had passed up a Bolet appearance and I expressed surprise, he retorted: 'Bolet? but he's just fingers, isn't he?') In fact the first two movements of the Schumann were richly reflective, unhurried, and as affetuoso and grazioso as one could wish; powerfully incisive when that was needed, but otherwise pure Schumann chamber-music, lit up with personal touches - notably two tantalising decrescendi where ordinary pianists always aim to screw up the excitement - and unfailingly beautiful sound.
'In all this Bolet was ready to slip as required into the role of mere orchestral contributor, and Tennstedt repaid the compliment by matching his soloist's reading with the utmost sympathy. That resulted in the most ripely balanced and searching account of the first movement that I have heard in years, and an Intermezzo of teasing delicacy. The Finale was more problematic: Bolet's present taste for leisurely tempi in music he loves gave us something considerably less than Schumann's 'Allegro vivace' - maybe a 'Maestoso ma leggiero' - and though Tennstedt ensured that his strings answered faithfully to Bolet's deliberate articulation of the main theme, the effect was less buoyant than the composer surely intended.'
David Murray, Financial Times
Warsaw again
Jorge returned to Poland for a brief visit to the country where he'd last been in May and June 1961.
On 19/20 October 1984 (Friday/Saturday), in the Filharmonia Narodowa, Warsaw, he performed with the Warsaw Philharmonic under the Hungarian Ádám Medveczky. The programme: Liszt's symphonic poem "Tasso", Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2, and Kodály's "Dances of Galanta" (Stolica: warszawski tygodnik ilustrowany, R. 39, 1984 nr 42 [14 X]).
Dances of Galánta (Galántai táncok) is a 1933 orchestral work by Zoltán Kodály. The piece was composed on commission for the 80th anniversary of the Budapest Philharmonic Society, and was based on folk music of Galánta (now part of Slovakia), where Kodály lived for several years. Kodály took these specific melodies from a volume of Hungarian "Gypsy" dances published in Vienna a century earlier. Thus, the source material is not to be confused with music collected earlier by Kodály and Bartók on their expeditions into the countryside. (The archives of the Warsaw Philharmonic have this concert down for 19/20 October 1985, but this may an error)
On 13 December 1981, claiming that the country was on the verge of economic and civil breakdown and alleging a danger of Soviet intervention, General Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law in order to destroy by force "Solidarity"[Solidarność], the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union formed under The Gdańsk Agreement of August 1980 - an important milestone; they restricted civil liberties, imprisoned thousands of people, mainly opposition members, and brutally suppressed strikes and protests. Lech Wałęsa, the Chairman of “Solidarity”, a shipyard electrician by trade, would eventually lead a successful pro-democratic effort, which in 1989 ended Communist rule in Poland and ushered in the end of the Cold War. He had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983. During the chaotic years of Solidarity and martial law, Poland entered a decade of economic crisis. Managerial ineffectiveness, bad organisation of production and shortages of inputs and raw materials were among the factors that contributed to further deterioration of workers' morale. 640,000 people of productive age left the country between 1981 and 1988.
Although the communists lifted martial law in 1983, the repressions against the opposition continued. Public opinion was in uproar at the death of the Catholic priest and chaplain of “Solidarity,” Jerzy Popiełuszko. His murderers were officers of the Security Service, the instrument of conspiracy in the Polish People's Republic [Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa]. Jorge Bolet may well have been unnerved by his visit at this time (see note under 1961): Popiełuszko was assassinated on 19th October, the very day of Jorge's concert.
The priest had arrived in Bydgoszcz on 19 October 1984. At 6pm, he celebrated Holy Mass at the Church of the Holy Polish Brothers Martyrs. Later that evening, the priest was beaten to death by three Security Police officers: Captain Grzegorz Piotrowski, Leszek Pękala, and Waldemar Chmielewski. They pretended to have problems with their car and flagged down Popiełuszko's car for help. Popiełuszko was severely beaten, tied up and put in the trunk of the car. The officers bound a stone to his feet and dropped him into the Vistula Water Reservoir near Włocławek from where his body was recovered on 30 October 1984.
News of the political murder caused an uproar throughout Poland, and the murderers and one of their superiors, Colonel Adam Pietruszka, were convicted of the crime. A huge crowd estimated to be between 600,000 to 1 million, including Lech Wałęsa, attended his funeral on 3 November 1984.
Popiełuszko has been recognised as a martyr by the Catholic Church and was beatified on 6 June 2010 by Cardinal Angelo Amato on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI.
22 October 1984 Genoa, Italy. A recital including Schubert (Wanderer Fantasy) & Liszt in the Teatro Margherita, a historic theatre (1853), alas, now a shopping centre. La Stampa 24.10.84 reported: 'For the second seasonal appointment, the Giovine Genovese Orchestra hosted another pianist on Monday evening at the Margherita: after the great Claudio Arrau [on the 18th], in fact, Jorge Bolet. Bolet, trained in the old school, is musically profound, precise, gifted with brilliant technique. The interpretations turned out to be, on the whole, pleasant; unfortunately the programme was not particularly interesting. "Six ugly transcriptions elaborated by Liszt of as many splendid Schubert's Lieder and, to conclude, two boring Studies of Transcendental Execution (11 and 8), again by the Hungarian. (...) Schubert's Lieder, entirely resolved in the perfect fusion of sounds and words, however, do not lend themselves to Liszt's virtuoso treatment.'
23, 24 November 1984, Philadelphia Orchestra under Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos; Academy of Music, Philadelphia:
GLUCK, Alceste, overture, WEBER, Konzertstück for piano and orchestra, FRANCK, Symphonic Variations
DEBUSSY, La mer, KODÁLY, Háry János, suite
Another BBC Masterclass
It was also in July of this year (1984) that Jorge spent a week teaching one of the most well-known concertos in the piano repertoire, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No 2 in C minor. Hilary Boulding, who produced the programmes, has written:
"When JB arrived in the studio in Edinburgh for the second series he was very relaxed. I had selected the same camera and sound crew so that he felt at ease. I remembering Jorge coming into the studio and saying to the crew – ‘This is going to be all FUN!’
"He had boundless energy – at the end of recordings he would sit at the piano and talk about pianists he had met, telling stories about the quirks of their playing.
He described seeing Rachmaninoff play when he (JB) was young. And he would demonstrate all sorts of features about different piano pieces. He was most at ease at a keyboard."
Peter Wadland, JB's producer for DECCA, remembers Bolet & Russian pianist Emil Gilels. ‘One of the most memorable occasions was when I took him to a Gilels concert around 1984, at the Royal Festival Hall. At the end, he asked me if I knew Gilels. I did not, but felt sure that there would be some backstage who could introduce him. My main worry was that I thought Gilels would have no idea who he was. My fears were unfounded, for on introduction, Gilels kept embracing Jorge, exclaiming "Jorge Bolet—great. pianist", to which Jorge replied "So are you". It was a peculiar sight, with big Jorge (he was over six foot tall) being embraced by the diminutive Gilels.
In October 1970, Emil Gilels had told Jacob Siskind of the The Gazette (Montreal): ‘I enjoy recordings – I don’t have too many, I’m not a collector in any sense, but they give me a great deal of pleasure.
I remember that about 10 years ago I was shopping in Brussels and while looking through the bins I found a copy of the Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto performed by Jorge Bolet. I picked it up and I have listened to it very often.’
Peter Wadland, JB's producer for DECCA,
Peter Wadland remembers Bolet in the studio:
'In the USA, he played a Baldwin while in Europe he played a Bechstein, right up until 1987, when he changed to a Baldwin also. Having watched him playing for hours, I understood why he did not like playing a Steinway. In his opinion the soft pedal changed the tone of the instrument too much.
'During his playing, he kept both feet on the pedals, using the 'soft' pedal as much as the sustaining pedal. This helped to produce his very individual sound for the instrument. I was always amazed at how the keyboard shifted from side to side constantly when performing.
'I have to say that we did tend to have problems with the Bechstein. There was only one instrument then in London, and every time it appeared for a recording, it had been reserviced in Germany and returned in a different state. It was very lucky that I had the good fortune of employing Michael Lewis (son of the late Richard) and Denijs de Winter, both of whom Jorge adored, to tune and maintain the piano during recording sessions.'
Gramophone, January 1991
Hilary Finch reviewed Liszt volume 3 (recorded in September 1982) on Saturday, 31 March 1984 for The Times. 'Jorge Bolet continues his homage to Liszt, turning now to a big-framed, grandiloquent performance of the B minor Sonata. This is not a reading which, like Arrau's for instance, has steeped itself for long, dark hours in the Faust legend; rather it gives a lovingly perceptive understanding of how quintessentially pianistic inspiration gives shape to musical evolutionary ideas. No less rich in bright Bolet detail - and revealing him now as a white-jacketed entertainer - are the Valse Impromptu and Grand Galop.'
