'The least well-known world famous pianist in the Bay area.'
This heading is from an interview in the San Francisco Chronicle ,11 September 1985.
Bolet offers a small insight into his routine. 'When on tour, I have the music very well in my fingers. On the day of performance I try out the piano for an hour, maximum two – to make friends with the instrument. That’s all the finger wiggling I need.’
In an interview with Die Transvaler (January 1976) during a tour of South Africa, Jorge is asked whether he practises for hours and hours. 'He smiled slyly before replying: "I let people think so! I solve my biggest technical problems away from the piano. If you cannot do that, then you are the piano's slave.'
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He contradicts himself in the 1983 Edinburgh Rachmaninoff masterclasses when he tells the audience that "How long do you practise?" is the one question he will never answer. 'I have had many students, and I have never asked one of them "How much practice are you doing?", though I have told some: "You're not practising enough!"'
Paris, 1980s Photo: Anna Birgit
The Liszt Anniversary Year
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Among awards to prominent Lisztians, those presented on behalf of the Hungarian People's Republic during 1986 deserve special mention. At a reception in Washington, D. C., Franz Liszt Commemorative Medals were awarded to fifteen performers, scholars, and editors - among them Jorge Bolet, André Watts, Fernando Laires, Frank Cooper, Maurice Hinson, and the British scholar Alan Walker, who had written a probably definitive biography in 3 volumes.
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Earl Wild, a leading Liszt exponent, celebrated his 70th birthday this season (it fell on 26 November 1985) and commemorated the Liszt centenary with three Liszt recitals at Carnegie Hall in February. This is the final of the three, Liszt the Virtuoso, 26 February at Carnegie Hall.
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Wild was filmed in the summer of 1986 (26, 28 & 30th) at the home of Lord Londonderry in recitals to celebrate the life and music of Franz Liszt. Alistair Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 9th Marquess of Londonderry (1937- 20 June, 2012, in Richmond, Surrey) had inherited considerable family assets in 1965 – including the grand Londonderry House at the foot of London’s Park Lane, the estate in Wynyard Park in County Durham and the opulent Mount Stewart in County Down. For many years in later life, Londonderry split his life between his villa in Tuscany and a house in Shaftesbury, Dorset. The family estate, Wynyard Park (which he had to sell in 1987) was described by Nikolaus Pevsner as "the most splendid 19th-century mansion house in the county".
This year marked the 175th anniversary of the birth and the 100th anniversary of the death of Franz Liszt (1811-1886).
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Two publications celebrated a famous Hungarian poet's tribute to Liszt: Patrick Rucker, 'Vörösmarty's Ode to Liszt', in Journal of the American Liszt Society vol. 20 and 'Mihály Vörösmarty, To Franz Liszt', in New Hungarian Quarterly 27/103 (1986).
Alfred Brendel
The Austrian pianist was filmed Great Hall of the Middle Temple, London, in 1986 playing both books of Liszt's Années de Pelerinage. He also gave very interesting introductions to each of the individual pieces. He also, at the same time, recorded the music for Philips: Walthamstow, London, March 1986 (Deuxième Année) and October 1986 (Première Année).
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The New York Times (22 April, 1986)
Even in this Liszt year, pianists have not rushed to program his ''Annees de Pelerinage,'' partly because to play all 16 pieces that make up the first two books requires extraordinary dedication to the composer by the performer and a keyboard technique to match. Alfred Brendel, who traversed both the Swiss and Italian books in his Carnegie Hall recital last evening, qualifies on both counts. Not surprisingly, much of the local piano fraternity turned out for the occasion, knowing that the next integral undertaking of this music by a musician of Mr. Brendel's qualifications probably will not happen soon.
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Donal Henahan, in an otherwise not very complimentary review. (He was obviously not listening carefully enough!)
Liszt was once asked why he had never written his autobiography.
Becoming serious, he replied:
'It is enough to have lived such a life as mine.'
'C'était bien assez de la vivre, ma vie, répondit-il en devenant grave.'
Janka Wohl, François Liszt. Souvenirs d'une compatriote (Paris: Paul Ollendorf, 1887)
Â
'The mysterious reasons which determine the fate of fame'
On 21, 22, 25, 27, 28 & 31 January 1986, Jorge was busy recording in St.Barnabas, Woodside Park, London for DECCA.
[a] SCHUMANN Carnaval Op.9Â
[b] SCHUMANN Fantasie in C Op.17
[c] RACHMANINOV Variations on a Theme of Chopin Op.22
[ab] was issued on April 1987),Â
[c] in June 88)
Â
The coda of the 2nd movement of the Fantasie  (Mäßig.
Durchaus energisch - Moderate. Quite energetic, in Eâ™
major) - that notorious locus classicus of the Wrong Note -Â
could hardly be described as a white-knuckle ride,
but the powerful chords at the very end have always
impressed me.
Â
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A European concert tour in January/February 1986 included Turin, Italy. Â La Stampa, 10.1.86 proclaimed:
'Preceded by the hype from the record company for which he has recorded much of Liszt's piano music, the Cuban Jorge Bolet, seventy-two, American by adoption, came to the Auditorium for a concert organised by the Unione Musicale.  Very well known in America, Bolet is much less so here, for the mysterious reasons which determine the fate of fame.  Now also in Italy we are beginning to notice his greatness as an interpreter; he shone in the concert the other night, which included two pieces by Liszt (Ballade no.2  and Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude), Carnaval by Schumann and Sonata No. 3 Op. 58 by Chopin: a true tour-de-force - all played on the high peaks of transcendental virtuosity. Bolet is the antithesis of the brilliant pianist.  In every page he gave the impression of reaching the heart of the piece, with infallible security.'
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On Friday 17 January in the Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, Utrecht  and repeated on Sunday 19, in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Bolet gave a Liszt recital.
Britain, February 1986
Thursday 23 January 1986, a recital in St David's Hall Cardiff, Wales. The South Wales Echo announced the 'internationally acclaimed Cuban pianist Jorge Bolet's programme includes two works by Liszt the Benediction De Dieu Dans La Solitude and Ballade No 2 Schumann's Carnaval and four Ballades by Chopin'. 'Exuberance of Bolet. Schumann's Carnaval is a work which like few others he wrote overflows with his youthful romanticism. Jorge Bolet made one aware of this at his piano recital at St David’s Hall last night before a keen audience. Havana-born Bolet is a fastidious artist to the extent that he chose not to use the hall’s Steinway but instead brought his own even better Bechstein. His reading of Carnaval as expected turned out to be something special. A collection of short related sections, it was like a masked ball at which various characters appeared.
Best of all perhaps was the exuberance he brought to bear. Liszt is one of his specialities and he revels in the music’s technical hurdles and immerses himself in the poetry as he did so effectively and eloquently in the opening bars of the shimmering Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude. In contrast to such inward-looking music there was the rumbling drama of Liszt’s B minor Ballade where every facet of Bolet’s considerable technique was utilised in a performance combining controlled restraint and singing power He treated the opening in a big broad grandoise style In the subsequent quieter passages he seemed to caress the keys creating tonal colours which were always alluring. In the first of Chopin’s four Ballades the G minor his assurance was not as complete as in the Liszt and he made a number of uncharacteristic mistakes which was probably understandable after a first-half which had contained 70 minutes continuous music. Gradually confidence returned and he produced playing of subtlety and sensitivity not least in the familiar fourth Ballade which was among the most perceptively realised them all.'
Monday 3 February 1986: recital in Hanley Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, UK. This is the home of the pottery industry in England. Famous companies such as Royal Doulton, Spode and Wedgwood (founded by Josiah Wedgwood) were established and based there. Schumann’s Carnaval was on the programme, but 'we are also promised Chopin and Liszt, and the Liszt, especially, could set the notes ricocheting'. (Staffordshire Sentinel, 30.1.1986)
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'Playing his own piano, a magnificently resonant Bechstein, Jorge Bolet gave a recital of immense but controlled power in Hanley's Museum Theatre last night. Yet for all its strength and dynamism, his music is amazingly subtle; so good that it is often almost lost in the variety of moods it induces. An early example of Bolet the spellbinder came in Liszt's Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude.'
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'Cynics sneer that Liszt's religion was more religiosity, but this piece, as interpreted last night, touched levels
of visionary contemplation usually associated with late Beethoven.'
Of the many tributes to Jorge Bolet's playing that I've read in the course of research over the years, the above is one of the most most affecting. More here
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'More Liszt followed, the Second Ballade in B minor. The singing tone of the Bechstein made for an intensely dramatic performance; the bold rhythms and brilliant climax were effortlessly realised. The young Schumann's Carnaval, with its parade of shifting emotion, was thrilling, though occasionally lacking the wistful. Chopin's Third Sonata in B minor was a marvel in the high romantic style. Bolet played this, the composer's longest and greatest work, with tremendous verve yet the economy necessary to bring out the exquisite, leaping melodies, and then threw in show-stoppers by Godowsky and Moszkowski as encores. (Eric Snape, Staffordshire Sentinel, 4.2.1986). Mr Snape retired in 2007 after a career on the newspaper spanning six decades.
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8/9 February 1986 with the Scottish Orchestra in The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh and across the country in the City Hall, Glasgow, Scotland. (I note that one of my piano teachers Hungarian/Australian Gustav Fenyö was playing at Craigie College, Ayr (39 miles from Glasgow) on the 8th, and one of my tutors at university - though I was not studying Music - Russian music expert Stuart Campbell was giving a Bach organ recital in Lysleland Parish Church, Glasgow on the 9th.)
Michael Tumelty reviewed the Glasgow concert, and it seems that Wilfried Boettcher was rather stolid in the first half, Bartok's Divertimento lacking true Magyar fire in the belly. Suddenly, in the second half things changed when Jorge Bolet gave a performance of Chopin's first piano concerto which 'enthralled and hypnotised the audience with its vigour and poetry'. He drew on a limitless palette of tonal and dynamic variety. The slow movement wove a web of ravishing lyricism. A simple and moving Bizet Adagietto (in Godowsky's surprisingly straightforward arrangement) was the encore.
Retires from Curtis, 1986
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It was in February of this year that Bolet left his post as Head of Piano at the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia. His letter of resignation is dated 11 February 1986, and is addressed Mrs Cary William Bok, President [1977-88], Board of Directors.
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‘During the last few years my career as a performing artist has undergone a considerable change with ever increasing demands upon my time and energies for more performances and recordings.’ He mentions tours and DECCA Records. ‘In view of my present status as one of the few remaining elder statesmen of the great romantic tradition, I feel I must devote my time to my performing career.’
He received a most gracious reply from the President (signed ‘Stormy’ – the maiden name of Mrs Cary William Bok was Anges Margaret Storm,1920-2018).
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‘We want you to feel that this is your spiritual home and to know that our hearts will be with you always. Our pride in your success will assuage our loss.’
An obituary of A. Margaret “Stormy” Bok describes her as: avid gardener, swimmer, former assistant lighthouse keeper, dog lover, registered nurse, and matriarch of the Curtis School of Music in Philadelphia, an independent New Englander throughout her 98 years. She died 27 October, 2018 surrounded by loved ones at her home in Rockport, Maine.
Michael Kimmelman, 27 March, 1986 in the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote a review of a recital in Curtis, a still elegant institute on Rittenhouse Square. It included Grieg, Brahms (Ballades), Liszt and Chopin. ‘At once fascinating and perplexing, brooding, dark quality, at times studied, a fine line between hypnotic and soporific. How rare it is to hear an artist of such distinctive character and compelling vision.’
​Thursday, 3 April, 1986 at 8PM in Carnegie Hall, New York. Amongst the items were Chopin's and Brahms's Ballades (the latter's 4 Ballades Op. 10, written in 1854) and Edward Grieg's Ballade Variations on a Norwegian Melody, Op. 24 (1875-1876). Clearly a "Ballade" Evening! Grieg's Ballade was highly regarded by Leopold Godowsky who recorded it for English Columbia in 1929. 'Some say that his best recorded performance is that of Grieg's Ballade, where he certainly conveys the work's elegant, wistful charm and beauty, and where he brings out the nature of each variation with great subtlety.' Gramophone April 1989
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On 9-11 April, JB performed the Variations Symphoniques of César Franck in Amsterdam (Wed/Thurs) and Utrecht (Friday) with the orchestra's conductor, the Italian maestro Riccardo Chailly. These would seem to be Bolet's only appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, according to the online archives. The concert in Utrecht was in the Muziekcentrum Vredenburg and the programme as a whole was mixed, starting with music by Luciano Berio (including his "Folk Songs") and ending with Ravel's Bolero. A recording for DECCA was made (along with the Symphony in D minor) in Grote Zaal, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, 7-11 April 1986.
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15 April 1986, Bergamo (Italy), a Liszt concerto with Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI di Torino under Rudolf Barshai. There seems to have been an orchestra strike.
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The Italian newspaper l'Unità, 17 April 1986 reports: 'In Bergamo, Bolet saves the evening without the RAI orchestra (strikes, industrial action?). The people of Bergamo crowded the Donizetti Theatre and generously welcomed the Cuban pianist Jorge Bolet. No First Concerto (of Liszt) and no Totentanz, but in their place a panorama of Liszt's solo pianism of the central period between 1840 and 1850, approximately, [including Bénédiction de Dieu]. 'L’interprete possiede una splendida tecnica ma non la sfoggia, preferendo rilevare l’eleganza della scrittura e la delicata poesia delle pagine dove il musicista ripiega in se stesso. Il Liszt diabolico, presente nella sonata dantesca, rimane un po’ sullo sfondo, lasciando in primo piano il Liszt meditativo o addirittura salottiero.'
"The interpreter has a splendid technique, but he does not show off, preferring to highlight the elegance of the writing and the delicate poetry of the pages where the musician retreats into himself. The diabolical Liszt , present in the Dante Sonata, remains a little in the background, leaving the meditative Liszt in the foreground or
even in the drawing room."
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17 June 1986, Montreal, Canada: Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal under Charles Dutoit - Mozart's "Haffner" Symphony (No.35) & Rachmaninoff 3. Notre Dame Basilica in Old Montreal.
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26 (?) June 1986: afternoon masterclass at the Library of Congress, Washington DC (see panel below).
'The Franz Liszt Centennial Celebration will be the major musical event in Washington this week, with free concerts, lectures and master classes at the Library of Congress, the Washington Cathedral and St. Matthew's Cathedral. On the evening of 26th, Jorge gave his recital.
JB's recital 'was expected to be the climactic solo performance of the festival, and it was quite an event.'
'What kept grabbing the listener last night at Baird Auditorium was not Bolet's facility, immense as it was, but the intensity of his concentration and the coherence of his phrasing. Bolet's Liszt is celebrated -- for many decades now. It is powerful, very much so, but its greatest strength is poetic. As much as any pianist, Bolet is the master of Liszt's instant shifts of mood from dense turbulence to rapt tenderness and then unexpectedly back again. They are the quintessence of the composer's particular white-hot brand of romanticism.'
'There was no aspect of Bolet's playing that was used to greater poetic effect than his dynamics. Nothing is harder than playing certain things soft -- or, to be more specific, with 15 different degrees of softness. Bolet left you wondering how he did it. Lon Tuck, Washington Post (27.6.1986)
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21 July, 1986: Montpellier, France. Schubert/Liszt: Fantasy in C major, D.760 (Op.15) (S.366) (Wanderer)
– John Eliot Gardiner / Orchestre de l’Opéra de Lyon
Liszt with Solti
'In the Decca vaults are both Liszt concertos recorded with Sir Georg Solti and the London Philharmonic--unedited--presumably at the same time as the issued performance of the Schubert-Liszt Wanderer from this period. My understanding is that Solti refused to pass on the concerto recordings.'
[Francis Crociata]
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The details (from a massively detailed complete Decca Catalogue by Philip Stuart) are as following:
7-10 July 1986 Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London
Jorge Bolet (piano), London Philharmonic Orchestra, Georg Solti
[a] LISZT Piano Concerto No.1 in E flat G124
[b] LISZT Piano Concerto No.2 in A G125
[c] SCHUBERT-LISZT Wanderer Fantasie G366
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Producer: Ray Minshull Engineers: John Dunkerley & Martin Atkinson
[ab] Unpublished: these recordings were considered unsatisfactory, but a planned re-make in October 1987 was cancelled and it was not possible to arrange another date before Bolet’s death. [c] was issued in November 1989.
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A letter which Jorge wrote to Alicia de Larrocha at this time (?) is on notepaper of The Westbury, a luxury hotel in New Bond Street, Mayfair. He say he had dined with Solti and they spoke about her. He mentions that Mozart's 24th Piano Concerto in C minor K491 is his favourite Mozart.
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(The Westbury had originally been designed for the American Phipps family, who created the Westbury hotel in New York and were known for being avid polo players.)
A "Glasgow Kiss" of a review
On Monday 11 August at the Edinburgh Festival, JB performed Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with the BBC Symphony and Sir John Pritchard. It was not a great performance with quite a few slips. I heard it on the radio and recall one review at the time saying that Bolet failed to secure the atmosphere or indeed many of the notes. One commentator on Twitter (10.4.22) has written: 'I will never forget the rehearsal... I have never seen a more bitter, acrimonious clash between two musicians who clearly hated each other.' Michael Tumelty (Glasgow Herald 21 December 1986), a generous and humane critic, and a great advocate of Bolet, states that a rare unanimity among critics was occasioned by this 'catastrophic Edniburgh performance... This was an event which started badly and went on to complete disarray. It provoked football metaphors in this paper.'​​
Michael Tumelty (1946-2020)
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"He was a relentless advocate of all Scotland’s musical life, its personalities, practitioners and institutions, pointedly critical where necessary, but always fair, always informed,
always contextualised.
"An early spotter of prodigious talent,
he vigorously championed the likes of
a young Sir James MacMillan and
a very young Nicola Benedetti."
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The Scotsman, 16 June 2020
On 12 August Tumelty had indeed written in football terms in the Glasgow Herald: 'It quickly turned into a debacle with both soloist and orchestra in tatters; a repetition could have the BBC Symphony Orchestra earmarked for relegation. In the nearest equivalent in music to last Saturday's Rangers-Hibs game, the players finished in disarray, leaving poor old Beethoven in a sorry mess. Sir John Pritchard seemed unable to coordinate the tactics of his orchestra. The woodwind - a harsh-toned, maverick bunch who went their own way - should be reminded to blend their play with the rest of the team. Yellow cards were called for. (...) And Jorge Bolet - that older Maradona of the keyboard - the man of infinite technical resource and endless subtlety of colour. His performance was shot with an unacceptable level of inaccuracy. Musically speaking, whenever the ball landed at his feet, he booted it. Matters improved drastically in Richard Strauss's Alpine Symphony in the second half.'
​Richard Morrison in The Times (13.8.1986): 'To watch so distinguished and long serving a pianist as Jorge Bolet going through a public nightmare was depressing. Passagework went frequently askew, the keys were thumped to increasingly harsh effect, and even in the Adagio, Bolet never found the touches old-style poetry for which he is celebrated. One wonders whether the big string section precipitated the problems: was Bolet simply trying to compete in volume?
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But see the Dundee Courier review in the panel below! ‘Quot homines tot sententiae: suus cuique mos' [There are as many opinions as there are people], as the Roman comic dramatist Terence (c.190–159 BC) once said.]
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Some voices were raised at the BBC Symphony Orchestra's lack of enterprise in including Beethoven's familiar Emperor Concerto in last night's programme in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh. Actually, this, if anything, was worth a visit to Edinburgh, for the soloist was Jorge Bolet, that amazing virtuoso and powerful musical intellect whose repertoire centres round the great romantics, and who seldom strays as far back as Beethoven, writes our Music Critic. With his familiar Bechstein on the platform Bolet showed us a transparency and translucency which few of us ever hear—the inner voices were projected with diamond clarity and crystal-edged precision. Precision, alas, was something not always present as far as the orchestra was concerned. This was not sufficient to detract significantly from this remarkable performance, the slow movement poised and serene, and the final allegro brilliant and glittering.
Dundee Courier, Tuesday 12 August 1986
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​​​During the summer of 1986, JB made his first appearance on Friday 15 August at the 6th Festival International de Piano, La Roque d’Anthéron, France, with a Liszt recital at 9.30pm in Parc du Château de Florans. This took place at Aix-en-Provence with a piano which had to come from Berlin. Bolet was not at all happy with the instrument and a tuner had to be found immediately (this was Belgian piano technician Denijs de Winter, 'considered, in the general opinion, as one of the three best in the world' [Le Figaro Magazine] ). Consultation was all a little abstract, as de Winter did not speak much English. He nevertheless worked for a whole day, right up to the last minute, and JB got up onto the stage without having tried out the piano. Highly impressed, he then asked de Winter to do all his concerts.
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Bolet also reportedly said: 'Now you see, now I have been discovered in France and I cannot make all the dates they want.' There were masterclasses on 14 and 16, with Hélène Grimaud on Liszt’s Dante Sonata and Véronique Pélissero on Chopin’s Sonata No. 3 Op.35 (see panel below).
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Le Monde Diplomatique, 21 August 1986 had a feature, about meeting Jorge Bolet at the Festival de La Roque-d’Anthéron. It is titled: Le mage souriant et triste.
'Ce pianiste longtemps oublié est reconnu aujourd'hui comme l’un des plus grands interprètes de Liszt.'
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The smiling and sad magus (Stéphane Mallarmé). « Il sait bien que son art est une imposture.
Mais il a aussi l’air de dire: c'eût été la vérité.» (He knows well that his art is an imposture.
But he also seems to say: it would have been the truth)
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This pianist, for a long time forgotten, is recognised today as one of the greatest Liszt interpreters. Decca, his record label, was watching, the wind having changed in favour of forgotten composers. 'I never heard Godowsky play; he had had a heart attack ("un infarctus"), and no longer played the piano. He was not a pianist for the big halls, he was - if you like - an artist of the salon. There are salons where the women are elegant and where hands are gently kissed. It is of such ladies that we must think when we play Godowsky, not of dancers wearing après-ski boots.'
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(Mais il y a des salons où les femmes sont élégantes et où l’on pratique le baise-main. C'est à ces
femmes-là qu'il faut penser quand on joue Godowski. Pas à des danseuses chaussées d'après-skis.)
Friday 29 August 1986, recital 9pm, Teatro Carignano, Turin. Haydn, Variations in F minor, Hob.XVII:6 and Piano Sonata E flat major Hob XVI:52 , Schumann, Fantasy in C, Chopin, 4 Ballades. This is one of the oldest and most important theatres in Italy. Building commenced in 1752 and the theatre was inaugurated the following year with a performance of Baldassare Galuppi's opera, Calamità de' cuori. (Nice to see Turin was also performing the ancient Roman playwright Plautus' comedy Casina that same evening.)
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La stampa 30.8.86 reports on the Turin recital. 'For many years, JB was practically a stranger to Italy in concert life. This season, which marks his seventy-second year of age, we have been lucky enough to hear him already for the Unione Musicale, in January, and he had struck us with his noble and refined approach to the romantic world. (In the Schumann), two pianists seemed to be at least partially distinct: one in full harmony with Schumann's Eusebius, ready to chisel the sweetest and most nuanced features with grace and poetry ("pronto a cesellare con grazia e poesia i tratti più dolci e sfumati"); the other who, apart from a few technical incidents, occasionally found it difficult to keep Florestan's sustained and aggressive pace.' The Chopin Ballades found great favour, 'and in the end the audience showered him with enthusiastic acclamations'.
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The origins of the Teatro Carignano date back to the late 16th century. The ascent to the throne of Vittorio Amedeo II /Victor Amadeus II in 1684, and his subsequent nomination as king of Sicily, coincided with the appearance of architect Filippo Juvarra, and the unprecedented urban spaciousness with which he endowed the palazzi and streets of the city of Torino/Turin. In 1740 prince Vittorio Amedeo II /Victor Amadeus II adapted the 17th century hall, known as the Trincotto Rosso, for use as a theatre with the creation of 56 spectator boxes. The building had previously been used for the game known as “pallacorda” (real tennis). It was only in 1727, when ownership of the building passed to the Società dei Cavalieri, that the location was also used for drama, singing and ballet performances.
During the 1752-1753 season, at the request of of Prince Luigi Vittorio di Carignano/Prince Louis Victor of Carignano, the royal architect Alfieri rebuilt the theatre from its foundations up, using a downscaled plan of the Teatro Regio. By Easter 1753 the theatre was inaugurated with a performance of “La Calamita de’ Cuori” (Magnet of Hearts) by Carlo Goldoni, with music by Baldassarre Galluppi. Following a fire that broke out on February 16th, 1786 the theatre had to be rebuilt again to a design by Gian Battista Ferroggio, which included four tiers of boxes. Once the theatre became the property of the City of Torino in 1870, it was redeveloped by architect Carrera.
3-5 & 8 September 1986 Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London: recording
CHOPIN Ballade No.1 in G minor Op.23, Ballade No.2 in F Op.38, Ballade No.3 in A flat Op.47, Ballade No.4 in F minor Op.52; Fantasie in F minor Op.49; Barcarolle in F sharp Op.6
The disc was issued in May 1988
18 September 1986, Salle Olivier Messiaen, Paris
Liszt, Concerto pour piano et orchestre n°2 en la majeur
"Nouvel" orchestre philharmonique de Radio France/ Marek Janowski, direction
Friday, 10 October 1986, de Doelen, Rotterdam
La Roque d’Anthéron, France
Jorge Bolet reportedly said:
'Now you see, now I have been discovered in France, and I cannot make all the dates they want.'
La Roque d’Anthéron 1986
​The Auditorium is located in the heart of a clearing in a small wooded area to the south of the park. Among the various species of trees are Japanese laurels and aralias, yews, hollies, lindens, hazel trees, broad-leaved fusains and many others. A row of sequoïa was planted in the early 2000s.
In addition to the flora, the Park is home to several species of birds: jackdaws, blue and chestnut tits, red tails, tree finches, magpies and oak jays, woodpeckers and orioles. When the sun goes down, tawny owls, barn owls and sometimes even great horned owls complete this fauna.
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In the very first Festival in 1981, 9000 spectators came to hear 12 concerts programmed with performers such as Youri Egorov, Vlado Perlemuter, Martha Argerich and Krystian Zimermann. Since then, more than 700 pianists have been invited.
Hélène Grimaud, "Blue lagoons and green ti' punches..."
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French critic Alain Lomech writes: ‘With a modesty as well as a feeling of misgiving that mark this charming personality, Hélène Grimaud took the risk in the middle of the summer of 1986, of introducing herself to Jorge Bolet, who was giving public lessons in performance at the International Piano Festival in La Roque d’Anthéron.
'While she was already known to specialists, Hélène Grimaud played for the great American pianist originally from Cuba. What did she play? Après une lecture du Dante, by Franz Liszt.
'Embarking on this major piece in front of Jorge Bolet was not without danger. He was thoroughly taken with her. We shall long remember what he had to say to us that very evening, without any prompting: "You were there this afternoon, I saw you in the room. I want you to tell your readers that I have not met such an extraordinary talent as this for a long time".’ Alain Lompech, Label France 41 (2000)
One review of Griamud’s autobiography Wild Harmonies put it even more dramatically:
'These spoken words, once written, were soon heard around the globe, setting the upward trajectory of her star.'​
For 40 years, there has been an International Piano Festival of La Roque d’Anthéron in the grounds of the Château de Florans. The « petit Château » and then the « grand Château » were built between 1598 and 1667 at the instigation of Annibal de Forbin who died in a duel in 1612. In 1937, the Marquise Marie de Florans, the last of her name , bequeathed the family property to the Archbishopric of Aix-en-Provence. In 1981 Paul Onoratini created a Festival, in the heart of Château de Florans Park.
"I wanted to come face to face with a master:
I recognised him as such."
Jorge Bolet practising 'en plein air", at La Roque
Hélène Grimaud writing about JB and about La Roque d'Anthéron, France, where she played the Dante Sonata for him in summer 1987 and ‘bowled him over’.
‘I had seen pictures of him when he was just starting out. His Rudolph Valentino physique heralded an intensely seductive relationship with the world, with a touch of chic like the fruit atop the frosty triangles of glasses holding exotic cocktails: blue lagoons and green ti' punches...
‘I wanted to come face to face with a master: I recognised him as such. At the same time as I was mentally rehearsing, through the window of my room I gazed out at the hundred year old plane trees in the park, trees whose special smell always reminded me of Aix, autumn and the start of classes.’
‘What places to play! Silvacane abbey and the Lake of the Alders. Close your eyes and say these names, say them slowly, in a murmur. Fairies and water-sprites come to mind, don't they? Merlin and Melusina, under the magic wand of Orpheus."
Helene Grimaud, Wild Harmonies, p. 163ff.
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In her memoir, Grimaud presents herself, even as a young child, as ‘uncontrollable,’ ‘unmanageable,’ ‘unsatisfied’. Without siblings, she was friendless in school; a daydreamer, she interrupted to ask inappropriate questions, something she felt guilty about.
There is therefore something marvellously touching about her relationship with Bolet, the controlled, impeccable diplomat.
Hélène Grimaud's comment about recognising him as a master is one of the most affecting things I have read about him, especially as it represents the view of a child-of-nature aged 18/19.
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Christian Johansson informs that there exists a recording of JB working with Hélène Grimaud on Liszt’s Dante Sonata and Véronique Pélissero on Chopin’s Op.35 (89 minutes)
Bolet in London, November 1986
A London recital featured a favourite repertoire piece, championed earlier also by Godowsky.
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'The recital high point, however, was Bolet's sensitively coloured account of Grieg's G minor Ballade. The work comprises nine variations on a folksong; it is a quintessential canvas of Nordic gloom, and not heard often enough. Bolet did not eschew its opportunities for more mercurial, lighter fingerwork, but his prime concern was to convey an inevitable movement towards tragedy: the stormy finale and its wistful coda set the seal on a performance of rare imagination.' Richard Morrison, The Times
On Tuesday 27 November, Bolet played Brahms' second piano concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Hungarian/American Antal Dorati (whose credits include a recording of all 104 of Haydn's symphonies with Philharmonia Hungarica).
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'Reservations have recently been voiced on this page about the performances of Antal Dorati (1906-1988) and, in particular, Jorge Bolet. On Thursday night, they wiped their slates clean. It was one of those evenings when chemistry between conductor, soloist and orchestra was at its most productive; and when the programming itself seemed to bring to the fore some of the most positive and distinctive aspects of their performing characters.
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'It was midsummer Brahms: the Second Piano Concerto and the Second Symphony, both written on holiday retreat in the Australian countryside. It was clearly Dorati's intention to minimize conflict at every point in the concerto's opening movement. The strings, obviously well-rehearsed, purred in assent to Dorati's cultivated phrasing, preparing a context for Bolet's deliquescent figuration and light, fluid rubato. He, in turn, was later to provide a long, expectant approach of sustained pianissimo for the solo cello's beautifully poised return in the Andante.
'Bolet's particular skill at filtering melody into its harmonic support - something which so distinguishes his Liszt playing - made its mark on the second, gentler theme of the Scherzo. It ventilated the properly oppressive three beats - Bolet's playing made us feel the tugging undertow of each one - and, with Dorati's meticulous balance of parts, freed the movement to rise into the major without a hint of the bombastic.'
Hilary Finch, The Times, 29 November, 1986
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On Sunday 30 November, in Avery Fisher Hall, NYC Bolet gave a recital.
'As he sang the alternately doleful and sunny songs of Liszt's ''Venezia e Napoli,'' which closed his program at Avery Fisher Hall Sunday afternoon, one could hardly want more.
What one might want at other times is fire. Mr. Bolet's Schumann (the Fantasy) never got red in the face, and his Haydn was unusually pensive and melancholy (but so beautifully phrased!) in the familiar F minor Variations and E-flat Sonata. The G minor Ballade of Grieg was the highlight of the program, brooding and northerly in spirit, stunningly realized on the piano in all sorts of obvious and less-than-obvious ways. (One long passage involves sonorous middle-register chords at moderate volume, each followed by an ''echo'' in the outer registers. It's difficult to balance; to balance about a dozen in a row with the weighting perfectly matched each time, you must really know what you're doing.)
Mr. Bolet was filling in for a canceled recital by Martha Argerich, and he zipped in between European engagements to do so. Perhaps that could have something to do with the relatively low temperature of the recital, and perhaps also with a memory slip or two. But those are almost a badge of honor nowadays, since they at least prove that a pianist and not a competition robot is on the stage. And Mr. Bolet's pianism merits honor all around.'
( Will Crutchfield, The New York Times 2.12.86)
From a Masterclass on Liszt's Bénédiction de Dieu
Jorge demonstrates to Robert Finley the difficulty a pianist has with the final notes of the composition, in a masterclass at the Library of Congress in Washington DC during the Liszt Centennial, Thursday, 26 June 1986 at 1pm in the Coolidge Auditorium. Tibor Szász, a Hungarian pianist and scholar - Professor of Piano at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany - gave a lecture later that afternoon on 'Liszt's symbolism and musical structure'. Source