"I've been a long time arriving everywhere"

This is an extensive and detailed account of Jorge Bolet during his three visits to Japan in the years 1946, 1976 and 1988 but it also examines the wider picture of his career at these times. Comments, corrections and additions are most welcome. Use the contact box (unless you already have my email). The PDF has been revised to take account of new material: 14 October 2026.

It is not my intention to write a biography of Jorge Bolet, but I thought I would have a go at one chapter on his early years (1914-1927), especially as the material is rather scattered on this website, and confusing, too. This has enabled me to make connections with things I know now about his later life when I see what I have written on the page. Comments, corrections and additions are most welcome. UPDATE! When I say the material is rather scattered and confusing, I mean

Pianist Jorge Bolet always emphasised to students that the melody must be heard. That's what the audience is paying for, and not the accompaniment.

Fons Manuel Clausells (Centre de Documentació de l'Orfeó Català) Source: hispana.mcu.es

6 April 1958 (Sunday, 11am) Teatro Auditorium, Havana, Cuba Mozart No.24 in C minor, K491, Schumann, Rachmaninoff 3 Orquesta Filarmónica de la Habana/Alberto Bolet ​​ Jorge's nephew Samuel Bolet described the concert to me in c.2010/11: 'Memories? I could share a torrent, even going back to my youth sitting in Havana's Auditorium flanked by grandma, my folks and others applauding the two uncles (Alberto conducting the Filarmónica, and Jorge at the piano). 'One unforgettable p

Diario de la Marina notes (22 May 1958) that after a tour of 7 months in the USA, Jorge has returned to Cuba on a flight of Viscount de Cubana Aviación from Miami. ​ Cubana de Aviación operated the Vickers Viscount (a British four-engine turboprop airliner) in the late 1950s, becoming the first Latin American airline to fly them. Cubana integrated the Vickers Viscount into its fleet starting in 1956 to modernise service on regional and international routes (replacing older Do

Ivan Davis 18-20, 25 April 1960 Franz Liszt Sesquicentennial Piano Competition, Town Hall, New York $500 and a Town Hall recital constituted the prize, contributed by William Goetz, producer of the film Song Without Words. Jorge Bolet is one the of the judges (according to Piano Guild Notes May-June 1960, Vol 10/1), along with Egon Petri, Byron Janis, Moura Lympany, Dmitri Mitropoulos, composer Howard Hanson, and Abram Chasins. 'Mr. Davis had given a stunning performance of

5 May 1937 Felix Labunksi (1892-1979), a composer from Warsaw, gave a lecture at the Curtis Institute on "Four Centuries of Polish Chamber Music". Recordings were played and there was also also some live music making including Juliusz Zarębski (1854-1885), Piano Quintet in G minor Op.34, played by Jorge Bolet, piano, Marian Head and Julius Schulman, violins, David Schwartz, viola, and Leonard Rose, cello. Of the quintet, Adrian Thomas (Professor Emeritus at Cardiff University

I'm not sure how I missed this. A little more detail from Jorge Bolet on Godowsky. He was speaking in 1983 to Carola Grindea for her book Great pianists and pedagogues. (The "lessons" as such were around 1932/33 in New York City.) Further information from this website: ‘Jorge’s scores of these pieces bore Godowsky’s markings in red crayon—the daunting “Passacaglia,” based on themes from Schubert’s “Unfinished” symphony; the “Fledermaus” and “Künstlerleben” symphonic metamo

Excerpts from his obituary in Le Monde, 19 October 1990 'Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude, de Franz Liszt, une oeuvre, irrégulière, passablement saint-sulpicienne transfigurée par une science pianistique, une intériorité confondantes. Pour une fois, la partie centrale s'écoutera sans ennui (Decca 411 803-2). Franz Liszt’s *Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude*—an uneven, somewhat sentimental work transfigured by astonishing pianistic mastery and profound inwardness; for o

26 May 1974 Arnhem, The Netherlands (Festival of Romantic Music) Bach-Busoni: Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D-minor for Solo Violin, BWV 1004 Cesar Franck: Prélude, Aria & Final Op. 23 Grieg: Ballade in the Form of Variations on a Norwegian Folk Song in G minor, Op. 24 Strauss-Tausig: Man lebt nur einmal Strauss-Tausig: Nachtfalter Strauss-Schulz-Evler: Arabesques on The Beautiful Blue Danube Saint-Saens-Godowsky: The Swan Paul de Schlözer: Concert Etude in A-flat Op. 1, No.

6 October 1961 Musis Sacrum, Arnhem, Holland​ Jorge Bolet gave a recital here for the first time. Willem Boone write: ​ The Musis Sacrum (lit. 'sacred to the Muses'): 'My earliest memories of Nelson Freire [Brazilian pianist, Minas Gerais 1944 -Rio de Janeiro 2021] go back a long way. At 15 (in 1978), my interest in music, and the piano in particular, was just beginning to awaken. Near where I lived (Arnhem), there was a concert hall, Musis Sacrum, which offered a series of p

(Translation from Dutch via internet apps is a bit rough in places!) Five counts from now, and without mercy, the green studio light turns red—the fatal moment, at which a recording that is nerve-wracking for the pianist begins. Everything seems to proceed effortlessly, but "Vision," a melancholic etude building to a climax, turned out less well than Bolet had expected, and he plays it again with even greater concentration. "I hate recording," he says fiercely and grimly. He

12 April 1962 Recital in the hall of the Rijnhotel, Mauritsweg, Rotterdam, incl. Chopin's Sonata No. 3 in B minor Op.58, Beethoven's Appassionata and Liszt's Mephisto Waltz. ​[The recital by American pianist Jorge Bolet for the Rotterdamsche Kunstkring has been moved from April 3 to April 12. Jorge Bolet will then perform in the AMVJ Hall of the Rijnhotel.]​ Pianist with Fabulous Technique, Audience in Utter Ecstasy. See full review It is extremely rare for a recital to be aw

Written on Verso: Alberto and Jorge Bolet with Mr. Brusilow, leader of the Philadelphia Orchestra at a rehearsal in Robin Hood Dell, Philadelphia. Schima Kaufman, 2101 Walnut St., Philadelphia.. 1960s?

The Rocky Mountain News (Daily), Volume 85, Number 332, November 27, 1944 Cuban Airs to Sound On Colorado Range? The plaintive if slightly monotonous tempos of the West Indian calypso may leave their mark on the lustier folk music of western North America as an indirect outgrowth of the war. That opinion was voiced in Denver yesterday by Lt. Jorge Bolet, noted Cuban pianist and assistant military attache to the Cuban Embassy in Washington. Lieutenant Bolet is in Denver for an

In the Decca vaults are both Liszt concertos recorded by Jorge Bolet with Sir Georg Solti and the London Philharmonic in 1986-- but these were never issued. Why?

Jorge sometimes played Le Tombeau de Couperin by Ravel in his recitals, but he never played it with the fugue. Jorge did not like the fugue and even believed it did not fit in to the cycle. About Ravel I can share with you this story. At one of the masterclasses in Edinburgh, a student was struggling with Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit. As always when a student was struggling with the music, Jorge would sit down at the piano and play it himself to show his intentions.I Almost un

We might have had performances of concertos by these composers by Jorge Bolet. 'Only in the 1970s did record companies became interested in unknown composers and unknown piano concertos. 'At that time, I talked with Jorge about him playing the Moszkowski piano concerto in E major, which I believe would be wonderful. Jorge knew the work, told me it was great, but did not want to take it into his repertoire fearing the conductors and orchestras who would not understand it. 'I a