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Jorge as Liszt Judge, 1960
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
Blue Pumpkin
3 days ago5 min read


Nelson Freire on Holland
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
Blue Pumpkin
Oct 156 min read


Jorge Bolet on Dutch radio
(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
Blue Pumpkin
Oct 153 min read


Rotterdam, April 1962
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
Blue Pumpkin
Oct 83 min read


Robin Hood Dell
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?
Blue Pumpkin
Oct 61 min read
Londonderry reviews Jorge Bolet in London
29 May 1962 (aged 47) Royal Festival Hall, London Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 57, Appassionata, Liszt’s B minor sonata and Chopin’s Third Sonata (This was not, as sometimes assumed, his London solo début - that was on 18 December 1955, also in the Festival Hall.) Alistair Londonderry wrote in The Queen (3 April 1962) that 'his is not the icy diablerie of Michelangeli's virtuosity, nor is there anywhere the slightest lack of conviction. Liszt's sonata is one of the greatest works
Blue Pumpkin
Sep 152 min read


A bag of New Zealand reviews
New Zealand Listener, 4 September 1964 A VERITABLE DYNAMO Jorge Bolet, the pianist who begins his tour of New Zealand for the NZBC next week, is a man of great physical stamina. This is reflected in his playing: Press reviews consistently describe his performances as blazing, imposingly vigorous, masculine, virile. And he has been called “a veritable dynamo of power and feeling” (...) Bolet is regarded as a specialist on that composer [Liszt]. At a Berlin recital in 1961 he
Blue Pumpkin
Sep 88 min read


Jorge in Chamber Music
A rare performance of Jorge in chamber music 2 July 1968 Plaça de Sant Felip Neri, in the Gothic Quarter [Barrio Gótico], Barcelona, Spain Chamber music: trios by Ravel (in A minor, 1914) and Tchaikovsky (in A minor, Op.50) with Victor Martin & Marco Seano In Destino (13.7.1968), J. Casanovas writes: 'The tradition of serenades during summer nights seems to have taken firm root, as is often the case with things that are well thought out and executed. The programme consist
Blue Pumpkin
Aug 192 min read
Reus, Tarragona Spain
26 April 1961 (postponed from 17th) Teatro Fortuny, Reus, Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain Liszt recital (for Associació de Concerts de Reus, 150th anniversary of Liszt) (Birthplace of the legendary architect Antoni Gaudí) 'Due to the performer's illness, the concert that pianist Jorge Bolet was scheduled to give last week [17 April] for the Concert Association at the Teatro Fortuny was postponed; the recital will now take place next Wednesday, the 26th.' Reus Semanario de la Ciud
Blue Pumpkin
Aug 193 min read


New York Philharmonic's 125th
Carlos DuPré Moseley's (1914-2012) remarkable career with the New York Philharmonic lasted from 1955 to 1985. He rose to become Managing Director (a post now referred to as Executive Director), President, and Chairman of the Board. Moseley presided over the Bernstein-Boulez era at the Philharmonic, during which the orchestra cut an uncommonly bold and unpredictable profile. He was an elegant, courtly man, whose South Carolina accent probably fooled more than a few Easterners
Blue Pumpkin
Jul 251 min read


Lipscomb University, Tennessee
Lipscomb University is a private Christian university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Photo at reception after Jorge Bolet's recital 20 November, 1961.
Blue Pumpkin
Jun 171 min read
Jorge Bolet. Timeline
1914 Born Havana, Cuba on 15 November to Antonio Bolet Valdés and Adelina Tremoleda de la Paz. c.1925/1926 Aged about nine or ten, Jorge played in the old-fashioned salon in Havana of Mrs Amelia Solberg de Hoskinson. 1926 13 August: first of two benefit concerts for the young Jorge in the Teatro Principal de la Comedia (organised by Maria Jones de Castro) 1927 4 September: second of two benefit concerts for the young Jorge in the Gran Teatro Nacional, Havana. Organised by Am
Blue Pumpkin
Jun 1712 min read


Paintings by Ignacio López
While looking Jorge's tour of Spain and Portugal in May 1962, I came across this: "Recently, the Murcian painter Ignacio López welcomed the American collectors Tex Compton and Jorge Bolet to his studio in Alcantarilla. Their purpose was to acquire some of his most recent works, several commissioned by the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Mr Robert McNamara, and to simultaneously arrange an exhibition of the artist's work in California." Linea (Murcia, Spain), 23 May 1962 Ignacio
Blue Pumpkin
Jun 161 min read


Ginastera, Concerto No.1
Cidade de Santos (São Paulo), 21 June 1981 An interview with pianist João Carlos Martins Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 28 by the Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera. The work was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation and was completed in 1961. It was first performed by the pianist João Carlos Martins and the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Howard Mitchell in Washington, D.C., on April 22, 1961. "Foi em 60, quando a esposa do professor Kliass - o grande mestre de
Blue Pumpkin
Jun 161 min read
Nelly Walters
Jorge Bolet's agent at Columbia Artists from the 1960s onwards Nelly Walters died in October 2001 aged 100, after 70 years in the business; flowers and cards arrived in from celebrities across the world for her birthday in January. She was an integral part of the history of CAMI, retiring only in 1997. Born in Germany, she grew up in Dresden; in Berlin she worked for the Otto Mertens agency - his son André would later become her boss at CAMI in New York. She had begun alre
Blue Pumpkin
Jun 102 min read


Dirk Bogarde on Liszt and "Victim"
Speaking in 1974 to Russell Harty
Blue Pumpkin
Apr 101 min read


Australian reviews 1965
Jorge Bolet in the Syndey Morning Herald and The Age
Blue Pumpkin
Apr 91 min read


Jorge Bolet in northern Spain
A couple of clippings from Cincinnati newspapers October 1963
Blue Pumpkin
Apr 81 min read


Jorge on Latin American music
Jorge Bolet on Latin American music, as reported in the Oregon Daily Journal , 17 November 1962
Blue Pumpkin
Apr 61 min read


At home in the Los Altos Hills
Redwood City Tribune, 31 December 1960
Blue Pumpkin
Apr 51 min read
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