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Blue Pumpkin
Apr 11 min read


Jorge Bolet "conducts" Wagner
Who knew? It cannot have been the full Die Walküre, as that would need to start much earlier than 7:30pm. It was given as a pantomime by a grils' summer camp with JB playing the piano score. Otsego Lake is a lake located in Otsego County in the U.S. state of New York. It is the source of the Susquehanna River and largest lake in Otsego County. The Village of Cooperstown is located at the lake's southern end. Glimmerglass State Park is located on the lake's northeastern shore
Blue Pumpkin
Mar 291 min read


Jorge Bolet speaking about Paavo Berglund
I hadn't realised Jorge Bolet had performed in Finland and while looking into it, I came across a film from Finnish television. Here he is in the Royal Albert Hall, London, 1 June 1978, before a performance of Liszt - speaking about Finnish conductor Paavo Berglund, whom he first met during his first tour of Australia in 1965. (YLE, Finnish Broadcasting Company, 1979) So this is Jorge one year after he was appointed Head of Curtis and after he recorded his first disc with Dec
Blue Pumpkin
Feb 131 min read


Prokofiev: Jorge Bolet's first performance
10 January 1950 Municipal Auditorium, New Orleans, Louisiana Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16 New Orleans Symphony & Massimo Freccia Jorge Bolet's first public performance of the concerto, in an interview with the Times-Picayune (10.1.1950). He had heard it a few years ago, played by Abbey Simon and had rushed out to buy the score but found to his dismay that it was out of print. Simon had photostats of it form The New York Public Library, obtained at consi
Blue Pumpkin
Feb 21 min read


Jorge Bolet: playback of Grieg & Schumann
Mathias Donderer has kindly provided some photos - here is a second one from the recording studio. “They were taken during our tour with Jorge Bolet in 1986 and in Berlin when recording Schumann and Grieg with Riccardo Chailly for DECCA.” The photographer was Wilhelm Fröling.
Blue Pumpkin
Dec 10, 20251 min read


Jorge Bolet & Riccardo Chailly
Cellist Mathias Donderer has kindly provided some photos - for the moment here is one. “They were taken during our tour with Jorge Bolet in 1986 and in Berlin when recording Schumann and Grieg with Chailly for DECCA.” The photographer was Wilhelm Fröling. More to follow.
Blue Pumpkin
Dec 10, 20251 min read
Stokowski
12 & 17 October 1971 Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City. Jorge mentions a brief lapse of memory on the conductor's part, which frightened him. Full details added to the relevant page. Oliver Daniel in his biography of Stokowski has this as taking place in Carnegie Hall (p.866). Bolet mentions that the conductor has a lapse during the first of the two concerts. 'The last movement of the concerto has a middle section which is briefly introduced by the orchestr
Blue Pumpkin
Sep 20, 20241 min read
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