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

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

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

I have uncovered so many little tidbits of knowledge while trawling (mostly a pleasurable task) through newspaper archives bur some bits can be lost in this large website. Here's an interesting detail . 16 October 1985 Liverpool, England (for the second time in the city after 20 years) Rachmaninoff 3 [+ Sibelius, Symphony No.4 in A minor] Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/Marek Janowski ​The packed house gave him a tumultuous reception. A local pianist Douglas Miller (1888-1984)

Jorge never learned the Ginastera concerto. Nor did Martha... Alex Ross, The New Yorker, November 12, 2001 "I was terrible," Martha Argerich said, after drawing hysterical applause with a recent pair of performances at Carnegie Hall. "I was in a strange state. My mind was on other things." Argerich was sitting in a midtown hotel restaurant, amid a motley, lively group of friends. She had just played Beethoven's First Piano Concerto with the Montreal Symphony. The friends, sp

From Ian Hominick's recent biography of Earl Wild, p.285 I don't want this post to descend into the Querelle des Bouffons ("Quarrel of the Comic Actors"), a controversy of in Paris the 1750s concerning the relative merits of French and Italian opera, with those favouring French opera in the King's corner, and those favouring Italian opera in the Queen's corner. Nor do I wish to stir up the Querelle des Lullystes et des Ramistes - a famous musical controversy in Paris followi

September 2026 'The diverse and storied musical career of Earl Wild, one of the most prodigious and virtuosic pianists of the 20th century. The unique trajectory of Wild’s career stands out in comparison with other classical pianists. Drawing on meticulous research, Ian Hominick highlights the progress of a musician forced to diversify his skills from an early age for the sake of subsistence, to one who fully embraced the variety of musical life, pursuing collaborations acro

Pianist Charles Rosen (b.1927) recalls… At age 11 he left Juilliard to study piano with Moriz Rosenthal (1862-1946) and with Rosenthal's wife, Hedwig Kanner. They had settled in New York from Austria in 1938, following the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. (Peter Sühring suggests they left in 1936. “The Rosenthals emigrated to the USA relatively early; many of their Jewish colleagues did not do so until 1938 following the Anschluss.”) Rosenthal studied wit

28 February 1936 (Jorge Bolet age 21) Salón Novedades, Pamplona, Navarra (Spain) Recital incl. Chopin's Sonata No. 3, Beethoven, other works of Chopin, de Falla, Rachmaninoff. ​​ La Voz de Navarra (26.2.1936) mentions that in Vienna Julius Isserlis (1888 – 1968), a pianist and composer born in Kishinev, Russian Empire (now Chișinău, Republic of Moldova), had marvelled at Bolet's phenomenal technique, his powerful and beautiful touch, captivating rhythm, and his impeccable p

Jorge replaced an indisposed Claudio Arrau sometime in April 1983 but I cannot fit it into the chronology yet. Bonn, West Germany: Beethoven Spring Festival, April 1983 Claudio Arrau was born on 6 February, 1903, in Chillán, Chile celebrated his 80th birthday in 1983. Dieter Schüren wrote in Die Welt (28 April 1983): 'Because the 80-year-old Claudio Arrau suddenly withdrew from the Bonn Beethoven Festival, the spring cycle began a day late and with Jorge Bolet at the piano a

It's odd how I suddenly get "a bee in my bonnet" about issues I hadn't really considered before. One of them is Jorge's relationship with Abram Chasins (1903-1987), to which I have turned again after reading something by Jonathan Summers in his notes for the recent First Hand Records CD release of Bolet's Ambassador Auditorium recitals. (I also hadn't fully appreciated AC's Curtis connections before.) 'After Bolet gave a Carnegie Hall recital in 1951 [3 April] critic Howard

A fellow student in the same year as Jorge Bolet (1927) was Sidney Foster (born in Florence, South Carolina, in 1917) who was aged 10, the youngest student Curtis ever took. (In 1968 Foster, a Professor at Indiana School of Music 1952-77, was to coax Bolet there from Spain as a teaching colleague.) Imelda Delgado in a book on Foster relates a shocking event in which in 1929 the young Sidney was dismissed from Curtis for being a "bad boy", though it later turned out that i

'I played for Bolet in Sydney when he was on tour (1969 or 70): Chopin's fourth ballade. He was very complimentary. When I asked him, do you play much Beethoven, he answered "You don't have to play Beethoven to be a good pianist". Then he proceeded to play me some Chopin-Godowsky....a lovely man.'

Just occasionally I might mention another pianist, and this evening Monday 4 May 2026 at the Wigmore Hall in London I heard Swiss Italian Francesco Piemontesi (b.1983 Locarno). He played Schubert's Sonata in G Major D894 followed by Liszt's Années de pèlerinage, première année, Suisse S160. I think it is one of the best piano recitals I’ve heard in 40 years of attending concerts. He also treated us to two encores, one of which was beloved of Jorge Bolet: Chopin/Godowsky, Étud

"He knew he had to take the stage, to stride up to that huge instrument and take command. 'Remember,' he'd say, 'it's likely to kick back." Andrei Svetlichny, Boston Globe, September 1982 As ever, I am grateful to Mattheus Smits for providing information to this website. He has alerted my attention to this tribute (edited) to Jorge Bolet's tuner in the USA. A Memorial Died April 12, 1998 • Born February 19, 1957 Andrei Svetlichny, 41 Tuner of Concert Pianos for the Stars By

The Mail & Globe, Toronto (April 1975) 17 April 1975; Eaton Auditorium, Toronto, Canada. [JB's Toronto recital début] Mendelssohn, Chopin, Sonata No.3, Liszt Petrarch + Tannhäuser 'When you consider, he's been playing professionally for more than 40 years, he seems to have taken his time getting up here. But then, as he says "I've been a long time arriving everywhere."'

Jorge's masterclass in Edinburgh (early 1980s). "If my memory is correct, the masterclass took place in a school next to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Arboretum Road. Left from Jorge can be seen Elisabeth Kittel, right from Jorge you can see me [Mattheus Smits]; the small group at my right is of some of the students. If I am not mistaken, the student on my right-hand side is Santiago Rodriquez who became an important pianist." Photo: Mattheus Smits Elisabeth Kittel (1925-2020

The Age (Melbourne, Australia), 28 February 1987

Ian Hominick, Professor of Music, University of Mississippi is due to publish a biography of legendary American pianist Earl Wild in October 2026. Professor Hominick began studying piano in his native Nova Scotia and continued his studies in the United States under the tutelage of Earl Wild. He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Ohio State University in 1991 where he served as assistant to Wild. Jorge Bolet and Earl Wild had some interaction so it will be interesti