Two reviews of the first Jorge Bolet concert I ever heard. At that time, I travelled up from Oxford for the evening and went backstage (of course) afterwards. I remembered being surprised to see him smoking (!) and he had a huge black overcoat/cape lying on a table, every inch the dapper gentleman from a past age.

Syracuse Herald-Journal , 1 February 1980

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

Santa Fe New Mexican, 6 March 1959. The paintings in his Washington Square New York address.

"Jorge had in mind to play Godowsky's Johann Strauss Künstlerleben  at his forthcoming 75th birthday tour as grande finale.  Jorge played this piece on several occasions for me telling me: this is a work in progress, no! a lot of work in progress! He had played a lot of Godowsky for me when I was staying with him in Bloomington. We went to Butler University where he kept his scores and could use his Baldwin SD 10 (in his apartment he had a small grand which he never touched).

Mattheus Smits has sent me this memory of the recording sessions on 3/4 October 1977. Jorge and Tex had serious doubts about signing this contract due to bad experiences with recording companies in the past (RCA and VOX). We owe it to Peter Wadland that the contract was signed. For the scores of the music, Peter could find the Études in a library, but for the Waltzes Jorge had to send him his copies. Also Jorge's choice of the Bechstein was not an easy task for Peter Wadlan

This was the first review I read of Jorge Bolet, March 1983 in Gramophone magazine. It was of the first volume of his Liszt series for Decca (the 1978 disc for L'Oiseau-Lyre, a Decca subsidiary notwithstanding). The reviewer was Max Harrison, and his review prompted me to buy the LP in Glasgow's HMV shop, in Union Street.

Happy New Year from the Jorge Bolet Website

Jorge Bolet: not Hungarian enough! Okay, the title might be what is known as clickbait , but I've been amused by this diary entry by a Hungarian who heard Jorge play some Liszt in 1981. She found the lassú (slow) part of the csárdás too slow. 31 March 1981, Bishopsgate Hall, London: lunchtime recital.  Since opening on New Year's Day 1895, the Bishopsgate Institute has been a centre for culture and learning. The Great Hall, in particular, was erected for the benefit of the p

The pianist David Wilde died on 23 October 2025. Although I never met him, I owe a great deal to him (as the video explains). See also this blog entry David Wilde, ‘magnificently berserk’ pianist and composer of The Cellist of Sarajevo Billed as ‘the 10-year-old Boy Prodigy’, he performed the Grieg Concerto at Blackpool, and broadcast it that year on the BBC Telegraph Obituaries 12 November 2025 ​David Wilde, who has died aged 90, was a thoughtful and dazzling pianist, thou

The great Austrian pianist, Alfred Brendel died at his home in Hampstead, north London on 17 June 2025. I was privileged to hear him many...

In 1983, I was in the audience of a masterclass in what was then called the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). The pianist David Wilde was in charge of proceedings. I recall he wore a dark blue double-breasted suit jacket. Born 1935 in Manchester, as a boy he had studied with Solomon and his pupil Franz Reizenstein, who had also studied composition with Hindemith and Vaughan Williams. Wilde shared with cellist Jacqueline du P

Mattheus Smits recalls: 'After finishing my professional music education in Holland, I decided to continue my piano studies with a...

After leaving music conservatory [in Utrecht], I continued my piano studies in 1972 with the Dutch pianist Mr. Johan Ligtelijn, who had...

Jorge Bolet recalled by a Spanish friend from a meeting in 1981; I believe the friend to be Ramón Rodamiláns Vellido (Spanish, with...