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Jorge Bolet: how it started (yet again...)
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.
Blue Pumpkin
7 days ago1 min read


David Wilde (1935-2025)
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
Blue Pumpkin
Nov 24, 20254 min read


When did I first hear Jorge Bolet?
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
Blue Pumpkin
May 19, 20252 min read
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