Brazil and Argentina
A report in The New York Times, 26 May, 1955 informs us that ‘Jorge Bolet, pianist, leaves today by air to play a series of eighteen concerts in Brazil and Argentina'. He arrived on 27 May on a Clipper-Super 6 of Pan American World Airways at Aeroporto do Galeão (Rio de Janeiro), where he was met by D. Ema Brito, director of Cultura Artistica do Rio de Janeiro.
These were troubled times in Argentina. In Buenos Aires in May 1955 there were massive riots. Roman Catholicism was being disestablished. The rioting was a climax to seven months of church-state hostilities which led to a government ban of the holiday procession of Corpus Christi (9 June).
The President of the Republic, Juan Perón, said he has tried ‘to liberate the clergy from its ancient obligations to the oligarchy’ so that they might better serve the people, but the clergy had decided ‘to show itself as a wolf in sheep’s clothing’.
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But his leadership style drew heavy criticism from academics, clerics, and other elements of the international community for embracing censorship and cracking down on freedom of expression.
The death of his second wife, first lady Eva Perón, in July 1952 had diminished his popular appeal and party support.
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A massacre took place on 16 June 1955. Thirty aircraft from the Argentine Navy and Air Force strafed Plaza de Mayo in the largest aerial bombing ever on the Argentine mainland. The attack targeted the adjacent Casa Rosada ("The Pink House"), the official seat of government, while a large crowd of protestors gathered to demonstrate support for President Juan Perón. The action was to be the first step in an eventually aborted coup d'état.
On Monday 30 May 1955, Correio do Manhã announces a recital by Jorge Bolet that evening at 9pm at the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro. This is Jorge's first visit to Brazil. ‘Jupiter Pluvius ...
(the Roman king of the gods in his capacity as Rain-God; the reviewer for the Jornal do Brasil, Renzo Massarani obviously had a good Classical education)
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...did his usual thing and from 8 o’clock there was torrential rain. 'That – or the fact that the name of Jorge Bolet was unknown to us – explains why in the Teatro Municipal we were not 10,000 or 5,000 but a shamefully small little group wishing him well.’
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Photo: Ipanema & Leblon 1960s
How many celebrities turn out to be pineapples?
On Monday 30 May 1955, Correio do Manhã announces a recital by Jorge Bolet that evening at 9pm at the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro. This is Jorge's first visit to Brazil. ‘Jupiter Pluvius [the Roman king of the gods in his capacity as Rain-God; the reviewer for the Jornal do Brasil, Renzo Massarani obviously had a good Classical education] did his usual thing and from 8 o’clock there was torrential rain. 'That – or the fact that the name of Jorge Bolet was unknown to us – explains why in the Teatro Municipal we were not 10,000 or 5,000 but a shamefully small little group wishing him well.’
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Haydn, Andante con variazione
Beethoven, Sonata Les Adieux op. 81
Liszt, Sonata in B minor
Debussy, Préludes (La puerta del vino, La terasse, Ondine, General Lavine)
Rachmaninov, Prelude Op.23 No.6 in E flat major
Prokofiev, Toccata
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​Quantas celebridades acabaram revelando-se abacaxis?
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‘Overcoming its initial distrust (this was justified - how many celebrities turn out to be pineapples [duds?]), the audience warmed up and made up for the paucity of number with the spontaneous, sincere enthusiasm.’ The reviewer Renzo Masserani was an Italian-born Brazilian composer (1898-1975) who had studied with Respighi at Rome’s Accademia di Santa Cecilia, then was active as music director of Vittorio Podrecca’s puppet theater II Teatro dei Piccoli and as a music critic. He left Fascist Italy and settled in Rio de Janeiro in 1935, becoming a naturalized Brazilian citizen in 1945.
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In another review, Eurico Nogueira França in Corrreio da Manhâ talks of Bolet's Herculean facility in the difficult sections of the Liszt Sonata; but he seems to suggest that Horowitz had found more poetry in the Sonata, talking in particular of the latter's palpitação emocional ('emotional palpitation').
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Recitals were then given in the Teatro Cultura Artistica, São Paulo on 31 May/1 June. ​ Other destinations in Brazil included Porto Alegre. Earlier in the month (8 May), Dulcemar Lafaille Silva had performed Mozart's Concerto No.22 in E flat, Melita Lorkovic (Brahms 2 on 21st) and Herberto Drechsel (Beethoven 3, on 22nd), all in the Teatro Municipal with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eleazar de Carvalho, whom Jorge would get to know.
Fellow Curtis student Abbey Simon later played on 28/30 July in the Teatro Municipal with works by Bach-Busoni (Toccata, adagio and fugue in C major), Schumann (Abbeg Variations), Chopin (Sonata No.3), Ravel (Gaspard de la nuit), Rachmaninoff (2 Preludes), Francisco Mignone (Miudinho), Prokofiev.
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Argentina
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​In Argentina, Jorge appeared first in Buenos Aires. The Asociación Wagneriana (whose 43th season ran 25 April - 15 November) had organised his recital at 9:45pm on Monday 6 June at the Teatro Broadway, a few steps away from the Obelisco, on Avenida Corrientes (a street famed for its bookshops and often mentioned by the famous writer Jorge Luis Borges); the recital was repeated the next evening at 6 o'clock. The newspaper La Nación, 7 June 1955 reported that: 'Bolet impressed us with precision of technique and dextrous expressiveness, plus a range of sonorities, colour and artistic individuality rarely heard' (haciendo gala de un mecanismo técnica de precisión y agilidad poco frecuentes, fraséo claro y expresivo...). The programme was as in Brazil; of the Liszt, it was reported that 'se presta singularmente para los medios y temperamento de Bolet, quien evidenció en esta obra tanto su resistencia física como el vigor de su pulsación' ('it lends itself singularly to the means and temperament of Bolet, who demonstrated in this work both his physical powers of endurance and the vigour of his pulsation [attack?]').
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Jorge added "Gato" (1940), a lively, syncopated dance by an Argentinian composer Carlos Guastavino (1912-2000) to his programme, for a bit of local colour. This seemed to be a tradition: Jesús María Sanromá - who appeared on 27/28 June - had included Ukrainian-born Argentine composer Jacobo Ficher's El gallo arrogante y la gallina humilde from "Seis Fábulas" Op 38. Eugene Istomin (30/31 May) played Carlos López Buchardo's Bailecito. In June 1954, Rudolf Firkušný had added Guastavino's Cantilena.
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Jorge D'Urbano in a lengthy review for the Diario Crítica was less enthusiastic. 'Victim of an unbridled propaganda that presents him as “the pianist who is astonishing the world”... Although his reputation as a musician does not suffer the consequence of such a crazy assertion, it is undoubtedly the case that the listener suffers a notable disappointment because in one way or another he is encouraged to expect much more from Bolet than in reality Bolet can give.
'One thing in which Bolet managed to surprise me was that, possessing a mechanism capable of dealing with Liszt's Sonata in B Minor - which requires many years of work and dedication - he did not take care to improve a sound that is one of the most serious flaws. In his defence, it should be noted that the piano needed a thorough tuning, especially in the upper octaves of the instrument.
'In terms of style, the Haydn was the furthest thing from the spirit of Haydn that I have ever heard in my life. The recital continued with a very unfortunate version of Beethoven's Op. 81. Bolet insisted on demonstrating in the Liszt that the piano is an instrument capable of sounding louder than it really can. And the result - with frightening frequency - was that in his hands the work sounds much less pleasant than it really should; but the magnificent rhetoric and eloquence of the work partly absorbed the scant conviction of an unattractive bottle (?), la escaca convicción de un frasco/frazeo/frazco (?) sin attractivos.'
Jorge D'Urbano (1917-1988) was an Argentine musicologist. In 1966, he criticised​ from a musical point of view (i.e. not the controversial plot) the brand new opera by Alberto Ginastera, Bomarzo, based on the novel by Manuel Mujica Lainez . The opera was censored and banned by the military government of Juan Carlos Onganía, which caused an international scandal. Later, the dictatorship used D'Urbano's criticism as justification for the measure, to which the musicologist responded indignantly.
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Three pianists were making their first appearance in Buenos Aires at this time: Bolet, Eugene Istomin (30/31 May 1955) and Jesús María Sanromá (Puerto Rico, 1902-1984). Abbey Simon was a fourth but he had been there the previous year, too. 'The two most interesting are, without a doubt, Istomin and Simon. Jorge Bolet is a type of pianist who is not fully accomplished...' Bolet es un tipo de pianista que no está plenamente logrado. Jorge D'Urbano (again), Revista Atlantida (August,1955)
In Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (Mainz) Vol 118/3 (March 1957), Curt B.M. Weißstein under 'Musik in Buenos Aires' records - rather late for a 1955 season - that the Asociación Wagneriana 'once again did great honours with its own quartet. We also met the likeable local pianist Ofelia Carman (7/8 November) and her young Italian colleague Maria Tipo (5/6 September). The Havana-born pianist Jorge Bolet, on the other hand, had less contact with the Wagneriana audience.'
It is noted that a special event left its mark in the season (1955): the return of the Argentine composer, and conductor Juan José Castro (1895-1968),'who spent many years in voluntary exile, and has since achieved world fame'. Castro’s operas in particular became very popular; La zapatera prodigiosa was removed from the Teatro Colón bill after nearly 10 seasons in 1958 for political reasons, while Proserpina y el extranjero, staged at La Scala in Milan, won the 1st Verdi Prize in 1952 [Polish Music Library, digital library maintained by PWM, Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne]. Weißstein was one of a number of Jews who had escaped the Third Reihh during the period 1941-45 and come to Argentina. There were a number of German Jewish music critics for Argentinisches Tageblatt and Mundo israelita: León Levín, Guillermo Knepler, Curt Weisstein, Carlos Wolff, Walter Rosenberg. (*Silvia Glocer, Revista Argentina de Musicología 11 [2010], 99-116)
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​Jorge may have performed in Córdoba and Rosario, the next two most populous cites in Argentina. He arrived back on 28 June in New York on an overnight flight from Buenos Aires (Pan Am 202), in time for two concerts at Chicago's Ravinia Festival on 30 June and 2 July. Sanromá gave a recital on 30 May in the Teatro Círculo, Rosario (as advertised in Crónica), when his local piece wqas Ginastera's Malambo; but the newspaper has no mention of Bolet.​
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It is worth noting that Claudio Arrau gave a very substantial programme in the same Gran Teatro Broadway on 15 May,1950, for the Asociación Wagneriana de Buenos Aires in its 38th Concert Season.
Beethoven: Concierto No.3 in C minor Op.37.
Chopin: Concierto No.1 n E minor Op.11.
Schumann: Concierto in A minor Op.54.
Orquesta Sinfónica de la Asociación, conducted by Roberto Kinsky
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Asociación Wagneriana
In May 1952, faced with greater demand for concerts, the Asociación admitted that it couldn't book more concert artists, but what it could do was double the events, so having a repeat the following day en horario vespertino (early evening). The Mozaretum Argentino also began to have concerts in 1952; the men behind it were conductor Mariano Drago, music critic Jorge D'Urbano, musicologists Johannes Franze and Erwin Leuchter and composer Carlos Suffern. The first concert was 10 June 1952.
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The Asociación continued to have a problem finding a suitable concert hall. In the 1940s, after 11 years it (seemingly) employed the Teatro Cervantes for the last time in 1943; 1944/5 concerts in the Teatro Presidente Alvear; 1946 saw a brief return to the Cervantes but the three years 1947-49 were in the Teatro Astral. In the decade of the 1950s, the Teatro Broadway continued to be used, and in 1954 the Teatro Monumental. This was the era of cinema, yet they the Association still managed to use the Broadway in 1955, 1957/8 and in 1960. The Gran Cine Florida was used in 1959 (Abbey Simon appeared there on 18/19 May when he included Prokofiev's fifth sonata and Strauss/ Godowsky's Fledermaus in his programme. The Teatro Coliseo became available from 1960 (Jorge Bolet gave a recital there in September 1975).
*César A. Dillon, Asociación Wagneriana de Buenos Aires (1912-2002): historia y cronología, 2007
Enzo Valenti Ferro, 100 años de música en Buenos Aires, Ediciones de Arte Gaglianone, Buenos Aires (1992)
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Another important was the Asociación Amigos de la Música (Friends of Music Association). Established in 1946, at the initiative of a large group of fans, its Board of Directors was chaired by Leonor Hirsch de von Buch (then Señora de Caraballo) until 1970. Under its auspices, Erich Kleiber premiered Alban Berg's Lyric Suite in Buenos Aires. Throughout its seasons, the Asociación hired important international artists who performed symphonic and chamber concerts. It organised the first Johann Sebastian Bach Festival (1950), directed by specialist conductors (Karl Richter for several years).
Brazil, Cartões de Imigração, 1955
Red Rocks Festival, Colorado
Thursday, 24 March 1955, Penticton High School auditorium, Canada for the South Okanagan Community Concerts Assoc. (incl. Franck's Prelude, Aria and Finale - 'with its rich orchestral effects and chromatic vagaries'- , and Liszt's Mephisto Waltz). 'The specatular career of this internationally acclaimed artist goes to greater heights with each new season.' Chronicle and Osoyoos Observer, 14 March,1955 Penticton ("snpintktn" in the Syilix Okanagan language) is a city in the Okanagan Valley of the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada, situated between Okanagan and Skaha lakes. The review of the 'sensational' concert merited top billing on page one of the Penticton Herald, March 25, 1955: 'In his concluding announcement, Mr Bolet endeared himself to the House with his reference to the recent victory of the Vees [a junior "A" ice hockey team]'.
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Summer 1955 (8 August). 'From a natural amphitheater of characteristic Rocky Mountain grandeur, excerpts from the Red Rocks Festival near Denver Colorado, will be heard (on the radio)," reports The Montreal Gazette on 10.9.55. Saul Caston and the Denver Symphony will play Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto with JB. It was an eventful concert. The Robesonian (Lumberton, North Carolina, 9.9.55) reported that 'You've heard of orchestras that couldn't keep up with piano soloists, and pianists who couldn't keep up with orchestras. Now you're hearing of a new one: a pianist, who couldn't keep up with his piano...!' (See below). 'The orchestra will play Capriccio Italien, whose powerful and brilliant climaxes were inspired by the mad, whirling rhythms of the tarantella, and the beloved Romeo and Juliet Overture Fantasie. The latter work is rich in the best Tschaikowsky gave to his world-wide audience.'
(The Rocky Mountain News, 29 July, 1955)
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Speaking of Denver... A comment online reminiscences: 'My brother made his living as a pianist at Cliff Young's, one of Denver's fanciest restaurants during the 1980s and 90s. He would play popular music mostly (A Phantom of the Opera medley was often requested, much to his chagrin, but it put money in his pocket so he played it) and some light classics, including the more well-known Chopin preludes and whatnot. One evening he was planning to play Chopin, then he heard that Jorge Bolet had made reservations to dine there that evening. He was flustered enough at the prospect of playing for his pianistic idol, but he decided there was no way in hell he was going to play Chopin for Bolet. So he played a selection of Scarlatti sonatas instead. Bolet let him know before he left that he had appreciated hearing the Scarlatti. He may have been relieved at not having to experience the Phantom medley, but he knew a kind word would make an aspiring pianist's day. And it did.'​​
1955 Europe
​A Swedish-American newspaper Vestkusten (17 November 1955) announced that Bolet would travel on MS Kungsholm for a tour of Sweden, Denmark, Holland and England. He had in fact done so, sailing from New York on 9 November, bound for the port of Gothenburg, Sweden; his trip is listed as lasting 2 months in Denmark.
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In 1952 a new ship MS Kungsholm was launched and christened by Princess Sibylla of Sweden. Her maiden voyage from Gothenburg to New York City on 24 November 1953. During her time with the Swedish American Line, she was used on transatlantic crossings during the northern hemisphere summer season. ​
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Jorge played for the first time in Sweden on 13 December 1955 in Ulla Hall, Konserthuset, Stockholm and on 16 December in the Kleine Zaal of the Concetgebouw Amsterdam.
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Friday 16 December, Kleine Zaal, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Algemeen Handelsblad (17.12.55) reported that it was a tame, conventional programme. 'His pianistic skills appear to be still focused on the development of the loudest possible volume, and the greatest possible speed. It was remarkable that Bolet did not know what to do with the work in which there could be no question of virtuosity at all: the Haydn Andante con Variazioni, with which he opened the concert. The already rather slow initial tempo became increasingly slower during the playing and the tension palpably relaxed. The performance of the Chopin Scherzi did not open up any new perspectives.' Lex van Delden in Het Parool: 'A dazzling pianistic technique is not necessarily sufficient to make a performance fascinating. Jorge Bolet demonstrated truly astonishing mastery of the keys in Chopin's Scherzi. But it was overwhelming and of enormous proportions, unusually loud too, which may be partly due to an underestimation of the acoustic peculiarities of this space. Apart from that, his playing seemed to me mainly aimed at elaborating with coarse effects, which then overshot their target and left little of the noble poetics of this music intact. A rather loveless game, callous and ruthless, sacrificing Chopin on the altar of flawless, ruthless technical brilliance.' ( Een nogal liefdeloos spel dus, hardvochtig en meedogenloos Chopin offerend op het altaar van een feilloze, niets ontziende technische schittering.)
On Sunday, 18 December 1955 in the Royal Festival Hall, London, ‘S. A. Gorlinksy announces the distinguished American pianist’. The programme included Haydn’s Sonata in E flat No.62 (Hob.XVI:52), Beethoven’s Les Adieux Op.81 and Chopin’s 4 Scherzos. Jorge was very fond of this particular Haydn sonata and a recording from Amsterdam (22 February 1987) can be heard on Marston Volume 2.​​​
Sandor Alexander Gorlinsky, impresario and agent, was born in Kyiv in 1908. In 1946, hoping to exploit a new taste for grand opera in Britain, Gorlinsky invited a reluctant Beniamino Gigli, and eventually persuaded the entire San Carlo Opera Company to appear at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Having established himself as a concert promoter (in 1947 he promoted 250 concerts with leading orchestras and conductors such as Sir Thomas Beecham, Sir Malcolm Sargent and Sir John Barbirolli), Gorlinsky began concentrating on artist representation. In 1952 he signed Maria Callas to perform Norma at Covent Garden, and after her divorce from Giovanni Meneghini he became her personal manager until the end of her career. Gorlinsky had been in New York in September 1954, making the Gotham Hotel his headquarters for two weeks; it is possible that he made arrangement for Jorge then.
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On 23 December 1955, Jorge sailed from Southampton back to New York, via Halifax on the SS Italia. This was a trip of some style as he had been staying at the famous Brown's Hotel, London and was travelling in First Class. The hotel first opened its doors in 1837. Celebrated Victorian writers Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, JM Barrie and Bram Stoker were all regular visitors. American writer and Nobel Prize laureate, William Faulkner was also a guest in 1955.
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While Brown's has been described as the inspiration for Agatha Christie's At Bertram's Hotel (1965), - Miss Marple takes a two-week holiday in London - the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says Christie's model was a different Mayfair hotel, Fleming's.
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