1960-61
5 January 1960
Sunset Auditorium, Carmel, California
7, 8 (at 2pm) January 1960
Philharmonic Auditorium, Los Angeles
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini
Los Angeles PO Alfred Wallenstein, conductor [also Ned Rorem's third symphony]
"A giant in physique Bolet is also an artistic giant. He played with an intimacy so delicate so refined that one was led into the inner sanctum of the composer's intent. [Of the Rorem] This is a magnificent contemporary work - modern music at its best."
Rachel Morton, Press-Telegram (Long Beach), 8 January 1960, who wrote of the Long Beach performance: But the sensation of the evening was the. playing of Jorge Bolet The audience was quick to recognize one of the greatest pianists of our day. What the man looked like we shall never know, as he played in semidarkness. The Long Beach concert hall Is the only one I know that uses no spotlight on performing artists. Can't something be done about it?
There was a private party for the press corps organised by film producer William Goetz in conection with the release of "Song Without Words". One studio official recalled how an unseen artist also a great one once stole another Columbia picture. That, of course, was the late Al Jolson, who sang for the sound track of his own life story as portrayed on the screen by Larry Parks.
10 January 1960
San Diego, California
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini [?]
Los Angeles PO Alfred Wallenstein, conductor
17 January 1960
Municipal Auditorium, Long Beach (coastal city in s.-e. Los Angeles County, California
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini
Los Angeles PO Alfred Wallenstein, conductor
9 February 1960
Granada Theatre, Santa Barbara, California
Boris Blacher, Concertante Musik Op.10 (1937) - this is a mistake, Jorge is
not mentioned in the review of the concert.
Los Angeles PO /Eugen Jochum
February 1960
Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor
New Orleans Philharmonic under Alexander Hilsberg.
19 February 1960
Charlotte Amalie High School auditorium, Virgin Islands.
3/4 March 1960
San Francisco Opera House, with the orchestra under Enrique Jorda
John La Montaine, Piano Concerto and Liszt 1
18 March 1960
Universitets Aula, Oslo, Norway
Rachmaninoff's Paganini Variations.
Oslo Philharmonic and Odd Grünner-Hegge
The Norwegian critics did not care for Rachmaninoff's composition, but called Jorge "en virtuos av Fro Musicas nåde", a virtuoso of the Muse's grace.
21 March 1960
Fredriksstad, Norway
Chopin's 4 Ballades, Mozart's Sonata in D (K.576), Liszt, La Campanella, Un Sospiro, Rigoletto paraphrase
26 March 1960
Royal Festival Hall, London
Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
Royal Philharmonic and Anatole Fistoulari
15 May 1960
West Berlin
Beethoven's “Emperor”
Berliner Symphonisches Orchester, conducted by Carl August Bünte (1925-2018)
In an interview with the Dutch newspaper de Telegraaf on 1 December 1960, we are told that 'for a few days, the American-Cuban pianist Jorge Bolet has been in Amsterdam for a short holiday to rest from a tiring tour he has been making in the Scandinavian countries in recent weeks.
18 September 1960 [Sunday at 2pm]
Villa Montalvo, Saratoga, Ca.
Recital will include an andante in F major by Beethoven, Haydn's Sonata No.62 in E-flat major, Hob.XVI:52, Franck's prelude, chorale and fugue; Liszt's "La Campanella," "Un Sospiro" and "Mephisto" waltz.
"With ideal Indian summer weather forecast and lively activity reported in the request for tickets the open air concert by world renowned pianist Jorge Bolet at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga this Sunday afternoon seems destined for success equal to highest expectations says mutic committee chairman Mrs A A Payette" Los Gatos Times 15.9.1960
18 October 1960
Santa Rosa High School
23 October 1960
Russ Auditorium, San Diego
San Diego Symphony/ Earl Bernard Murray
(Other concerts will be given on December 20 when Darius Milhaud will appear as guest composer-conductor.)
19 December 1960
Jorge had flown to Sweden from Paris
SvD [Svenska Dagbladet] Opera Festival,in Stockholm's Royal Theatre
Liszt, Hungarian Fantasy.
'Mr. Bolet and Ehrling met for the first time in Oslo two weeks ago. It is possible that they will meet again in England in March. Both have concerts there.'
1961
5 January 1961
High School Auditorium, San Mateo, Ca.
Recital in aid of the Children's Home Society/Tinker Bell Auxiliary
incl. Chopin 4 Ballades, Mozart K576 and Liszt
JB had just returned home for Christmas from his European tour. Fred Roehr wrote in the San Mateo Times that 'it is apparent that many good things have happened to Bolet since he last appeared here 12 years ago'.
6 January 1961
Lobero Theater, 33 E. Canon Perdido St.,Santa Barbara, CA
Chopin Ballades, Mozart (K576), Liszt
Mr Bolet arrived by automobile today from his home in Palo Alto.
7 January 1961
Beverly Hills Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA
"If he sometimes forgot himself and made Mozart sound like Chopin and Chopin like Liszt, there were always evident the marks of a strong and vivid musical personality" Los Angeles Mirror
Paul Whiteman, the dean of American jazz maestros, will appear on the Bell Telephone Hours Almanac for February over NBS-TV, Friday, February 3. to conduct the Bell Telephone Orchestra in George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, with Jorge Bolet as piano soloist. Whiteman conducted the concert on February 12, 1924, at which the Rhapsody was first played, with Gershwin as soloist.
9 January 1961
Gill Coliseum, Corvallis, Oregon
Haydn, Beethoven (Andante Favori in F), Franck, Liszt
The greater part of the audience were aroused to unusual demonstrations of excitement and approval. 'Some there were, however, who winced at his thunderous and blurred bass fortissimos, regretted the exaggerated expressiveness of some of the most delicate, poetic passages, and sought with difficutly to follow melodic lines and brilliant embellishments through masses of notes whose articulation was marred by vigour and speed. But even these critical listeners found not only relief, but rich enjoyment in those moments, when Bolet tapped his flamboyant, expressionism, forgot his overly calculated rubato effects, and simply played the music for the beauty and excitement inherent in it. It was never a dull evening, but it was often controversial and sometimes richly rewarding.' Ronald D. Scofield, Santa Barbara News
On January 16th, the Livingston News, Montana, reported that Mrs Dorothy Baumgart, President of the community concert association noted today that Jorge Bolet who appeared with the Concert three years ago is playing the score for " Song without end" which will be coming soon to the Strand Theater.
21 January 1961
Capuchino High School, San Bruno, Ca.
24 January 1961
Fort Myers, Florida
as 5 Jan.
Platform flowers deserve a mention – they were an effective arrangement of mums, ranging from burnt orange to pale cream done by Mrs Homer Welch.
27 January 1961,
Municipal Auditorium, Sarasota, Florida
as 5 Jan.
Stage decorations of ginger, palms, sea grapes, and other tropical growth in large festoons may be credited to Jean Page and Guy Saunders.
1 February 1961
Lyric Theater, Baltimore, Maryland
Liszt 1
Baltimore Symphony/Reginald Stewart (Stokowski was recuperating from a hip fracture)
3 February 1961
JB's television debut (Bell Telephone Hour): Gershwin
The Hartford Courant observes that it is rather surprisingthis is his first television appearance, since he is one of the best known and most admired concert artists and has recently become "hot".
In interview Bolet said that he was looking forward to Poland, but "I'd also like to play in Russia sometime because the people there too are very musical, and also because it's a funny thing - you can... have the greatest success anywhere in the world and nobody cares. But just let anyone be a success in Moscow, and it makes the front page of The New York Times."
Most likely, Jorge is referring to Van Cliburn. Van Cliburn’s victory at the 1958 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow was a watershed moment in the Cold War. His success was indeed a front-page story for The New York Times, and he remains the only classical musician ever to receive a ticker-tape parade in New York City.
18 February 1961
Constitution Hall, Washington DC
Tchaikovsky 1
National Symphony/Howard Mitchell
28 February/1 March 1961
Music Hall/ Plaza Theater, Kansas City
Liszt, Concerto No. 1 and Hungarian Fantasy with the Kansas City Philharmonic & Hans Schwieger, in observance of the 150 anniversary of Liszt’s birth [1811] and the 75th anniversary of his death [1886] JB's impressive debut here was in November 1959.
4, 10, 11 March 1961
Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio
Jon LaMontaine's Concerto & Liszt's Hungarian Fantasy
Cincinnati Symphony/Max Rudolf
5 March 1961 (Sunday afternoon)
McMahon Auditorium, Lawton, Oklahoma
Recital (as 5 Jan.). Mgmt: Andre Mertens/Columbia Artists
7 March 1961
South Junior High, Fort Dodge, Iowa
"A terrific sleet and ice storm such as they had not seen for a long time" Perhaps JB had to cancel, as there's no review in the Journal.
13 March 1961
Joint Senior High School, Uniontown, Pennsylvania
15 March 1961
High School, Burely, Idaho (originally scheduled for 18th, but presumably clashing with European tour)
His permanent home it Los Altos, a suburb of San Francisco but he also maintains a small New York apartment.
16 March 1961
Kingsbury Hall, University of Utah, Salt Lake City
Programme as 5 Jan.
Arriving in the morning for his recital, Jorge told reporters for the Deseret News at the airport that attendance at his concerts has increased 60% since the movie "Song without end"
.
17 March 1961
Foothill College, 150 El Camino Real, Mountain View, Ca.
Liszt recital
"Bolet, who touches down at his Los Altos home between concerts in Madrid, Berlin and farther points..." Peninsula Times
20 March 1961 (?)
Amsterdam recital
[Newspapers say his European tour began in London, 24th]
24 March 1961
Festival Hall, London.
Beethoven 4 and Liszt's Hungarian Fantasy
LSO and Charles Mackerras
Donald Mitchell/Daily Telegraph: 'The ease of his playing is matched by an unusual grace which manifests itself most obviously in the delicacy of his touch. Thus Liszt's familiar virtuoso piece enjoyed a refined performance from the pianist that is the only rarely met with. But one was not sure that a little more steely glitter and glare would not have been welcome. A muted Liszt is something of a contradiction. So, too, is a muted Beethoven. Here his silky fluency, attractive though it was as pianism, stripped the music of its character. Silvery scales and textures, as pretty as those of a musical box do not convey the composer's authentic voice.'
25 (or 29?) March 1961
Hochschule für Musik, Berlin: Liszt recital, Charlottenburg (under Heinicke Konzert Direktion)
Funerailles, Sonata, 7 Transcendental Etudes.
He played encores on an old Bechstein from Weimar, on which Liszt himself played. An evening with Bolet is almost as exciting as a Hitchcock movie. This pianist possesses a hypnotic power over his audience. Only David Oistrakh received the sort of ovation this audience gave Mr Bolet, calling him again and again to the stage for more than half an hour after the concert. (Tagespiegel 31.3.1961)
The Kansas City Star (27 March): the pianist said today (27th) that the East German (DDR) authorities have lent him a piano that one belonged to Liszt for his Berlin recital. It was 90 years old and normally in Weimar, but in West Berlin for repairs. Jorge would play a few short numbers on it. Reported widely, e.g. Dutch newspaper Ons Noorden 29/3/61
16 April 1961
2:30pm broadcast on BBC Home Service Basic.
A concerto with the BBC Scottish Orchestra conducted by Norman Del Mar.
25 April 1961
Sala Acapulco, Gijón, Spain [?]
Recital
1 May 1961
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
Liszt 1 in E flat and Brahms 2 in B flat
with his brother Alberto and the Rotterdam Philharmonic.
We do not know how things went with the open-air fireworks on Queen's Day [Koninginnedag. -on the occasion of Queen's Day, the concert opened with the Wilhelmus.], but in the Great Hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, everything was in excellent order. Technical obstacles do not exist for this devilish artist [duivelskuunstenaar]: he conjures up the most difficult passages with a virtuosity and a cool, calculated precision, making it a delight to listen to his sparkling, thundering performances. Everything Jorge Bolet conjures from the grand piano is uncommonly expressive, yet the sharp profiling relates exclusively to the score: the musical characterization remains smooth and flat. Therefore, such an evening passes without a single moment of emotion or mental tension: only the dazzling sensation of the fireworks counts.
[Algemeen Handelsblad]
4 May 1961
BBC broadcast of JB playing piano in it's "Music for you" series, on Thursday at 9:15pm. Anneliese Rothenberger, the German soprano, also sang.
9 May 1961 [?]
Filármonia, Malaga (Spain)
18 May 1961
Beethoven's Emperor Concerto
Royal Festival Hall, London with the LSO and Colin Davis
Pianist Receives a “Strong” Welcome
"A visiting pianist at Joint Senior High School expected polite applause and perhaps a wilted corsage. Instead, he was met by the school’s human brick wall: the school’s impressively built football team, captained by Buck “Brick” Donovan—owner of a jaw you could sharpen pencils on, shoulders that apparently require their own postcode, and a varsity sweater clinging on for dear life. His grin? Bright enough to make the stage lights file a formal complaint.
"Fearing for the structural integrity of the guest’s livelihood (read: his fingers), Donovan and company delivered what they proudly dubbed “gentleman strength” handshakes—carefully calibrated somewhere between “cordial greeting” and “hydraulic press.” The pianist was then escorted to the stage with the kind of ceremony usually reserved for trophies and/or royalty.
"Notably torn over the night’s true star striker was Donovan’s girlfriend, Daisy Whitmore, who appeared to be playing both flanks—caught squarely between the pianist’s slicked, glass-smooth hair (more polished than a perfectly weighted through-ball) and Donovan’s own sun-bleached crew cut, all grit and preseason form. In Uniontown, it seems even romance can go to extra time—and this one’s still level heading into stoppage.
"The recital itself was a clean sweep on the scoreline, though a few squad members admitted they usually like their “chords” delivered with a whistle, a scoreboard, and ninety minutes on the clock. Still, their full-throated ovation shook the stands like a last-minute winner, leaving no doubt: in Uniontown, even the hardest-tackling—and frankly most camera-ready—footballers know how to put on a performance worthy of the highlight reel." (Cyril K. Sterling, Uniontown Evening Gazette, 14 March 1961)
Uniontown Evening Gazette, 14 March 1961
1961 cont. (Poland)
From 26 May to 19 June, 1961 Jorge made his first trip behind the Iron Curtain, to Poland where he gave 10 concerts in six major cities starting in Kraków on the 26th. There were eight concerto dates with orchestra and two solo recitals.
Echo Krakowa (11 May) had announced Jorge's tour and said that the first concerts were in Kraków on Friday/Saturday 26 & 27 May, after the pianist had played in Spain, West and East (GDR) Germany, Norway and Holland. This would imply that he has already slipped behind the Iron Curtain.
26/27 May 1961
Filharmonia, Kraków (Poland)
Mozart K491 [= No.24] and Beethoven No. 3 (both in C minor) with Andrzej Markowski and the Orkiestra Filharmonii Krakowskiej. Liszt (Campanella) as an encore.
Jorge would meet up again with Andrzej Markowski in Mexico City, in November 1978.
He may have appeared in Łódź (birthplace of Arthur Rubinstein) on 30 May.
2 June 1961
Sokolska Street, Katowice [press reports in early April had initially said 2 and 3 June]
Hendrik Andriessen - Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Kuhnau, W.A. Mozart - Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor KV 466, Albert Roussel - Suite in F major op. 33, R. Strauss - Symphonic poem "Don Juan" op. 20.
Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra [Orkiestra Symfoniczna Filharmonii Śląskiej] & Henri Arends
3/4 June 1961
Sala Pod Orlem (Eagle Hall), Bielsko-Biała
Same as 2 June
6 June 1961
Philharmonic Hall, Szczecin
Beethoven, Haydn and Franck, Liszt, 'including the captivating Spanish Rhapsody'.
9-10 June, 1961
Gdańsk
Liszt A major Concerto No.2
Gerd Puls and the Symphony Orchestra of the Baltic State Opera and Philharmonic (Orkiestra Symfoniczna Państwowej Opery i Filharmonii Bałtyckiej)
12 June 1961
Klub KWADRAT (Cooperative Club), Jelenia Góra
16 and 17 June 1961
Warsaw
Liszt's Concerto No. 2
Warsaw Philharmonic under Georges Sebastian
16 July 1961
Music By The Lake (Lewis Auditorium), George Williams Camp, Williams Bay, Wisconsin
Recital (as 5 Jan.). His first appearance here was in 1952.
1 August 1961 (cancelled)
Red Rocks Festival, Denver Colorado
Concerto with Denver Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Saul Caston.
In the event, due to inclement rainy weather, the concert - postponed to the next night - was eventually cancelled.
Late August 1961?
West Berlin, on the 150th anniversary of Liszt's birth
The decision was taken by the German Democratic Republic [East Germany] to build a Wall. Work began in the early hours of 13 August 1961.
3 September 1961
Berlin
Spandauer Volksblatt (5 October 1961), "When something up after the end of the Festival Weeks, Jorge Bolet's piano, recital will remain as one of the strongest assets. He played Liszt entirely romantically, with singing touch and wonderful tone colourings, which seemed to evoke the world of Debussy. The brilliance of his technique is unbeatable, but this is not the main thing. The nobility of sentiment, depth of feeling and absolute beauty of his music making are simply overwhelming... The audience was ecstatic.
Berliner Morgenpost: "The Cuban has conquered, a great audience of connoisseurs with a few recitals. He really conjures up the spirit of Liszt; the music hovers mysteriously in the atmosphere. The virtuoso Bolet is beyond the highest praise. A marvellous evening lifted the audience into ecstasy."
(These reports are quoted in The Columbus Ledger, 19.10.1961)
17/18 September 1961
Bergen, Norway
Liszt, Concerto for piano and orchestra no. 2 in A major and the Hungarian Fantasy.
Conductor Carl Garaguly
21 September 1961
Atlantic Hall, Stavanger (Norway)
Recital incl. Grieg's Ballade Op.24 in G minor, Beethoven's Appassionata
Jorge appears to have recorded Mozart's Piano Concerto, C minor, KV 491 with Trondheim Kammerorkester and Zubin Mehta, for this was broadcast in March 1962.
22 September 1961
Festiviteten Hall, Haugesund, Norway
Recital
24 September 1961
Royal Festival Hall, London
Liszt 1 (incl. A Walk to the Paradise Garden/Delius and Sibelius 2)
London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Malcolm Sargent
1 or 5 October 1961
Town Hall, Birmingham, England
Brahms 2 with the CBSO under Hugo Rignold
6 October 1961
A recital in Arnhem, Holland at the Musis Sacrum
10 October 1961
Coventry Festival, Warwickshire, England
Beethoven 4
Josef Krips & the London Philharmonic
17 October 1961
Peabody Conservatory of Music , Baltimore
Candlelight Concert (as 19 Oct.)
[Jorge and Tex then drove to Columbus]
19 October 1961
Royal Theater, Columbus, Georgia
Grieg Ballade [into whose "perfumed (sic) harmonies he dipped"!]; Franck, Prelude, Aria and Finale; Beethoven, Appassionata; Liszt group incl. Sposalizio
JB which "christen" a new Steinway. An evening Garden Fete in Virginia and A. Illges' beautiful gardens for some 2,000 people will be held after JB's recital. Today plans for it are booming! Virginia's gardens that circle all around her house and that part of Peacock Woods are a natural. 2,000 people could be lost in it. Already it is beautifully lighted – though more lights are being added such as tiny ones, candles, to outline the pools and rustic streams. There'll be an orchestra on the terrace, there'll be punch bowls and refreshment tables. The colours will be the ones you've come to associate with the Three Arts League - pink and maroon.
Why did the Three Arts select Jorge to dedicate its piano when Arthur Rubinstein had helped so much with the decisions to get it and with the selection of our first piano? Because Jorge is such a favourites here - not that the great Rubinstein isn't! - but circumstances have made it possible for Jorge to have many personal friends here. You see, he was an officer candid it at Fort Benning. He made many personal friends here during those months he was in training, because of his music and his personality. So he's sort of home folks.
Latimer Watson, The Columbus Ledger (1 October 1961), which accorded four large pieces
The next day (Friday), Ethel Williams invited Jorge and Tex for lunch at home and included several of his friends whom he made whn stationed at Fort Benning and through the years on his return trips to Columbus.
23 October 1961
Hall of Mirrors, Hotel Netherland-Hilton, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Matinée musicale at 11am (Liszt's Sposalizio made a -rare? - appearance)
His 'muscular program' consisted of the Ballade of Grieg, and music of the 25th below. Jorge was guest of honour at a luncheon afterwards at the Restaurant Continentale.
25 October 1961
Carnegie Hall, NYC
César Franck, Prélude, aria et final (1886-1887),
Liszt's Sonata, and the Mephisto Waltz
Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57, Appassionata
30 October 1961
Center Theatre, Norfolk, Virgina
Liszt 1
Norfolk Symphony and Edgar Schenkman
2 November 1961
Eastman Theatre, Rochester, New York
Rachmaninoff 3 [also Schumann Symphony No. 2 and a novelty, "Overture for Latecomers" by Ron Nelson]
Rochester Philharmonic/Theodore Bloomfeld
7 November 1961
Arthur L Johnson High School, Bridgewater, New Jersey
8 November 1961
Paramount theatre, Stapleton, Staten Island, New York
9 November 1961
High School, Hazleton, Pa.
(first appeared here 10 years ago) (programme as 19 Oct.)
13 November 1961
City Hall Auditorium, Portland, Maine
15 November 1961
Mosque, Richmond, Virginia
(programme as 19 Oct.)
17 November 1961
Akron, Ohio
20 November 1961
David Lipscomb University, Nashville, Tennessee
22 November 1961
Greenwood, Mississippi
Recital
(Dreary weather, with tearing wind and deluges of rain)
28/30 Nov 1961
Temple Theatre, Birmingham, Alabama
Liszt 1, Hungarian Fantasy
Birmingham SO/ Arthur Winograd will accompany "the Chilean pianist"
2 December 1961
Lincoln Auditorium, Syracuse NY (morning recital, Saturday)
(programme as 19 Oct.)
4/5 December 1961
South Campus Auditorium, Waukesha, Wisconsin
Rachmaninoff 3 [+ Samuel Barber's Die Natale, Debussy La Mer etc.]
Waukesha Symphony Orchestra/Milton Weber
11 December 1961
Glens Falls, NY
13 December 1961
Kalispell, a city in northwest Montana.
The recital included Grieg's Ballade, Franck's Prelude, Aria and Finale, Beethoven's Appassionata and a Liszt group
1962
6 January 1962
Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA
Liszt 1/Rachmaninoff-Paganini (replacing Andre Previn, stricken with pneumonia - he was toplay Shostakovich and Franck; Bronislaw Kaper's "The Glass Slipper" was also played etc.)
Los Angeles Philharmonic/Johnny Green
19 January 1962
Arizona State College auditorium, Flagstaff, Arizona
Franz Liszt (incl. Sposalizio), Edward Grieg. Cesar Franck and Ludwig van Beethoven
"A most unusual concert. Seldom is any audience lavished with such a feast of sheer dazzling pianism." (Gloria Swann, Arizona Daily Sun)
22 January 1962
Banning High School auditorium, Banning, California
Franz Liszt (incl. Sposalizio), Edward Grieg. Cesar Franck and Ludwig van Beethoven
24 January 1962
Santa Monica, CA.
30 January 1962
West High auditorium, Green Bay, Wisconsin
Jack Rudolph, Green Bay Press Gazette, wrote that for two-thirds of the evening he plodded dutifully though a technically competent but unexceptional performance. Then – perhaps - across the gulf of three-quarters of a century, the long-stilled hand of Franz Liszt reached out to rest upon his shoulder. Whatever happened, it was a different man who sat down to play the remainder of his programme. The huge piano seemed to sense the change to. The half defiant roar of the pre-intermission period disappeared – it sang like a happy nightingale, sighed like a lovesick teenager, and roared only on order. There emerged some of the finest Liszt likely to be had on any concert stage today.
1 February 1962
High School auditorium, Oil City, Pennsylvania
Recital
7 February 1962
Morning Musicale, Boston
12 February 1962
Highlands School Auditorium, Westchester, NY
(as 19 Jan.)
14 February, 1962
Masonic Temple, Scranton, Pennsylvania
Harold G. Munday of The Scranton Times felt the programme was rather one-sided. Technically the Grieg was demanding and some of the variations are of considerable interest, but it was Mr Bolet's magic rather than Grieg's writing that sustained the interest throughout. The slow movement of the Appassionata was played with such tonal opulence... It was a magnificent recital.
20 February 1962
High School, Goldsboro, North Carolina
(as 19 Jan.)
23 February 1962
War Memorial, Fort Lauderdale, Florida (cancelled)
24 February 1962
Miami Beach auditorium, Florida (cancelled)
26 February 1962
Elementary school, Conway, South Carolina
28 February 1962
Twichell Auditorium, Spartanburg, South Carolina USA
including Grieg's Ballade, Franck's Prelude, Aria and Final
1 March 1962
Academy of Music, Philadelphia
(replacing Canadian Glenn Gould)
Beethoven, Rondo in C (1797), Franck's Prelude, Aria and Final, Beethoven Appassionata, Liszt
2 March 1962
Municipal Theater, Tulsa, Oklahoma
5 March 1962
Liberty Hall, El Paso, Texas
Liszt 1, Hungarian Fantasy
El Paso Symphony/Orlando Barera (Italian-American, who led the El Paso SO, 1951-1970. He had formerly been the concert master of the Havana Philharmonic and Jorge had known him for 20 years. Their paths crossed several times in Cuba)
8 March 1962
Civic Auditorium, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Rachmaninoff 3 [= premiere of Gene Gutsche's Sympnony No. 4 Op.30]
Albuquerque Sympnony/Maurice Bonney
10 March 1962
College of Notre Dame Auditorium, Ralston Ave., Belmont, CA.
12/13 March 1962
Seattle Symphony
Glenn Gould had been due to play Beethoven 4 but cancelled because of a painful neck ailment. Milton Katims, the conductor, had received a telegram on Saturday 10th, saying this. Mrs Hugh E. McCreery, the orchetra manager, who was in Vancouver, called the Beverley Wilshire Holet in Hollywood, where Gould had been staying and was told he had checked out Saturday morning, leaving no forwarding address. Katims arranged through a California agency for a Cuban pianist Jorge Bolet - a resident of 24762 Elena Ave., Los Altos Hills - to play the two evening concerts.
17 March 1962
Festival Hall, London
Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op.18
LSO & Anatole Fistoulari
20 March 1962
Amsterdam recital in the Grote Zaal of the Concertgebouw.
Liszt's Sonata in B minor, 6 Transcendental Etudes
It was billed as a Liszt recital to celebrate 150th anniversary of the composer's birth, though he was born 22 October 1811.
Jorge and Sidney Foster met in Amsterdam at this time. They found themselves booked for two concerts at the same hour, on the same day in two different halls of the Concertgebouw.
24 March 1962
Hochschule für Musik, Berlin (Germany)
Chopin evening
(Sonata No. 3 in B minor, 4 Ballades, Nocturne Op.27, Fantasy Op.49 in F minor)
28 March 1962
Rotterdam Philharmonic under André Rieu in the Rivièrahal.
1 April 1962
A recital in the Diligentia, The Hague
3 April 1962
Rotterdam
12 April 1962
Recital in the hall of the Rijnhotel, Rotterdam, incl. Chopin's Sonata No. 3 in B minor Op.58, Beethoven's Appassionata and Liszt's Mephisto Waltz.
28 April 1962
Konzertsaal, Hochschule für Musik, Berlin
Klavierabend (Liszt, Chopin)
12 May 1962 [?]
Málaga, Spain
19 May 1962
6th Gulbenkian Festival of Music, Coliseu, Lisbon (Portugal)
Liszt 2 {+ Lalo, Roi d'Ys, Faure, Pelleas et Mellisande etc.]
Orquestra Sinfonica da Emissora Nacional/ Paul Paray
Diário de Lisboa 20.5.1962: Jorge Bolet que fez gala de uma formidável técnica de deos e de pulso e de um romantismo espectacular (Jorge Bolet, who displayed formidable finger and wrist technique and spectacular romanticism.). Encore Verdi/Liszt Rigoletto.
He also gave a Liszt recital in Setúbal, 31 miles outside Lisbon
29 May 1962 (aged 47)
Royal Festival Hall, London
Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 57, Appassionata, Liszt’s B minor sonata and Chopin’s Third Sonata
(This was not, as sometimes assumed, his London solo début - that was on 18 December 1955, also in the Festival Hall.)
8 June 1962
Royal Festival Hall, London
Rachmaninoff "Paganini Variations"
London Philharmonic/ Anatole Fistoulari.
S.S. [= Stanley Sadie (1930–2005), a prominent British musicologist] in the Daily Telegraph thought there was an agreeable lightness and fluency, but at times "one wished for a little more crispness and hard brilliance. Perhaps it was the lack of this, which prevented the performance from bringing out more of the dark, sinister quality, which underlies some of the variations."
A July notice mentions that Lucien Leinfelder (b.1932, La Crosse, Wisconsin) is Bolet's only pupil at the moment.
25 July 1962
Red Rocks Music Festival, Denver, Colorado
Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Denver Symphony Orchestra. Johnny Green
23 August 1962
Hollywood Bowl
Rachmaninoff, Five Etudes: Tableau No. 5; Marche (arranged by Respighi); Concerto No. 3 for Piano and Orchestra; Symphony No 2.
Los Angeles Philharmonic, Walter Hendl
8 September 1962
Foothill College auditorium, California
Benefit recital for El Camino Hospital, to raise money for the cobalt fund (for cancer therapy)
Beethoven No.31 Op.110, Chopin Sonata No. 3, Brahms/Handel Variations, Godowsky Fledermaus -"a concert he will give in Carnegie Hall on October 31".
8 October 1962
Ukiah High School auditorium, Ukiah, Mendocino county, California
14 & 16 October 1962
McKinley Auditorium, Honolulu, Hawaii
Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op.58 {+ Brahms' 2nd symphony]
Honolulu Symphony under Hans Schwieger
His first appearance on the island. 'Jorge Bolet has accepted an invitation from the Maui Philharmonic Society and will donate his services to play for two student concerts at Baldwin Auditorium. Maui, on Wednesday, October 17, at 12 p.m. and at 1 pm. (There was a letter of complaint to the newspaper that music lovers on Oahu would not hear him.)
17 October 1962
Baldwin High School Auditorium, Maui, Hawaii
2 recitals for students. A letter to the Honolulu Star Advertiser regretted that Bolet would not be coming ot Oahu, where residents are "being denied a rare privilege".
18 October 1962
Hilo, Hawaii (cancelled)
"The serious music gang reports that pianist Jorge Bolet will lead off [this] season's concert series with an October 18 Hilo appearance."
Hawaii Tribune Herald (1.6.1962), which in August reported that the Steinway ordered in May wouldn't be ready until December and thus JB's concert has been cancelled.
Hilo is a town on Hawaii, commonly called the Big Island, in the state of Hawaii. It’s known for Wailuku River State Park, featuring Waianuenue, or Rainbow Falls, with its colourful mist effects. The bubbling basalt-lava rock pools known as the Boiling Pots are nearby. To the south is Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, home to rainforests and the active Kilauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes.
22 October 1962
Community Concert Association; Hattiesburg, Mississippi: recital
24 October 1962
College chapel, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,
(programme as 8 December)
Liszt, Grand Galop chromatique (as an encore)
26 October 1962
Tarrytown-on-Hudson, a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York
31 October 1962
JB celebrated his Carnegie Hall 25th Anniversary on North American Stage Concert
Beethoven Sonata No. 31 Op.110, Chopin's 3rd Sonata Op. 58 in B minor, Brahms, Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24 (1861) and Godowsky, Symphonische Metamorphosen Johann Strauss'cher Themen: 2. Die Fledermaus (1907)
3/4 November 1962
Westchester, NY (Mamaroneck & Scarsdale High Schools)
Beethoven 4
Westchester Symphony/Siegfried Landau
6/7 November 1962
Constitution Hall, Washington DC [+ R. Vaughan Williams, Partita]
Brahms 2 with the National Symphony under Howard Mitchell in 'Celebrating his 25th year as a performing artist, his 9th appearance as guest artist with this orchestra.
[8th in Lisner Auditorium, Foggy Bottom campus of George Washington University]
10 November 1962
Parkersburg, West Virginia: Community Association recital
14 November 1962
Withrow Court, U.Miami, Florida
(as 31 Oct.)
25 November 1962
High School, Medford, Oregon: Civic Music Association
A letter to the Medford Mail Tribune reminded readers that "Brailowsky came several years ago and ear-drums were in danger. Now we have heard the orchestration of Jorge Bolet which was beyond description but hard on ear-drums. Medford needs a place to hear things - we need a concert hall."
29 November 1962
Lawrence University Memorial Chapel, Appleton, Wisconsin
Professor H D F Kitto, Bristol University (England) - a famous Classicist - had spoken on the Iliad that morning
2, 4 December 1962
Kleinhans Music Hall, Buffalo, NY
Liszt – Piano Concerto No.2 in A major [+Bruckner 4]
Buffalo Philharmonic (New York State) and Josef Krips
"At first program glance, it seemed a waste of talent to place this artist in Liszt's second concerto, a work so often given a namby-pamby delineation. What followed was an ear-stirring reading that abounded with masculinity, arresting technique, and mounting regard for the writing. The Bolet interpretation apparently discarded concerti style, and moved beneficially to thoughts of the tone poem, for the score seemed to expand as a rhapsody in the strength and drive of the soloist." Buffalo Courier Express (3.12.1962)
8 December 1962
Nashua High School, Nashua, New Hampshire (USA)
Beethoven, Rondo in G major Op.51/2; Sonata No. 31 in A flat
Brahms, Variations and Fugue on a theme of Handel, Op.24
Liszt, années de Pélèrinage : Italie (Vallée d'Obermann, Au bord d'une source)
Strauss II/Godowsky, Fledermaus
11 December 1962
Chico State College, Chico, CA.
1963-64
From early spring 1963, Jorge Bolet and Tex Compton are living in Fuenterrabia, northern Spain
6 January 1963
Mosque Theater, Newark, NJ
NDR Symphonie (Hamburg)/Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt
9 January 1963
Winthrop College, [Byrnes] auditorium, Rock Hill, South Carolina
14 January 1963
Milledgeville, Georgia
The State (Columbia, South Carolina), on 10 January 1963, published an interview: "In Berlin, I am to do a program exclusively Beethoven. The Appassionata I haven't done since I was 12 [?], so I will do that in various concerts this year preceding the Berlin engagement... American audiences are very different from European audiences. If you ask in American, so-and-so is giving a recital tonight, are you going, the American will probably answer, 'No I've heard them before." It's like they have heard you once, they will hear someone else next time...almost as though they are collecting recitalists. Europeans are different. If they hear you and like you, they will come to hear you again and again, for 40 years - if you continue that long." He mentions that he's reading Mark Twain's Letters from Earth. "I haven't finished it yet. It is with my things that are being moved to Spain. But I'm looking forward to getting back to it. You ought to read it. It's wonderful."
16 January 1963
Palm Beach, Florida
Beethoven Op.110, Chopin 3;
Liszt, années de Pélèrinage : Italie (Vallée d'Obermann, Au bord d'une source)
Strauss II/Godowsky, Fledermaus
18 January 1963
Bower Theater, Flint, Michigan
Beethoven, Rondo in G major Op.51/2; Sonata No. 31 in A flat
Brahms, Variations and Fugue on a theme of Handel, Op.24
Liszt, années de Pélèrinage : Italie (Vallée d'Obermann, Au bord d'une source)
Strauss II/Godowsky, Fledermaus
(two previous appearances in Flint, one in the St Cecilia concert series in 1956, the other with the Flint Symphony in 1958. "His popularity in Flint has not waned.")
21 January 1963
Shryock auditorium, Carbondale, Illinois
(as 18 Jan.)
The Miami Herald (21.1.1963): Jorge Bolet played a special concert recently at Binder Hall on Biscayne Boulevard. He honoured his brother [no, nephew?], Armando, who was one of the Bay of Pigs [April 1961] prisoners recently released."
[Armando Jose Bolet Suarez, 1943-2024. He parachuted into Cuba as part of the CIA-backed operation aimed at overthrowing Fidel Castro’s government.]
5-7 February 1963
Konzertsaal, Hochschule für Musik, Berlin
Prokofiev No. 2.
Berliner Philharmoniker, under Witold Rowicki
9 February 1963
Royal Festival Hall, London
Grieg's Piano Concerto
with brother Alberto and London Symphony Orchestra
23 February, 1963
Berlin, Konzertsaal, Hochschule für Musik
Beethoven evening (Les Adieux, Moonlight, Op.110 and Appassionata).
5 March 1963
Sala Born, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Beethoven incl. Pathétique and the Appassionata
8 March 1963
Heerlen City Theatre (Stadsschouwburg), Heerlen, Netherlands
Brahms' second piano concerto
Limburgs Symfonie Orkest/ Leonce Gras
24 March 1963
Aulaen, the auditorium of the University, Oslo (Norway)
Brahms' 2nd piano concerto
with Alberto & Filharmonisk Selskaps orkester (now known as the Oslo Philharmonic)
28 March 1963
Atlantic Hall, Stavanger, Norway.
Beethoven sonatas
The Peninusla Times (Palo Alto, California) 3 April 1963 states that Jorge who has lived in Los Altos Hills for the past four years has moved to Spain.
3, 5 April 1963
Konserthuset, Stockholm (Sweden) - JB's first appearance here
Serge Rachmaninoff, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for piano and orchestra
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
Sixten Ehrling conductor
26 April 1963
Teatro Carrión, Valladolid, Spain
Beethoven sonatas, Brahms/Handel variations and Strauss/Godowsky Fledermaus.
11 June 1963
Las Palmas on the Canary Islands
Recital including Beethoven's Sonata No. 31 in A flat Op. 110, Johannes Brahms' Handel Variations & Liszt's Transcendental Studies
15 or 22 June 1963
Las Palmas
Beethoven's Emperor Concerto Op. 73 + Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op.18
24 June 1963
Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, Scotland
Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23
Scottish National Orchestra, [later Sir] Alexander Gibson (?) - the conductor whom I heard in 1970s west of Scotland, as a schoolboy.
24 July 1963
Konserthuset, Stockholm (Sweden)
Tchaikovsky’s first concerto
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Sixten Ehrling
11 August 1963
Berkshire Festival, The Shed, Tanglewood, Massachussetts, USA; 2:30pm
Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No.3 in C Op.26 (in observance of the 10th anniversary of the composer's death)
Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Erich Leinsdorf
The Morning Union: He kept the gamboling, galumphing, compulsive rhythms bounding along with the spirit of a young impala.
16 August 1963, Kurzaal, Den Haag (The Hague) with the Residentie-orkest and Roberto Benzi
11 September 1963 (?)
Harmonie in Groningen, Holland/Netherlands
Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op.18
Noordelijk Filharmonisch Orkest, orchestra of Groningen and Drenthe/ Roelof Krol
28 September 1963
RFH, London with brother Alberto in Beethoven's fourth piano concerto (and the Eroica symphony)
30 September 1963
Coventry Festival, Warwickshire, England
Brahms' Pianoforte Concerto No. 2 in B flat
London Philharmonic Orchestra and John Pritchard
The Coventry Evening Telegraph reported that "No wonder that Jorge Bolet is claimed to be one of the few master pianists of our generation". The Birmingham Evening Mail, on the other hand, said Bolet "was the biggest disappointment of all. The poetic feeling of the music and the vast emotional proportions of it were missing, so that, despite technical skill, there was no true depth to the interpretation". Then again JFW in the Birmigham Post, writes: "Magisterial indeed: mightily resonant, deeply poetic, spaciously intellectual."
Music critics, eh?
4 October 1963
Rotterdam, at the Schouwburg, Holland
Brahms' Concerto No. 2
Rotterdam Philharmonic/ Ed Flipse
11, 12 October 1963
Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio
Prokofiev 2 or 3 (both are advertised)
Cincinnati Symphony/Ronald Ondrejka
14, 15 October 1964
Ovens Auditorium, Charlotte, North Carolina
Beethoven 4
Charlotte Symphony/Richard Cormier (his first appearance as new conductor of the symphony)
18 October 1963
McAllen Municipal auditorium, McAllen, Texas.
Haydn Sonata No.62 in E-flat major, Hob.XVI:52, Beethoven, Les Adieux Op.81a, Schumann Fantasy Op.17. Liszt's Mazzepo (sic) concluded the program, and it proved to be the crowd pleaser for it is a virtuoso display of few equals.
Recital by the "Cuban-Mexican" pianist, who was the first artist booked when the Community Concert was first organised ten years previously. Several Board members desired his return for this new auditorium. "On that first night, Mr Bolet played in the old high school auditorium against serious competition from hot weather and an enthusiastic football game, complete with cheerleaders. There were additional sundry competitions from a freight train and the local disaster klaxon."
21 October 1963
Arlington Heights, Cook County, Illinois
One lady wrote to a newspaper that while she had throughly enjoyed Bolet's concert, she objected to Irma la Douce "with its unsavory plot being shown in the only theatre in this town- my teenagers will not be attending". This was a romantic comedy film directed by Billy Wilder from the 1956 French stage musical of the same name by Marguerite Monnot and Alexandre Breffort. The film stars Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine.While the film was mostly shot at the Samuel Goldwyn Studio in Hollywood, some exteriors were shot around Paris: Les Halles, the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, and the banks of the Seine.
23 October 1963
Virginia, Minnesota
Arrowhead Community Concerts
14 November 1963
Harmonien, Bergen, Norway
Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43.
with Alberto
Winter Maven Nora Mayo Hall, Orlando Florida
(as 14 Dec.)
14 December 1963
Miami Beach auditorium
Haydn E flat, Beethoven Appassionata, Schumann Fantasy, Brahms/Handel
"He has no truck with small or easy works, or anything geared merely to please or fill up the time." Doris Reno, Miami Herald
16, 17 December 1963
Houston, Texas
Tchaikovsky 1
Houston Symphony/ Georges Tzipine
1964
Jorge Bolet and Tex Compton are living in Fuenterrabia, northern Spain. He performed a lot more abroad than in the USA this year.
3 January 1964
San Antonio, Texas
Recital
4 January 1964
Municipal Auditorium, Long Beach, Florida
[Au bord d'une source was one of his items]
6 January 1964
Myra Costa High School, Manhattan Beach, California
12, 13 January 1964
Queen Elizabeth theatre, Vancouver (Canada)
Beethoven 4
Vancouver Symphony/ Irwin Hoffman
The Province 28.12.1963 says this is the "noted South American" pianist's first Vancouver appearance. (*Jorge, in fact, had played in Vancouver, for example, on Sunday, 1 November 1953, and was advertised for the 1954-55 season)
Thus far, we've read about the noted Chilean/South American/Cuban-Mexican pianist...
17 January 1964
Willamette University Fine Arts auditorium, Salem, Oregon
Rachmaninoff 3
Portland Symphony/Jacques Singer
JB says he would like to learn the first concerto but Byron Janis plays it so well... Supper in honour of JB at the Illahe Hills Country Club afterwards, cosy amid sheets of rain and snow outside. Jorge and Tex had been here 10 years ago for a concert.
25 (?) January 1964
Olympia, Washington State
Haydn E flat, Beethoven Les Adieux, Schumann Fantasy,Liszt, Au bord d'une source, Fruühlingsnacht, Mazeppa
29-31 January 1964
Opera House, San Francisco
Prokofiev, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, No. 2 in G Minor
San Francisco Symphony under Josef Krips
4 February 1964
City Hall Theatre, Hamilton, Bermuda
Beethoven, Sonata No.31 Op.110 in A flat, Chopin, Sonata in B minor Op.58, Brahms, Variations on a theme of Handel Op.24, Strauss/Godowsky, Fledermaus.
10 March 1964
Philharmonie, Berlin
Beethoven, No.31 Op.110 In A flat
Liszt, Transcendental Etudes
7-11 April 1964
Grosser Saal, Musikverein, Vienna (Austria)
Liszt 1
Vienna Symphony (Wiener Symphoniker) under Paul Klecki
After the Tchaikovsky concerto with Wolfgang Sawallisch on 19-22 January 1965, there was a long gap in Viennese appearances until 1982 (Joseph Marx's Concerto), at least with regard to orchestral concerts. He is also not in the online archives of the Vienna Philharmonic/Wiener Philharmoniker.
20 May 1964
Haarlem, Netherlands
Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto
4 June 1964
Philharmonie, Berlin
Liszt 1
Berlin Philharmonic/Zubin Mehta
10 June 1964
Konserthuset, Stockholm (Sweden)
Johannes Brahms, Piano Concerto No. 2
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra/ Sixten Ehrling
(also Karl-Birger Blomdahl Symphony No. 3 "Facettes")
There now appears to be a gap in the record of performance by Bolet in Sweden until June 1977.
4 August 1964
Tanglewood, Lenox MA
Beethoven's Sonata No. 31 in A flat major Op.110 followed by Liszt's Transcendental Etudes. Op.110
9 August 1964
Tanglewood, Lenox MA
Beethoven/Liszt, Ruins of Athens with Erich Leinsdorf
20 August 1964
Place des Arts, Montreal (Canada)
Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor Op.30
Seiji Ozawa
28 August 1964
Coventry Festival, England
Rachmaninoff 3
Royal Philharmonic/ Alberto Bolet
During 12 September - 8 October 1964, Bolet toured New Zealand, with recitals in 8 centres and 5 concerto appearances. In an interview with the Rand Daily News (Johannesburg), 12 October 1964, Dora Sowden states that Jorge has just come from New Zealand by air, where he had given 15 concerts.
Press (18 February 1964) had announced: 'Jorge Bolet's New Zealand solo recitals will be in Auckland, Hamilton, Gisborne, Wellington, Timaru, Christchurch, Wanganui, and Nelson, beginning in September, and interspersed with concerto performances with the N.Z.B.C. Symphony under Matteucci in Wellington, Palmerston North, Christchurch, and Dunedin.'
12 September 1964
Auckland Town Hall, recital
17 September 1964
Wellington Town Hall (North Island, New Zealand)
Liszt's First Piano Concerto and the Hungarian Fantasy
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under Juan Matteucci;
22 September 1964
Wellington Town Hall
Recital incl. Schumann Fantasy, Beethoven, Appassionata, 7 Transcendental Studies by Liszt
26 September 1964
Christchurch Civic Theatre, (South Island, New Zealand)
Brahms 2 with Juan Matteucci
1 October 1964
Christchurch Civic Theatre
Recital, including the Chopin's Ballades, Mozart’s Sonata in D. K. 576, and Liszt's Funerailles and Mephisto Waltz
8 October 1964
Wellington Town Hall, New Zealand
"Fountains of Rome" Respighi
Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16 Prokofiev
`Symphony No. 4 in E Minor. Op. 98 Brahms
with conductor Juan Matteucci
1964, South Africa
In late October and November, Bolet made a tour of South Africa (in their summer).
Hans Adler told the J'Burg Sunday Times in November 1962 that negotiations for the tour were already under way.
17 October, 1964
University Great Hall, Johannesburg
Beethoven, Sonata No. 31 in A flat Op.110
Liszt, Transcendental Etudes (in an new order)
22 October, 1964
Cape Town
Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and his Hungarian Fantasia.
Cape Town/Kaapstad Municipal Orchestra/ Peter Erös
24 October 1964
Cape Town Concert Club, Tempelsaal, Groenpunt/Green Point: recital
28 October 1964, Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha, Eastern Cape): recital
1 November 1964
Civic Theatre, Johannesburg
Haydn, Sonata No.62 in E-flat major, Hob.XVI:52
Schubert, Fantasy in C Op.15 (Wanderer)
Liszt, Sonata in B minor
Strauss/Godowsky, Fledermaus
The Rand Daily News (2 November): 'If anyone regretted the announcement that Bolet had decided to play Liszt's Mephisto waltz rather than the Fledermaus paraphrase, that regret must have been swept away by the pianist's superlative playing. It threw new light in Liszt. Here was a performer who did not struggle with Satan; he had him under foot and finger.'
He also played in Windhoek, South West Africa (now Namibia) during this tour.
"Here you will be offered the best of European music. You don't need to bring anything with you from overseas," said the well-known Windhoek art patron Olga Levinson at the time.' Allegemeine Zeitung Namibia (30 October 2008). Miss Levinson observed that 'the 1964 season was brought to a conclusion by the high voltage playing of Jorge Bolet'.
8 December 1964
Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, England
Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Jascha Horenstein
18, 20 December 1964
Sociedad Filarmonica, Bilbao, Spain
Mozart 20, Rachmaninoff 3
21 December 1964
Conciertos Arriaga (Teatro Arriaga Antzokia), Bilbao
recital?
1965 Australia
9 January 1965
Philharmonie, Berlin
Schubert/ Liszt
19-22 January 1965
Vienna
30 January 1965
City Hall Theatre, Hamilton, Bermuda
Chopin, 4 Ballade, Mozart, Sonata in D major K576, Liszt, Consolation in D flat & Mephisto Waltz.
6, 7 February 1965
Clowes Hall, Indianapolis (performing with this orchestra for the first time)
Prokofiev 2 [Nielsen Maskarade overture, Ravel Tombeau, Schumann 2]
Indianapolis Symphony/ Izler Solomon
12 February 1965
Babcock auditorium, Sweet Briar College, (Amherst County), Virginia
Haydn, Andante & Variations in F minor, Hob.XVII:6 (Un Piccolo Divertimento), Schubert Wanderer, Chopin Ballades
15 February 1965
Birmingham. Alabama
17, 18 February 1965
Howard auditorium, Luisiana Tech., Shreveport, Louisiana
17th, for students - incl Liszt Sonata & Spanish Rhapsody, Moonlight Sonata
18th (as 12 Feb)
In March 1965, Bolet arrived by Qantas at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith airport to begin a 14 week ABC concert tour of all the states of Australia.
'Bolet's nomination for the worst audiences are in Australia and New Zealand. "It's because they are a certain kind of people and also because of their remoteness. It seems to me that they resent anyone from the so-called outside world"'. [Ouch!]
(Ledger Inquirer [Columbus-Georgia] 22.10.1968)
3, 5 April 1965 (Saturday/Monday)
Town Hall, Melbourne
Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor Op.30
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/ Paavo Berglund [+Lemminkäinen Suite]
"Brilliant Finnish conductor. An extraordinary power of communication (Bucharest)", as quoted by The Age.
A brilliant performance of the Rachmaninoff, a work noted for its frontal assault on the more obvious emotions. He raised much enthusiasm from the audience, who delighted in his keen sense of characterisation, particularly in the tonal beauty, and subtle phrasing of the opening melody, and in the breathtaking bravura of his passagework. The programme ended with Brahms Academic Festival Overture. Individually these works have their place on our programmes, but all at once, suggest an appalling musical taste in programme building. Felix Werder, The Age
7, 8 April 1965 (Wednesday/Thursday)
Beethoven 5
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/ Paavo Berglund [+Schumann Manfred & Sibelius 4]
4, 5, 6, 8, 10 May 1965
Town Hall, Sydney
Brahms Concerto No.2 in B flat major Op.83 [4, 5, 6]
Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor Op.30 [8, 10]
Sydney Symphony under Finnish maestro Paavo Berglund
12 May 1965
Town Hall, Sydney
Haydn, Schubert "Wanderer", Chopin Ballades
15 May 1965
Town Hall, Sydney
Beethoven, Sonata No. 31 in A flat Op.110
Liszt, Transcendental Etudes
18 May 1965
Town Hall, Melbourne
Beethoven, Sonata No. 31 in A flat Op.110
Liszt, Transcendental Etudes
21 and 26 May 1965
Capitol Theatre, Perth (Western Australia)
West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Paavo Berglund.
25 May 1965
Capitol Theatre, Perth (Western Australia): recital
8, 9 and 10 June with conductor Dean Dixon or Joseph Post, the latter advertised on the first day (Sydney Symphony Orchestra)
Schumann Concerto
c.17 June 1965
Sydney
Schumann Piano Concerto
Sydney Symphony under Joseph Post
19 June 1965
Brisbane, Queensland
Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23
Rudolf Pekárek and the Queensland SO (but the conductor may have been Dean Dixon, as the Czech maetro took ill)
6 July 1965
City Hall, Hong Kong
incl. Haydn's sonata in E flat major
12 September 1965
Odeon, Swiss Cottage, London
Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor Op.30
Royal Philharmonic and Kust Wöss.
Martin Cooper wrote in the Daily Telegraph: There are not many pianists today who can play Rachmaninoff third concerto as he did with the technical aplomb and unshowy brilliance, the grand romantic manner, unexpectedly coupled with an aloofness that could almost be mistaken for objectivity. This was the Rachmaninoff's own approach, and Mr Bolet's steel filigree arabesques, and apparently infallible attack in the great chord passages of the finale were worthy of the composer himself.
7 and 9 October 1965
Ford Auditorium, Detroit
Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor Op.30
Detroit Symphony and Sixten Ehrling
3 & 5 December 1965
Palacio de la Música, Madrid, Spain
Rachmaninoff's second concerto with Carl Melles
7 December 1965
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam (or Haarlem)
Liszt 1 [Copland Appalachian Spring]
Noordholland Ph. O./Alberto Bolet
This work seems to reflect the lustre and brilliance of an entire jewellery store. The pianist possesses a technical skill bordering on perfection. His interpretation was romantic-virtuosic as required. Nevertheless, he could not convince us that the concerto has considerably more to offer than a number of fascinating sound effects. But in fact, one cannot expect more from a jewel than a shimmering gradation of colour. (Nieuwe Haarlemsche Courant]
9 December 1965
Münchner Residenz (Herkulessaal), Munich, West Germany (Studio Radio Broadcast)
Liszt: Piano Concerto No.1 in E-flat major, S.124, Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, Op.30
Raphael Frübeck de Burgos / Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.
[?] 1965
Haus des Rundfunks, West Berlin, West Germany (SFB Studio Radio Broadcast)
Jorge recorded some Godowsky arrangements including the outrageously worked Concert Paraphrase on Chopin’s Waltz in E-flat major, Op.18. ["The art of Godowsky is not for purists. Nor - one might add - for lovers of Chopin!"]
I'm always intrigued by this arrangement and have wondered how many times JB actually performed it. On 14 February, 1978 at the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania he played it to an informal gathering. (He recorded it in October 1977 for L'Oiseau-Lyre/Decca). *See also October 1978 (Met Museum, NYC) & April 1979 (Riverside, California), 10 and 12 May 1979 (England). I presume also that he had worked this up and played it to Leopold Godowsky in the early 1930s.
On 13 December 1965 the Dutch newspaper De Schiedammer reports that on a Saturday morning (11th) the acoustics of the concert hall in Rotterdam (Holland), De Doelen, were being tested. Jorge played de Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain with Robert Benzl. As the work was rarely performed, 'its performance was not able to offer comparison with other halls, in terms of acoustics'.
Jorge Bolet played the Steinway concert grand piano that had arrived from the factory the day before. Everything that sounded was new. The immense hall is spectacular due to its overwhelming spatial effect, its architectural proportions, and its colour. De Tijd de Maasbode.
In De Falla's Nuits dans les jardins d'Espagne, the American pianist Jorge Bolet, who is no stranger in the Netherlands, proved himself a pianist of considerable stature, with a great, albeit not spectacular, technique [met een grote, zij het niet spectaculaire techniek], a pianistic style that testifies to sobriety and simplicity, as indeed is his entire appearance, and a clear insight into the score.
His interpretation is perhaps somewhat businesslike, but that does not detract from the fact that the restrained manner in which he plays this obligatory part is impressive and convincing.' (Het Vrije Volk)
1966-67
Jorge seems hardly at all to have performed in the USA this year.
7 January 1966
Philharmonie, Berlin
Debussy, Chopin (Sonata Op.58), Liszt (Sonata, Mephisto waltz)
c.13 January 1966
Helsinki, Finland ??
Rachmaninoff 3 [also Joonas Kokkonen, Music for strings]
Paavo Beglund
3, 4 April 1966
Philharmonie, Berlin
Beethoven, Concerto No. 5 [+ Prokofiev, Symphony No. 6 in E flat minor]
Berlin Philharmonic / Lovro von Matačić (Croatian, 1899-1985)
14 May, 1966
RFH, London
Grieg's Piano Concerto
London Philharmonic and Moshe Atzmon
c.23 May 1966
Helsinki, Finland??
Paavo Berglund
19 August 1966
Tanglewood in Lennox, Berkshire County, Massachusetts USA
Short evening Liszt recital at 7pm (Schubert + Wagner ("Spinning chorus") + Verdi + Schumann/Liszt)
20 August 1966
Tanglewood in Lennox
Franz Liszt / Ruins of Athens: Fantasy on Motifs; Concerto for Piano No. 2 in A major. BSO/Erich Leinsdorf
21-23 September 1966
Berlin
Schumann's Concerto in A minor
Berlin Philharmonic under Seiji Ozawa {+ Hindemith's Mathis der Maler symphony}
2 November 1966
Aulaen, Oslo, Norway
Liszt's first piano concerto
Oslo Philharmonic/ American-Swiss Francis Travis
10 November 1966
Stavanger, Norway
Beethoven's 5th piano concerto in E flat, "Emperor"
17 November 1966
Auditorio Ministerio, Madrid
Chopin's four Ballades and Liszt's Sonata plus the Mephisto Waltz
Late November 1966
Herkulessaal, Munich
Chopin, Ballades; Liszt Sonata, Mephisto Waltz (& encores)
(received one of Jorge's best reviews ever, see Edmund Nick ad loc.)
1 December 1966
Philharmonie, Berlin
Brahms, Liszt recital
2 December 1966: Haus des Rundfunks (Saal 3), West Berlin, West Germany (SFB Studio Radio Broadcast ) Chopin: Polonaise in A major, Op.40 No.1, Polonaise in C minor, Op.40 No.2, Polonaise in A-flat major, Op.53, Schumann/Liszt: Frühlingsnacht, Op.39 No.12 (S.568). Performance also in Munich?
1967
11 January 1967
Huntsville, Alabama
16 January 1967
deJong Concert Hall, Brigham Young University, Utah
Prokofiev's Concerto No. 3 in C Major
Detroit Symphony Orchestra/ Sixten Ehrling
This was a much-advertised tour last year & this January in the newspapers. "Members of the Detroit Symphony, music director Sixten Ehrling and pianist Jorge Bolet will travel from Detroit to Provo, Utah on Monday 16th to open a three-week US western tour. They will visit 16 cities in six states; the orchestra will give 18 concerts in all, 17 of them with Jorge Bolet." The Windsor Star (14.1.1967)
17, 18 January 1967
Auditorium University of Arizona, Tucson
Prokofiev's Concerto No. 3 in C Major/ Liszt 1
Detroit Symphony Orchestra/ Sixten Ehrling
Dorothy Moreton of the Tucson Citizen: 'The pianist's interpretation of Liszt is percularly his own, and one must remind oneself that this is certainly his right. If at times he sacrifices continuity, perhaps this too, has a purpose. And if a man can't stretch out Liszt rubatos, whose rubatos pray can hear extend? At any rate the third movement and the Allegro marziale animato, with the piquant triangle tailing the sparkling phrases, flashed like quicksilver over the piano to a triumphant climax.'
21 January 1967
Orange Coast College, auditorium, Costa Mesa, California
Prokofiev's Concerto No. 3 in C Major
Detroit Symphony Orchestra/ Sixten Ehrling
22 January 1967 (Sunday matinee)
Music Center Pavilion, Los Angeles
Prokofiev's Concerto No. 3 in C Major
Detroit Symphony Orchestra/ Sixten Ehrling; JB introduced the new Baldwin SD-10 to Los Angeles
24 January 1967
Arlington Theatre, Santa Barbara, Ca.
Detroit Symphony Orchestra/ Sixten Ehrling
27 January 1967
Fresno Convention Center Theatre, San Joaquin Valley, California
Liszt 1 (+ Carlos Surinach, Melorhythmic Dramas]
Detroit Symphony Orchestra/ Sixten Ehrling
28 January 1967
Opera House, San Francisco
Liszt 1 (+ Carlos Surinach, Melorhythmic Dramas]
Detroit Symphony Orchestra/ Sixten Ehrling (orchestra debut in the hall)
29 January 1967
Memorial auditorium, Sacramento
Detroit Symphony Orchestra/ Sixten Ehrling
3 February 1967
Kiel Opera House (now known as the Stifel Theatre), St. Louis, Missouri
Liszt1
Detroit Symphony Orchestra/ Sixten Ehrling
4 February 1967
Union Theater, Madison, Wisconsin
Prokofiev's Concerto No. 3 in C Major
Detroit Symphony Orchestra/ Sixten Ehrling
3 March 1967
De Vereeniging, Nijmegen, Holland
Liszt 1?
Utrechts Symfonie Orkest/ Paul Hupperts
10 April 1967
Théâtre National Populaire, Paris, France
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor, Op.16
Dietfried Bernet / Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique
In the summer of 1986, Jorge said: 'Now you see, now I have been discovered in France and I cannot make all the dates they want.' It looks as if this 1967 performance was his first in the country after his Parisian debut in May 1935.
16 April 1967
[The new] Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Recital: Chopin, Ballades; Brahms, Handel Variations; Liszt, Consolation No.3 in D flat & Mephisto waltz.
Is this Jorge's last London concert until the 1970s? JRH in the Daily Telegraph: 'Anyone who doubts that Chopin was a major composer should have been reassured by Jorge Bolet's masterly performance. From the opening notes of the tragic First Ballade, one was aware of this pianist's remarkable concentration and intellectual power, and the impression was sustained throughout the evening. In the Brahms, the great climaxes in the fugal finale were held back with a controlled ardour, and one had the feeling, as one has with all great executants, that the performer had unlimited reserves of power.'
13 August, 1967
Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, New York
Gershwin's Concerto in F (1925) and Rhapsody in Blue [Porgy & Bess, American in Paris]
Philadelphia Orchestra cond. Eugene Ormandy
3 September 1967
Philharmonie, Berlin
Weber, Konzertstück in F minor Op.79
RSO Berlin/ Hermann Hildebrandt
(also: Albert Lortzing, Der Wildschütz, Overture & Hans Pfitzner, Overtüre zu Kleists "Das Käthchen" (1905)]
5 October 1967
De Harmonie, Leeuwarden, Holland
Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23 [+ early Haydn symphony in A major (No. 28), Ravel's Alborado del Gracioso and Milhaud's Suite Provencale. Alborado del Gracioso]
Frysk Orkest / Jo Diederen
A recording from 6 October 1967 exists, in excellent sound, of Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Op.43 in Cologne/Köln, Germany with Jorge Bolet and the WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph von Dohnanyi.
9 October, 1967
Carnegie Hall, NYC
Robert Schumann, Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17 (1836-1838);
Franz Liszt, Études d’exécution transcendante, S. 139 (1838-1840).
14 October 1967
Victorville, California
16 October 1967
Hall of Mirrors, Netherland Hilton, Cincinnati
Matinee musicale 11am
Mendelssohn, Songs without words, Franck, Prelude, Chorale & Fugue, Chopin Ballades
18 October 1967
Concert Hall, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23 [+ Britten, YPGTTO]
Albuquerque Symphony Orchestra/ Maurice Bonney
20 October 1967
High School, Midland, Texas
22 October 1967
Academy of Music ballroom, Philadelphia
Concert in honour of the late Marcel Tabuteau, oboist, at 4pm (he had died in France in 1966)
Philadelphia Woodwind Quintet & JB
24 October 1967
United Nations, NYC
In late September, the Wiener Symphoniker and Wolfgang Sawallisch were on tour in North America, beginning at Villanova University, PA and going as far north as Anchorge, Alaska (13 October 1976). Jorge joined them on 24 October at the United Nations, where they performed Beethoven’s Fantasia in C major for piano, chorus and orchestra Op.80.
31 October !967
Jubilee Auditorium, Edmonton, Alberta (Canada)
Mendelssohn, Variatious serieuses; Songs without words, Franck, Prelude, Chorale & Fugue, Chopin Ballades
Anne Burrows, Edmonton Journal reported that 'it was a happy circumstance that so many of the seats were occupied by young pianists. For Mr Bolet has, in addition, a very considerable display of pianistic fireworks, a command of a singing tone and cantabile line, inspiring for anyone, but especially for young musicians who cannot always count on such lyrical treats these days. A few years ago, farseeing, musicians predicted a Mendelssohn revival, and Jorge Bolet, among others is helping to prove the wisdom of their prophecy. (...) There were exquisite moments in the fourth Ballade; but I believe that the coda should be taken at a speed, which makes it possible to understand the connection between the figuration and the principal melody, and this, it would have been impossible to verify Tuesday. There is a quiet revolution is slowly taking shape in the musical world. Public taste is being educated to an appreciation of artists of sensibility and musical knowledge. The days of ham-fisted monsters who play fast and loud, may be numbered. And one of those who is pointing the way towards a new direction is certainly Jorge Bolet. He may at times see trees rather than a forest. But what exquisite trees!'
1 November 1967
Jubilee Auditorium, Calgary, Canada (début)
incl. Mendelssohn (Songs without words)
Dreadful weather conditions entailed a "dismally meagre audience'.
2 November 1967
The Playhouse Theatre, Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada)
Chopin Ballades & Franck's Prelude, Chorale and Fugue
3 November 1967
Capitol theatre, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
6 November 1967
Keith Gunn auditorium, Victorville, San Bernardino County, California
Cesar Franck, Prelude Choral and Fugue, six Mendelssohn "Songs without Words", Chopin4 Ballades
"Carnegie Hall came to Victorville Monday night"
7 November 1967
High School, Santa Ana, California
'During the post-concert reception at the James Piplas' Hesperia home, Bolet revealed his strenuous concert itinerary from continent to continent. Within a week's time Sunday he will appear in Amsterdam.' San Bernardino County Sun
11 November,
Pasadena Civic Auditorium
Schumann
Pasadena Symphony/ Richard Lerl
Jorge Bolet making his first Pasadena performance with the orchestra. 'Schumann's piano Concerto is perhaps too frequently approached with lady-like fragility. Jorge Bolet 'srobust assessment on Saturday partially persuaded that in certain passages, the old standby can withstand assertive treatment. Bolet's Lisztian aggressiveness was acceptable in octave punctuations and other climactic moments.' (Los Angeles Times)
The Jungle Book, a 1967 American animated musical adventure film produced by Walt Disney Productions - based on the "Mowgli" stories from Rudyard Kipling's 1894 book was released 18 October; the final animated feature film to be produced by Walt Disney, who died during its production.
12 November 1967
Amsterdam?
2 December 1967
Philharmonie, Berlin,
Mendelssohn, Variations Serieuses, Franck, Prelude, Chorale and Fugue, Chopin, Ballades
10 December 1967
Leone Cole auditorium, Jacksonwille State University, Jacksonville, Alabama
12 December 1967
Wise Auditorium, Tyler, Texas
16 December 1967
Orchestra Hall, Chicago
Prokofiev, Concerto for Piano No. 2 in G Minor, Op.16 [+ Nielsen 5]
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/ Sixten Ehrling [Jean Martinon was MD at this time]
Phyllis Dreazen, Chicago Tribune, wrote a succinctly vicious review. 'Some years ago, I heard Jorge Bolet play a Beethoven sonata and opined that he probably played Prokofiev pretty well. I realise that I had been over-optimistic and wondered just what the pianist might indeed play pretty well. It would have to be a work that didn't suffer from banging, from simple things being made difficult sounding, or from memory slips.'
18 December 1967
Pabst Theatre, Milwaukee
Prokofiev, Concerto for Piano No. 2 in G Minor, Op.16
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/ Sixten Ehrling
1968-69
At this stage Jorge was living in northern Spain. In 1968, he is described as having a home base for the past six years in a house on the Basque coast of Spain (Fuenterrabia), 20 km form the fishing village of San Sebastian. He is going to keep it while being at Bloomington.
11, 12 January 1968
Linz, Austria
Rachmaninoff 3
26-28 January 1968
Teatro Real, Madrid
Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (1933-2014) and the Orquesta Nacional de España
4 April 1968.
Jorge Bolet can be heard in Mozart's Piano Concerto K450 (No. 15 in B flat), recorded with the Bavarian Radio SO under Jan Koetsier
16 and 21 May 1968, début in Stuttgart, Germany (Mozartsaal).
"A second Wilhelm Backhaus," proclaimed Dieter Schorr, "but though he is now 55 years old, you'll not find his name in any German music lexikon"
22 July 1968
Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan. [3rd appearance after 5/1952 and 11/1954]
incl.Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, Liszt Transcendental Études, C.Franck's Prelude, Choral and Finale
26 July 1968
Koussevitzky Music Shed, Tanglewood, Lenox
Carl Maria von Weber’s Konzertstück in F minor, Opus 79
Liszt's Hungarian Fantasy ("Fantasie über ungarische Volksmelodien" S.123)
[+ Rimsky Korsakoff, Antar]
Boston Symphony Orchestra under Erich Leinsdorf
R.C.Hammerich: "Nimble despite bulk" {!}
4 August 1968
Koussevitzky Music Shed, Tanglewood, Lenox
Sergei Rachmaninov/ Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43
Boston Symphony under William Steinberg
J.C.Rosenfeld in The Berkshire Eagle: Again Bolet was cast in the role he fulfils so splendidly, that of a flamboyant virtuoso. One remembers and thinks of him at Tanglewood only as that kind of a pianist... He becomes typed at the keyboard as a personage, much as Boris Karloff was in the movies.
c.20 August 1968
Helsinki, Finland??
Prokofiev 2
Leif Segerstam (+(Ginastera Variations for orchestra)
Jorge now taken up a teaching post at University of Indiana, at Bloomington
15 October 1968
War Memorial auditorium, Fort Lauderdale (Florida)
Franck, Rachmaninoff Paganini
Fort Lauderdale Symphony/Emerson Buckley
'The pianist will be feted following his concert at a supper dance at Coral Ridge Yacht Club, a black-tie affair.'
22 October 1989
Three Arts Theater, Columbus, Georgia
Tchaikovsky 1
Columbus Symphony/Harry Kruger
29 October 1968
Community Theater, Kingston, NY
3 November 1968
I.U. Auditorium, Bloomington, Indiana
cancelled because of emergency surgery
8 & 9 November 1968
Symphony Hall, Boston, Massachusetts
Rachmaninoff, Paganini Variations & Liszt, Hungarian Fantasy.
Boston SO/Erich Leinsdorf
But on 6 November, the Morning Globe reported that Bolet had been hospitalised and that Leonard Pennario would replace him.
20 & 22 November, 1968
Philharmonic Hall (Lincoln Center) New York, NY
Rachmaninoff, Paganini Variations
Boston Symphony Orchestra under Erich Leinsdorf
"I wish it were at Carnegie Hall. The new place at Lincoln Center is not exactly my favourite."
'Jorge Bolet, pianist, will be the guest at Symphony Seminar at 8 p.m. Jan. 29 at the Jewish Community Center, 6701 Hoover Road. In September Mr. Bolet joined the faculty of the School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.' Jewish Post (Indianapolis), 24.1.69
2 December 1968
Phiharmonie, Berlin
Liszt, Sonnetti del Petrarca, Funerailles, Sonata, Chopin, 4 Scherzos
17 December 1968
Helsinki?
"How I ever manage Helsinki at that time of year I do not know. It will be unbelievably cold, just a few days away from the shortest day of the year. It won't get light until around 11am and will be dark by 1:30 in the afternoon." (Ledger Inquirer [Columbus-Georgia] 22.10.1968)
1969
4/6 March 1969
Symphony Hall, Boston, MA.
Sergei Rachmaninoff / Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43
Charles Wilson and the Boston Symphony Orchestra
11 March 1969
Coliseum, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
replacing João Carlos Martins
Chopin 4 scherzi, Liszt Sonata
15 April, 1969
University of Indiana at Bloomington
13 June 1969
Orchestra Hall, Chicago
Chicago SO/ Irwin Hoffman
Gershwin Night
29 June 1969 [Sunday 8:15pm]
Miami Beach auditorium
Weber, Liszt 1, Tchaikovsky 1
30 June 1969
Bloomington, Indiana
Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30 [+ RVW Symphony No. 5]
Charles Webb/*Wolfgang Vacano conducting Indiana Symphony
The Indianapolis Star (25.6.1969) says the conductor is Wolfgang Vacano, as does the review by The Herald-Times critic Zola P. Levitt (1.7.1969). One of the largest audiences ever assembled in the IU Auditorium. Vacano (1906, Cologne -1985): in 1939, he went to South America and worked as a conductor at the opera houses of Santiago, Montevideo, La Plata, and finally at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. From 1951 until his retirement in 1977, Vacano was a professor at Indiana University Bloomington , where he taught conducting and led opera workshops.
7 August, 1969
Constitution Hall, Washington DC
Tchaikovsky 1
Franz Allers and the National Symphony
15 October 1969
Bloomington, Indiana: Faculty recital
Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57 'Appassionata'; Chopin, Scherzos,; Liszt/Donizetti's Réminiscences de Lucia di Lammermoor, S. 397, Wagner's Spinnerlied aus Der fliegende Holländer, S. 440, Mephisto Waltz No. 1 in A Major, S. 514 'Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke', Schubert's Die Forelle, S. 564.
October/November, 1969: Germany
28 October 1969
Berlin Phiharmonie
Schumann, Intermezzo in E flat minor Op.26, Romanze in F sharp major Op.28/2, ABEGG Variations Op.1 (1830); Beethoven, Appassionata; Chopin Scherzos.