1970-73
According to the newspaper notice in March 1970, Jorge is still living in Spain (presumably at least this is his main residence).
9 February 1970
Municipal Theater, Tulsa, Oklahoma [broadcast on Voice of America]
Rachmaninoff 3 [+ Camargo Guarnieri, Brasiliana (1950)]
Tulsa Philharmonic /Franco Autori
I wonder if the CG piece is in fact Symphony No. 4 Brasilia (1963). 'The orchestra's music for Monday's Voice of America concert didn't arrive; the guest soloist, the conductor, and the concertmaster all caught the flu – and for a while, nobody would answer the phone in Rio. It was raining too hard. But the muse of music works in strange ways. Other Brazilian music was found, the guest soloist was substituted. Maestro Franco Auturi recovered. The music opriginally planned for the concert, Ludus Symphonicus, by Edino Krieger didn't arrive, although ordered December 1st. Overseas calls to Brazil to the music company approved interesting because officials they didn't speak, English and Maestro Auturi's command of five languages doesn't include Portuguese.' Tulsa World (8.2.1970). Jorge replaced Alexis Weissenberg.
14 February 1970
Long Beach, Orange County, Florida
Liszt, Tchaikovsky
Long Beach Symphony/Alberto Bolet
11 March 1970
Charleston, South Carolina
13 March 1970
Fine Arts auditorium, de Kalb, Illinois
Beethoven 32 Variations, 2 sonatas
(cancelled?)
16 March 1970
High School, Midland, Texas (Odessa Civic Concert Assoc.)
Beethoven, Haydn, Schumann (Symphonic Etudes), Liszt (Hungarian Rhapsody No.12)
On a personal note, I record that Roman Rudnytsky (American pianist of Ukrainian origin, b.1942) had played during the season here too. I met him a couple fo times in the late 1980s when he came to perform at a school in Essex, England where I taught for three years, at the invitation of the Head of Geography, who had met him him during the pianist's first tour of Australia in 1979. One of his encores was regularly The Banjo Op.15 (1853), by Louis Moreau Gottschalk. It's brought back a lot of memories to see his name in print. By email, Mr Rudnytsky says: "I remember the piano as being a Soviet-made Estonia." THE BANJO
Jorge is described by Roger Southall as the elder statesman of the season, a polished and experienced artist whose years on the concert stage as a professional performer outnumber those of the three others combined (James Dick, Van Cliburn, Roman Rudnytsky.)
20 March 1970
Alhambra High auditorium, Phoenix , Arizona
Chopin Ballades, Liszt Sonata, Hungarian Rhapsody No.12
21 March 1970
Scottsdale High auditorium, Arizona
Haydn, Sonata No.62 in E-flat major, Hob.XVI:52, Schumann Etudes Symphoniques, Beethoven Appassionata, Liszt "Au bord d'une source", Hungarian Rhapsody No.12
19, 20 May 1970
Constitution Hall, Washington DC
Beethoven 3
National Symphony/Paul Paray
"Technically sound and judicious, but somehow it never caught fire"
5 July 1970
David Saperton (JB's teacher 1927-1934) dies in Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. He ws 80 years old.
22 August 1970
Grant Park, Chicago
Tchaikovsky 1 (which was moved up an hour so as not to compete with the lakeside fireworks)
Irwin Hoffman
'Jorge dropped quite a lot of notes and many younger pianists would accuse him of spanking - if not beating - his instrument. But when he had finished, I thought I saw a veil of blue smoke hovering above the keyboard, and wild response of the audience also indicated approval' Peter Gorner, Chicago Tribune
3 October 1970
Hunter College, NYC
Benefit concert for IPL
Jorge contributed a pair of Liszt operatic paraphrases (on Donizetti's Lucia di Lamermoor & Verdi's Rigoletto)
11 October 1970
University of Indiana at Bloomington
Beethoven Op.110; Liszt 12 Transcendental Etudes (in a different order)
15 October 1970
Beaumont, Texas
Liszt 2 (also Masquerade suite by Khachaturian)
Beaumont Symphony/Victor Vener; conductor Edvard Fendler had suddenly resigned, which came as a surprise - he objected to a "Switched-on Bach" programme for children.
17 October 1970
Dreher High School, Columbia, South Carolina
Prokofiev 3 in C (the season marks JB's 30th anniversary on stage)
Columbia Philharmonic/John Bauer
20 October 1970
War Memorial auditorium, Fort Lauderdale
Beethoven 4
Fort Lauderdale Symphony/Emmerson Buckley
8 November 1970
Bloomington, Indiana
Schumann, Piano Quintet Op.44 in E flat
with Berkshire Quartet
16 December 1970
Bloomington, Indiana
(in honour of 200th anniversary of Beethoven,'s birth)
incl. JB and Sidney Foster played four-hands the Sonata in D major Op.6
19 December 1970
Washington Irving High School NYC
1971
31 January 1971 (Sunday, 3pm)
Fair Lawn High School, Fair Lawn, New Jersey, USA
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No.31 in A-flat major, Op.110
Liszt: 12 Études d’exécution transcendante, S.139: 7. Eroica, 5. Feux Follets, 9. Ricordanza, 8. Wilde Jagd
Chopin: 24 Preludes, Op.28
Encores: Schumann/Liszt: Widmung, Op.25 No.1 (S.566), Chopin: Waltz in D-flat major, Op.64 No.1 (Minute Waltz)
ForThe Record (Hackensack, NJ) 1.2.1071 David Spengler wrote: 'These gems [Chopin Preludes] are usually programmed in clusters of three or four, only as part of a pianists, romantic group. It was stumbling on treasure to find them gathered in the concert hall... Bolet achieves a rippling configuration in scale-work and arpeggios that I don't recall from any other pianists, particularly effective in his playing of the F sharp minor Prelude. And his presentation of the D minor prelude which closes the book (do you recall it from the old movie, The picture of Dorian Gray?) was a massive gate of hell clanging shut.' But the House was only one third full.
Who needs Carnegie Hall when you have Fair Lawn High School!
14 February 1971
Millikan High School auditorium, Long Beach, California
Brahms 2, Rachmaninoff 2
Long Beach Symphony/Alberto Bolet
The Los Angeles Times (Orrin Howard): 'Considering the lacklustre state of the orchestra, one's enjoyment of the proceedings was in direct proportion to the degree, to which Jorge's gargantuan pianism obscured Alberto's tremulous instrumentalists. There was no proper collaboration, [but one could] bask in the massive commanding resources of a pianist who is not only virtuosically indefatigable, but is a compelling persuasive musician as well. Jorge met Brahmsian massiveness with thundering, yet always controlled sonority, the introspection with limpid, never sentimentalised tonal beauty. And his composure was a thing at which to marvel as he stalwartly disregarded orchestral entries, which are often either early, late or simply missing in (non-) action.'
On 18 February, Jorge arrived in Fuenterrabia, northern Spain, where he and Tex rented a home.
4 March 1971
Philharmonie, Berlin
Chopin, Preludes Op.28, Andante spianato et Grande Polonaise brillante; Brahms Handel Variations
10 March 1971
Auditorium, Palma de Mallorca, (Balearic Islands) Spain
(as 31 Jan.)
24 March 1971
Beaux Arts room, State University, Platteville, Wisconsin
28 April 1971
War Memorial auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee
Replacing Rudolph Serkin - 'his appearance going a long was toward dispelling the disappointment inevitably felt'.
Louis Nicholas, of The Tennessean said he'd been in no mood for an all-Beethoven evening [incidentally, something Jorge himself had often said] , so this was delightful. 'As one lady said on the way out: "When Community Concerts has to substitute, they nearly always bring someone better than the one scheduled." Well, if not better, at least comparable - and perhaps even more enjoyable.'
3 May 1971
Wisconsin State University, Stevens Point, Wisconsin
Beethoven Chopin, LIszt (as 31 Jan.)
19 May 1971
Clowes Hall, Butler University, Indianapolis
US premiere of Sgambati Concerto in G minor (as part of the Romantic Festival IV)
Louisville Orchestra and "the glamorous"Jorge Mester
[also: Granados, Dante Symphonic Poem, Goldmark "In Springtime" Overture, Georgi Conus/Konyus "Carmagnole"]
The Indianapolis News: 'Jorge Bolet is probably one of the few pianist around today who is a threat to an orchestra. At first sight of a forte, most pianists sink from sight, their tone - no matter how hard they fly into the keys - immediately swamped by orchestral waves. Bolet produces explosions of controlled, well-shaped sounds that leave the orchestra whimpering in the background. Except for a dance finale, a sort of oversized "gavotte" gone mad, the concerto was not an immediately appealing piece. Performing at unheard-of speeds, Bolet still managed so efficiently, and with such total concentration on his difficult task that his manner, outwardly, was almost devoid of fuss and theatrics. As an encore, he played the Liszt paraphrase of the sextet from Donizetti's Lucia, which had at least the distinction of being evening's best tune, and he played it superbly.'
23 May 1971
Constitution Hall, Washington DC
30, 31 May/ 1 June 1971
Grosser Sendesaal, Masurenallee, Berlin
Tchaikovsky 1
RSO Orchestra/ James de Priest
[+ Werner Egk, Französisches Suite nach Rameau (1949) & Bartók, Concerto for Orchestra]
The Miami Herald 17 October 1971 records that Jorge (who will give a recital on Saturday evening) has been missing from the local scene for a decade; he was last heard here in the small Binder-Baldwin concert hall in 1963.
11 August 1971
University of Indiana at Bloomington
Faculty recital: Brahms/Handel, Chopin Preludes & Andante Spianato/Grande Polonaise
This new season 1971-72 marked JB's 34th on the concert platform (he would be 58 years in November). He apparently performed more with the New York Philharmonic than any other artist this season.
21 September 1971
Philharmonic Hall, NYC
Liszt's Totentanz (replacing Andre Watts - check out the relevant page for interesting details on this concert)
New York Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez
12 & 17 October 1971
Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City
Prokofiev 2
Leopold Stokowski & American Symphony Orchestra
15 Oct. was a repeat on Long Island (Island Concert Hall, Stokowski - ill - being replaced by Ainslee Cox)
19 October 1971
Tilghman High School, Paducah, Kentucky
Recital on an SD-10 Baldwin concert grand
(as 23 Oct.)
Mrs Howard Woodall mentioned JB's substitution back in 1944 (*see 8 May 1944)
23 October 1971
Miami Beach auditorium, Florida
Schubert/Liszt songs (not heard here for 30 years); Franck, Prelude, Chorale & Fugue, Schumann Fantasy, Liszt Grand Galop Chromatique.
He has been missing from the local music scene for nearly a decade, being last heard here in 1963, when he played a recital in the small Binder-Baldwin concert hall in 1957. He made his fourth appearance with the University of Miami Symphony and played a 1962, recital in the Miami Beach auditorium. (Miami Herald)
11, 12, 15 November 1971
Philharmonic Hall / Manhattan, New York City
Liszt / Fantasy on Motifs from Beethoven's Ruins of Athens, for Piano and Orchestra
Chopin / Andante spianato and Grand Polonaise Brilliante for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 22
with Michael Tilson Thomas
Pre-concert recital on Monday 15th (some of which is available on Marston CDs but dated to 11th)
Schubert / Winterreise, D.911 "Der Lindenbaum"
Schubert / "Wohin?" No. 2 from Die schöne Mullerin, D.795
Schubert / "Das Wandern" from Die schöne Mullerin, D.795 (Op. 25) (Liszt, Franz)
Wagner / "The Spinning Song" from Der Fliegende Holländer, WWV 63, arranged for piano (Liszt, Franz)
Liszt / Grand galop chromatique
Encore: Schumann/Liszt: Widmung, Op.25 No.1 (S.566)
28-30 November 1971
Grosser Sendesaal, Masurenallee, Berlin
Liszt 1
RSO Orchestra/Lawrence Foster
1972
24, 25 January 1972
Civic auditorium, Portland , Oregon
Franck & Rachmaninoff/Paganini
Oregon Symphony/Jacques Singer
The Oregonian mentioned a couple of slips. 'Two snafus. In the long piano exposition in the Franck things came to a halt. The conductor had everyone back up a few measures and took off again. In the Rachmaninoff, the pianist had a mental lapse of a few measures, then worked his way out. We don't recall this having happened before at these concert.' The Oregon Daily Journal: 'Monday night at the Civic auditorium the tightrope walkers faltered but they recovered and went on to triumphant conclusions in both instances. The Franck Variations included a little variation not written by Franck. In the final portion there was an involved solo passage for piano at the conclusion of which section of the orchestra is supposed to come in. Apparently, they were not brought in, and the pianist repeated the passage, not once, but twice still, without being joined by the orchestra.
At that point, the pianist seemed to give up. Some new signals were called pinpointing the place to start and soloist, conductor and orchestra joined in a triumphal sweep to the end. It should be noted that, except for this incident, it was a deeply moving performance. The incident must have had an unnerving effect on the pianist, because in the first half of the Rachmaninoff, in the middle of a protracted solo cadenza, he stopped momentarily, seem ed to search for the next chord, then picked up the stream of music and flowed on magnificently to the finish. And it was magnificent.'
27 January 1972
McKay auditorium, Tampa, Florida
Tchaikovsky 1
Florida Gulf Coast Symphony/ Irwin Hoffman
'Bolet made the old warhorse sound as if it had been fashioned out of pure gold.'
29 January 1972
Bayfront auditorium, St Petersburg, Florida
Tchaikovsky 1
Florida Gulf Coast Symphony/
5 February , 1972
Alice Tully Hall, New York City,
Chopin, 4 Ballades
Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor, S.178 & Rhapsodie Espagnole, S.254
15 February 1972
Civic auditorium, Jacksonville, Florida
Rachmaninoff 3 ["electrifying", "Jorge Bolet is everything the critics have said he is"]
Jacksonville Symphony, Wallis Page
22 February 1972
Junior High, Fergus Falls, Minnesota
14 March 1972
Philharmonie, Berlin
Schumann, Fantasy in C Op.15, Debussy Images, Liszt, Spanish Rhapsody etc.
In March 1972 Jorge recorded the Sgambati Concerto in G minor in Nuremberg - Colosseum Musikstudios with Ainslee Cox and the Nürnberg Symphoniker.
On 18 April 1972, Leopold Stokowski celebrated his 90th birthday (he was actually 93 or 94 but had mischievously shaved a few years off his age). At a party at the Plaza Hotel, New York City, among musical items, Jorge played a Ballade of Chopin
15 April 1972
Wood Auditorium, Mount Vernon, NY
Rachmaninoff 2
Philharmonic Symphony of Westchester
25 April 1972
Tilson Music Hall, Indiana State University, Indiana
Beethoven 4
Terre Haute Symphony/Victor Danek
The 24 June 1972 edition of The Indianapolis News announces that JB has signed a long-term contract with RCA (which would not last...). 'Bolet will make his first RCA discs in August. An album "Franz Liszt greatest hits of the 1850s" released last month by the company was made up of recordings originally cut for a Spanish company and later bought by RCA.'
19 July 1972
Indiana University Musical Arts Center (first recital by a memebr of Faculty in the new building)
Brahms Sonata No. 3, Franck, Prelude, Aria et Final, Liszt, 2 concert etudes & Spanish Rhapsody
The Herald Times: 'Conquering Hero. Few artists can match Bolet in power, technical brilliance, and imagination, and his appearance on stage immediately mesmerized the audience into an electrified anticipation. Nothing is beyond this pianist. In the Franck, rich harmonies rose in clouds of sound from the unbroken chords possible from gigantic hands that seemed to encompass not only the keyboard but the 9 feet of piano beyond his fingertips.' (Susan Edelman)
2 August 1972
Sheep Meadow (Central Park), New York City, New York
Liszt: Piano Concerto No.1 in E-flat major, S.124 [Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique; Barber, Adagio; Bernstein, Candide]
Jean Martinon / New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Repeated on Saturday 5th on Staten Island, in Clove Lakes Park; 2,000 music lovers under cool, clear skie of autumn-like 60 degree weather..
26 August 1972
Meadow Brook, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan
(Meadow Brook Hall is a Tudor Revival style mansion)
Liszt 1 [+ Mahler 5]
New York Philharmonic/ Erich Leinsdorf
'To hear the old warhorse performed, thus gave the secure, feeling of entrusting, a favourite, antique to an experienced craftsman for restoration.' (James E. Harvey, The Flint Journal)
Late August 1972
Wolf Trap Farm PArk, Filene Center, Vienna, Virginia
(as 26 Aug)
This new season 1972-73 marked JB's 35th on the concert platform (he would be 59 years in November)
7 October 1972
Washington Irving High School, New York City
Haydn: Andante & Variations in F minor, Hob.XVII:6 (Un Piccolo Divertimento), Sonata No.62 in E-flat major, Hob.XVI:52; Beethoven: Sonata No.23 in F minor, Op.57 (Appassionata); Liszt: Funérailles, S.173 No.7 (from Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses); Rhapsodie Espagnole, S.254
17 October 1972
Fort Lauderdale
Liszt 1 & Totentanz
Fort Lauderdale Symphony/Emerson Buckely
19 October 1972
Monterey High School, Lubbock, Texas
24 October 1972
Bronze Room, Stouffer's Inn, Cincinnati, Ohio (11am)
(as 19 July)
2 November 1972
McKay auditorium, Tampa, FL.
Prokofiev 2
Florida Gulf Coast Symphony/Irwin Hoffman
JB's Liszt encore (Un sospiro) was found welcome after dissonance.
4 November 1972
Bayfront Center, St Petersburg, FL.
Prokofiev 2
Florida Gulf Coast Symphony/Irwin Hoffman
9 November 1972
Recital: Munich, Germany
17 November 1972
Haarlem Philharmonic Society: Grand Ballroom, Waldorf Astoria hotel.
JB takes part in a morning recital.
29 November 1972
Schubert Club, O'Shaughnessy Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Jorge replaces at 24 hours' notice an indisposed Alexander Slobodyanik at the .
incl. Beethoven's Appassionata, Haydn, Andante & Variations in F minor, Hob.XVII:6 (Un Piccolo Divertimento)
15, 17 December 1972
Tully Hall NYC
Liszt, Concerto pathetique
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
1973
21/22 January 1973
Auditorium della Conciliazione, Rome.
Beethoven's fourth concerto
Guido Ajmone-Marsan and the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
28 January 1973
Hunter College, New York City.
Four Scherzos (Chopin), Three “Petrarch” Sonnets (Liszt), “Tannhäuser” Overture (Wagner‐Liszt)
17 February 1973
Hunter College, New York City
15 March 1973
London
City of Birmingham Symphony under French conductor Louis Frémaux (1921-2017)
24 March 1973
Highlands School, White Plains, NY
Westchester Symphony, Siegfried Landau
26 March 1973
City Auditorium, Ashville, North Carolina
Brahms Sonata No. 3, Franck, Prelude, Aria et Final, Liszt, 2 concert etudes & Spanish Rhapsody
Bizet/Godowsky encore
3 April 1973
Civic auditorium, Asheville, North CArolina
5 April 1973
Elmira Theater, Elmira, NY
Community Concert
The audience at last night's concert never realised what the Steinway went through to be in shape for the program. The concert grand piano, purchased some time ago was in Beecher Hall of Park Church when the flood struck last June. Although it was on a platform it stood in 2 feet of water for several days before being moved to Elmira College. It got enough dampness to warp some of the intricate mechanisms. After drying out in January, it was taken to Cortland where Wilhelm Gerz, a Steinway master craftsman and technician, started to work on it. He finished tuning it up on Thursday afternoon. Concert that evening.
8 April 1973
Wilson High School auditorium, Long Beach, CA.
Prokofiev 2
Long Beach Symphony/Alberto Bolet
26 April 1973
Centennial East hall, Illinois State University
29 April 1973
Bundy auditorium, New Castle, Indiana
1 May 1973
Indiana University
recital
incl. Brahms, Sonata Op.3, Rachmaninoff transcriptions and Schubert/Liszt
8 May 1973
Butler University Romantic Festival, Clowes Memorial Hall, Indianapolis.
Recital programme of Rachmaninoff and Liszt transcriptions
Jorge's carnival piece, Godowsky's Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes from Die Fledermaus can be heard on Marston CDs Volume 2 from a performance on 17 May 1973, in Cologne/Köln, Germany.
Jorge gives an account of his time just before departing for South Africa in May 1973. 'After my recent Bakersfield, California concert with Alberto, I had five days of dashing across the country, from there to Saratoga, then on to San Francisco, New York, Indianapolis and then across the Atlantic to London. Almost as bad was last week's routine. I had two performances in Lübeck, Germany, the last one ending late at night, and then snatched a few hours sleep before leaving shortly after six the next morning for Bremen where recording sessions started at the radio station at 10am.'
25 May 1973
Lunchtime all-Liszt recital in Pretoria, South Africa at the Musaion
27 May
Johannesburg Civic Theatre: recital
included Brahms' Sonata in F minor op.5, and Liszt's Gnomereigen, Tannhäuser overture and two encores, Liebesträum 3 and Widmung.
29/30 May 1973
Johannesburg City Hall
Grieg concerto
SABC Orchestra/ Edgar Cree
He will also perform in Durban (4/5 June) and Cape Town (7 June)
10 June 1973
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
*This is the British début of Earl Wild. (I was surprised to learn it was so late in his - admittedly long - career. It was an all-Liszt recital, including one of this pianist's favourites, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 4. The Evening Standard (23 March 1973) carried a review of a television programme with the LSO and Andre Previn in which "a piano scherzo by Scharwenka - so dizzying that a Scharwenka man Earl Wild had to be imported from the States to play it."
1 July 1973
Miami Beach
Liszt 2, Rachmaninoff 2
Miami Beach Symphony/Barnett Breeskin
5. July 1973
Berlin Philharmionic/Wolfgang Balzer
Franz Liszt: Klavierkonzert Es-Dur
11 July 1973
Ira Allen Chapel, University of Vermont
Lane Summer Series
Brahms Sonata No. 3 Op. 5, Liszt Petrarca, Tannhäuser
"The fabled Jorge Bolet" opened the 18th summer series, wrote the Burlington Free Press. 'He opened with the monumental Brahms Sonata in the first half and left us literally drained as he probed every nuance of that masterwork.'
10 August 1973
Tawes Theater, Maryland Piano Festival.
Stewart Gordon had said that 'In 1973, I learned that Bolet had not played a recital in the Washington D.C. area for more than ten years, an unbelievable fact considering the scope of his career. The Festival audience was waiting in great anticipation for him to step out on stage and play.' He began with Chopin's 4 scherzos, and there was a even standing ovation after No. 2 in B flat minor!
19 August 1973
Spanish Courtyard, Caramoor Festival, Katonah, New York
Liszt (Consolation No. 3 in D flat, Funerailles, Sonata, Sonetti di Petrarca, Tannhauser)
Funerailles he pounced on the ivories, with such further, that the majesty of the heroic funeral march seemed to be invoking the might of hurricane force.
25 August 1973
Gibraltar Auditorium, Fish Creek, Wisconsin (the Peninsula Festival)
Sgambati, Concerto in G minor
with Thor Johnson
Newspapers in September 1973 mention that Jorge is still dividing his time between Spain and Bloomington
15 September 1973
Auditorium, St Mary-of-the-Woods College, Terre Haute, Indiana
Benefit recital for college funds (133 years old). Jorge will come to it from engagements in Europe.
29, 30 September & 1 October 1973
Mount St Mary College (Newburgh), Poughkeepsie High School, Kingston Community Theater, NY
Liszt 2 [+Berlioz Benvenuto Cellini overture ("his more or less forgotten opera") & Beethoven 7]
Hudson Valley Philharmonic/Claude Monteux
5 October 1973
Meister-Klavierabend Philharmonie, Berlin
Chopin Barcarolle, Fantasie f-moll, Sonate h-moll Liszt Petrarca-Sonette
On 9 October, JB flew from Berlin to London
10 October 1973
Bournemouth, England
Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor Op.30 [+ RVW Symphony No. 6]
Bournemouth Symphony / Paavo Berglund
11 October 1973
Colston Hall, Bristol, England
Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor Op.30 [+ RVW Symphony No. 6]
Bournemouth Symphony / Paavo Berglund
12 October 1973
Exeter, England
Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor Op.30
On 13th JB flew London (1pm) to Miami on BOAC 661.
16, 17 October 1973
War Memorial auditorium, Miami Beach/ Dade County Auditorium
Franck, Rachmaninoff 2
Fort Lauderdale Symphony/Emerson Buckley
Champagne reception afterwards at the Governor's Club in JB's honour. Jack Zink: there is some phonic variations, soft, as they are, well handled as if pouring honey. They were sweet, but with a hint of tartness that prevented a saccharine aftertaste. James Roos in the Miami Herald found the orchestra generally bedraggled and wide of pitch.'But for Bolet, either the music [Franck] is not a strong point or he was simply having an off night. I don't know what else to call it when this brilliant pianist starts fudging notes. Whatever his problems, alternatively dragging, and forcing the phrasing proved a poor substitute for distinguished performance. He seemed instantly more at home in the powerhouse pianism of the first movement of the Rachmaninoff. For the rest, the anadante dragged thoguh the finale recovered for a rousing spurt.'
20 October 1973
Klein Memorial, Bridgeport, Connecticut
Franck; Rachmaninoff/Paganini
The Greater Bridgeport Symphony/Guistav Meier
8, 9 November 1973
Clowes Memorial Hall of Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana
Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor Op.30 [+Berlioz Le Corsaire, Brahms 3.]
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra/ Izler Solomon
Charles Staff in The Indianapolis News said that the audience lost its typical reserve last night, and speaking collectively and one-time to its feet, exploded in prolonged thundering applause. The ovation dovetailed with the final notes and surpassed even that given to Rudolf Firkusny two weeks ago, and certainly that by Van Cliburn at the season's opening, even though the hall was sold out. Rarely has a demonstration been more justified for Bolet gave what must be called a definitive performance of this magnificently Russo-romantic work. He and his marvellous hands know the notes as old friends.
17 November 1973
Scarsdale High School, NY
Liszt 1
also: Rustic Wedding Symphony, Op. 26 (Ländliche Hochzeit) is a symphony in E-flat major by Karl Goldmark (1875)
Westchester Symphony/ Anton Coppola
Johannes Brahms, who was a frequent walking companion of Goldmark's, and whose own Symphony No. 1 was not premiered until November 1876, told him "That is the best thing you have done; clear-cut and faultless, it sprang into being a finished thing, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter".
4 December 1954, first appearance in five years in Orchestra Hall, Chicago with the Chicago SO (if the strike's ended) for a concert, benefiting the Jewish Community Centers of Chicago.
Liszt 1; Rachmaninoff/Paganini
Henry Mazer, conductor.
10 December 1973
Garden City High School, NY
14, 15, 16 December 1973
Macauley Theater, Louisville, Kentucky
Tchaikovsky 1 {Ravel, Ibert]
Louisville Symphony/Jorge Mester
1974-75
3, 5 January 1974
Ford auditorium, Detroit
Liszt 1
Detroit Symphony/Sixten Ehrling
7 January 1974
Municipal Theater, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Liszt 1
Tulsa Philharmonic/Skitch Henderson
Newspapers claimed this was JB's second appearance here, the first being on 12 November 1950 with H. Arthur Brown, but see 9 February 1970, "Salute to Brazil" which Tulsa World says was the most important concert given by the orchestra. JB played two substantial encores, Bach-Busoni and Kreisler/Rachmaninoff Liebesfreud Jorge is said [still] to divide his time between Spain and Bloomington, Indiana.
9 January 1974??
Westchester Symphony
17 January 1974
Angelle Hall, University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, LA.
(as 25 Feb. 1974)
Of Tannhäser, Madelyn and Bruce Trible of The Daily Advertiser reported: 'When one had decided that the man had accomplished all that was humanly possible, incredibly, he came up with more. It was a truly unbelievable experience. If Lafayette is fortunate enough to have this giant visit here again, by all means HEAR HIM!'
23 January 1974 (aged 59)
Victoria Hall,, Geneva, Switzerland
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande/Wolfgang Sawallisch
25 January 1974
University Hall, Fribourg, Switzerland
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16 Orchestre de la Suisse Romande/Wolfgang Sawallisch
31 January 1974
Coliseum, Lexington, Kentucky
(as 25 Feb. 1974, but Chopin Sonata No. 3 instead of Preludes)
Newspapers reported on Jorge's heroic competition with fluttering fans, crackling sound system, rustling movements and repeated sounds of running water.
12 February 1974
Civic auditorium, Knoxville, Tennessee
Liszt 1 and 2
Knoxville Symphony/Arpád Joo
14 February, 1974
Gray Chapel, Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio
Same programme as 25 February
"Delaware heard a great artist in absolutely top form"
17 February 1974
Musical Arts Center, Bloomington, Indiana University
(as 25 Feb. 1974)
25 February 1974 (aged 59)
Carnegie Hall, New York City
Bach/Busoni: Chaconne from Violin Partita No.2 in D minor, BWV 1004
Chopin: 24 Preludes, Op.28
Tausig: Valse-Caprice No.2 after J. Strauss II’s waltz Man lebt nur einmal!
Tausig: Valse-Caprice No.1 after J. Strauss II’s waltz Nachtfalter
Schulz-Evler: Arabesques on J. Strauss II’s waltz An der schönen blauen Donau
Wagner/Liszt: Overture to Tannhäuser, S.442
Encores:
Chopin: Nocturne in F-sharp major, Op.15 No.2
de Schlözer: Concert Etude in A-flat major, Op.1 No.2
Moszkowski: La Jongleuse, Op.52 No.4
Rubinstein: Etude in C major, Op.23 No.2 (Staccato)
*The recital was recorded by RCA
"The power source that heated up a close-to-capacitiy audience in Carnegie Hall on a cold and snowy night was Jorge Bolet. [The waltzes] - all gaudy embellishments and decorated like a super whipped cream layer cake - poured from the piano in a pyrotechnical display rarely experienced." (A. H. Tannenbaum)
The Mobile Register (Alabama), 10 March 1974: 'Jorge Bolet may have appeared in Mobile some years ago – no one seems to know – but New York knows what he's doing now as the New York papers report of his February 25 Carnegie Hall recital. Bolet at 59, the greatest living interpreter of Liszt, has only within the past few years come into his own after a lifetime at the piano, says the New York Post. He can make a sound that is rich like an El Greco painting or use a more extravagant display of colour. The point is that he is an orchestra at the piano.' [They promptly snapped him up for 8 May 1975!]
1, 2, 3 February 1974
Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh, USA
Beethoven, Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor
with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
(Jorge replaced an indisposed Radu Lupu)
5 March 1974
Tennessee State University
(as 25 Feb. 1974, but Chopin Sonata No. 3 instead of Preludes)
"Don't tell me that Chopin himself played his B- sonata anymore beautifully than Jorge Bolet played it Tuesday night. Moreover, for perhaps the first time in my life, I led a standing ovation following his closing number. How exquisitely he voiced Cantilena of the Chopin, how fairylike in its lightness was the second movement,, and the Largo conjured up the elegance of satin and velvet clad, beautifully coifed ladies, and their handsomely turned out cavaliers." The Tennessean (Louis Nicholas)
11 March 1974
Van Wezel Hall, Sarasota, Florida
[21 March 1974]
Town Hall, New York City
Ruggiero Ricci, violin
2 April 1974
McFarlin auditorium, Dallas, Texas
5 April 1974
Fox Lane High School, Mount Kisco NY
(as 25 Feb. 1974, but Chopin Sonata No. 3 instead of Preludes)
7 April 1974
Frick Collection, New York City
incl. four Debussy Preludes and Chopin's Fantasy in F minor Op.49, Beethoven's Sonata No. 17 in D Minor, Op. 31, No. 2 'Tempest' and Chopin's Barcarolle in F-Sharp Major, Op. 60
12 (Good Friday), 13 April 1974
Masonic Auditorium/Peristyle of the Museum of Art, Toledo
Schumann
Toledo Symphony/Serge Fournier
The Blade claims he last played with the orchestra in 1957. Boris Nelson mentions some of the sloppiest playing he had heard from the orchestra in some time, commenting that in Wagner's Good Friday Spell from Parsifal the incandescent melody for oboe was as dry as dead bones. Bolet played with warmth and beautifully paced discernment for the romantic ebb and flow of the composer's ideas and emotions, but the orchestral accompaniment was clumsy.
27 April 1974
Clowes Hall, Butler University's 7th annual Romantic Music Festival
Bach-Busoni, Franck, Prelude, Aria and final, Grieg, Ballade in the Form of Variations on a Norwegian Folk Song, J.Strauss arr.Tausig/Schulz-Evler.
26 May 1974
Arnhem, Holland (Festival of Romantic Music)
incl. J.Strauss II/Schulz-Evler, Blue Danube. On the Marston 6 CD set of Bolet, Ambassador from the Golden Age, we can hear selections from Jorge's concert on 26 May: Franck's Prelude, Aria, and Finale, Saint-Saëns/Godowsky, The Swan & Paul de Schloezer's ("Paul de who?!") knuckle-breaking étude.
28 May 1974
Arnhem, Holland (Festival of Romantic Music)
Sgambati Concerto in G minor
Gederland Symphony Orchestra under Leo Driehuys.
As an encore, he played the massive Wagner-Liszt Tannhauser Overture.
17-21 June, 1974
Summer masterclasses at Indiana.
A witty remark of Jorge, which I have remembered from reading the transcript of one masterclasses - not necessarily this one - was that the melody must always be brought out (as he always demonstarted in his own playing). He said something like 'I have played hundreds of concerts and I've never known anyone to pay the price of admission to hear an Alberti bass."
27 June 1974
George Peabody College, Tennessee
Mozart, Fantasy in C minor (K475), Beethoven, Sonata in D minor Op.31/2, Chopin, Fantasy in F minor, Debussy, six preludes, Kresisler/Rachmaninoff
Louis Nicholas reported: 'He played not only with the technical command and interpretive individuality of the great masters of the past, but with their care for beauty of tone, and all the finesse that characterised a more gracious age; and his final group and encores were the kind of pieces we all used to wait for and to say we enjoyed more than the regular program. There is probably no pianist with a more unerring command of the mechanics of piano playing.'
6 July 1974
Venetian Theatre, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, Katonah, New York.
Beethoven 4 with Julius Rudel
There is a note in Jorge's date book for an International Congress on World Evangelization at the Palais de Beaulieu in Lausanne, Switzerland, 16-25 July 1974. A landmark Christian conference, convened by Billy Graham, it gathered over 2,700 leaders from 150 countries to address modern strategies for global mission. The conference is noted for producing the Lausanne Covenant, one of the major documents of modern evangelical Christianity. (The Second International Congress on World Evangelization was held fifteen years later in Manila, Philippines.)
19 August 1974
Venice?
30 August 1974
Rome?
4 October 1974
City Auditorium Music Hall, Omaha, Nebraska
Rachmaninoff 3
Omaha Symphony/Yuri Krasnapolsky
6 October 1975
Danbury, Connecticut
Mendelssohn Prelude and Fugue in E minor, Variations sérieuses, Chopin, Sonata in B minor; Liszt, Funérailles, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12
13, 15 October, 1974
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Sgambati: Piano Concerto in G minor, Op.15
Rachmaninoff, Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini
Liszt: Fantasy on Hungarian Folk Songs for Piano & Orchestra, S.123
Ainslee Cox / Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra
Jorge had agreed to a marathon concert of three concerto, something he's done in Europe, but not in the US before (but he had done it in Havana)."The Oklahoma string section is much better than the one of the Sgambati orchestra recording", wrote one reviewer.
17 October 1974
High School, Longview, Texas
19 October 1974
Greenwich, NY
27 October 1974
92nd Street Y, New York City
Recital
A benefit for the International Piano Archives, which is trying to raise $250,000 to purchase and remodel a small building on the upper West Side for its headquarters.
incl. Liszt's “Funérailles", Chopin's Sonata in B minor (Op. 58), “Hungarian Rhapsody” No. 12
30 October 1974
Royal Festival Hall, London
Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23
Bournemouth Symphony/ Paavo Berglund
13 November 1974
Philharmonie, Berlin
Mendelssohn Prelude and Fugue in E minor, Variations sérieuses, Chopin, Sonata in B minor; Liszt, Funérailles, 6 Consolations, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12
c.19 November 1974
Helsinki, Finland??
Beethoven 4
Paavo Berglund
2 December 1974
Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa.
9 December, 1974
Royal Festival Hall, London.
Gala concert for the International Piano Library (nowadays International Piano Archives at Maryland)
In late 1974, Jorge was one of the judges - his only time - on the Concurso Latinoamericano de piano Teresa Carreño in Caracas, Venezuela. He made a number of concert appearance in Caracas.
1975
13 January 1975
Neumann Auditorium, Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa.
Mendelssohn Prelude and Fugue in E minor, Variations sérieuses, Chopin, Sonata No. 3 in B minor Op.58; Liszt, Funérailles, 6 Consolations, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12
19 January 1975
Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia
(as 3 Jan. 1975)
23 January 1975
Charlottesville, Virginia
29 January 1975
Auditorium Dufour, Quebec City, Canada
Liszt's first concerto
Orchestre Symphonique de Québec and Franco Mannino.
He said he was due soon to play six concerts in six days with the Bamberg Symphony in Germany ('the country in which I most often play at the moment') conducted by none other than eminent baritone singer Dietrich Fischer Dieskau; he adds that his season consists of 85 concerts.
6, 7, 8 and 11 February 1975
Avery Fisher Hall, NYC
Rachmaninoff / Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30
New York Philharmonic and Bernard Haitink
18 February 1975
Meistersingerhalle, Nuremberg
Chopin's first concerto
Bamberg Symphoniker under Dietrich Fischer Dieskau
23 February 1975
Grote Zaal, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.
incl. Chopin's Barcarolle in F# major (Op.60), Liszt's three Petrarch sonnets (from Années de Pélerinage), Chopin's Sonata in B minor opus 58
NRC Handelsblad titled its review: 'Jorge Bolet: soms leeuw, soms musicus' (sometimes lion, sometimes musician)
27 February 1975
Braunschweig, West Germany (Radio Broadcast
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major
Heinz Wallberg / Nord-Deutschen Rundfunks Sinfonieorchester.
A rare mention of Bolet in the Ravel concerto
In the first week of March 1975, Curtis celebrated its 50th anniversary at the Bellevue-Stratford (a hotel in Center City Philadelphia, located at 200 S Broad St., reimagined to blend historic 1904 French Renaissance architecture with modern luxury). Jorge jetted in from Germany "where he'd played a concert the night before". Leonard Bernstein and Ricardo Muti. Another pianist Teresa Quesada de Menacho flew up from her home in Lima, Peru; composer Nino Rota flew in from Italy etc. President Gerald Ford sent a telegram. Boris Goldovsky was master of ceremonies.
3, 4 March 1975
War Memorial auditorium, Nashville , Tennessee
Liszt 2 [+ Bruckner Mass No. 1 & Kodály, Háry János suite]
Nashville Symphony/ Arpád Joo
5,6,7 March 1975
Davenport, Iowa
8 March 1975
Lincoln Center - Avery Fisher Hall, New York City.
A short recital in the middle of a New York Philharmonic concert (Pierre Boulez, a mini-festival around Schubert), which included a rare item in Jorge's repertoire, Czech composer Jan Václav Hugo Voříšek's (1791-1825) Impromptu No. 5 in E Major, Op. 7 (on Marston CDs volume 2).
10 March 1975
Van Wezel Hall, Sarasota, Florida
Mendelssohn, Chopin, Sonata No.3, Liszt Funerailles, Consolations + Hung Rhapsody 12
A reviewer mentioned that the curtains were absorbing and eating up all the rich sonorities, 'that glorious tone colour and control which Bolet possesses and I think demonstrated. The Rhapsody 'had the strongest, brightest tone of the evening, with Bolet's lively, fantastic and clean finger technique soaring through all the technical challenges and difficulties as though they were child's play. But never did you thrill to the excitement of the music, which is inherent in the Liszt, especially.' [Mary Nic Shenk, Tampa Bay Times]
12 March 1975
Y-IKC (Young Men and Women's Hebrew Association-Irene Kaufmann Centers), Pittsburgh)
Mendelssohn, Chopin, Sonata No.3, Liszt Petrarch + Tannhäuser
'Recital is a disappointment. He failed to live up to expectations. His tone was abrasive throughout (possibly due to the instrument he played, which was out of tune in its upper register), and for the most part, all of one colour. Moreover, although Bolet offered a good deal of surface virtuosity, his work was filled with technical inaccuracies - wrong notes, chords not together - masked by an overuse of pedal, and a tendency to play louder and faster when the going got tough.' The Chopin is described as 'thumpy, superficial'. Robert Croan, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
19 March 1975
Alice Tully Hall, New York
Hummel, Piano Concerto in A flat (Op. 113)
2 April 1975
Bayfront Theater, St Petersburg, Florida
7, 8 April 1975
Philharmonic Hall/Gusman Hall, Miami
Tchaikovsky 1
Miami Philharmonic/ Jose Serebrier (Uruguayan)
James Roos in The Miami Herald : 'Every note of its beauty had the high flung structure to bring the concerto into its own, and to cast permanently the mediocrities, who make of this extraordinary work an ornate warhorse, dragged out for personal show. Bolet put on a show, a magnificent show, but it was to display Tchaikovsky, not himself.'
13 April 1975
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major
Reading Symph. Orch. (Berks County, Pennsylvania) under Louis Vyner (1907-1981), who had conducted Jorge in the early 1930s
17 April 1975
Eaton Auditorium, Toronto, Canada. [JB's Toronto recital début]
Mendelssohn, Chopin, Sonata No.3, Liszt Petrarch + Tannhäuser
The Globe & Mail: 'When you consider, he's been playing professionally for more than 40 years, he seems to have taken his time getting up here. But then, as he says "I've been a long time arriving everywhere." Somehow, he has always managed to miss the boat. He has never had a financial angel to back him, and for 40 years, he had the singular knack of meeting the right people at the wrong time or finding himself stranded in the wrong place at the right time. In the late 1950s, he had a considerable underground reputation, and during the past decade, he finally came into his own.'
23 April 1975
Clowes Hall, Butler University [JB's 4th appearance at the Romantic Music Festival]
Rudolf Firkusny was meant to play but scheduling difficulties meant a telephone call to JB, on holiday in Tallahasee.
On Sunday, 20 April 1975, Jorge gave a recital in the Indiana University Musical Arts Center (Bloomington) and WTIU, I.U. television captured a good portion of it for shwoing over a number of TV outlets in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. Mendelssohn, Variations serieuses, Chopin Sonata No. 3, Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody 12. Under the direction of IU's, Mickey Klein, the program was put together from tapes from four cameras to on stage, one in the fifth row centre and another in the rear of the hall. In the first few minutes bullet is shown in his dressing room and in the wings. Through VoiceOver, he talks briefly of his career, his long struggle, and his ultimate success. (Indianapolis News, 24 December 1975)
1 May 1975
Geneva, Switzerland
Brahms' second concerto
Silvio Varviso/ Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, Switzerland
2 May 1975
Palais des Congrès, Bienne (Switzerland)
Brahms' second concerto
Silvio Varviso/ Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, Switzerland
R. Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel; Bohuslav Martinů: Concerto for two string orchestras, piano and timpani (JB did not presumably play the piano for the Martinů)
6/7 May 1975
New Orleans Theater of the Performing Arts
Rachmaninoff 3
New Orleans Symphony & Werner Torkanowsky
The Sea Coast Echo adds that 'last season marked Bolet's 36th anniversary on the concert stage. He has performed with the New Orleans Symphony four times in the past; his first appearance here took place just over 30 years ago, in January 1945.'
8 May 1975
Municipal Auditorium, Mobile, Alabama
Rachmaninoff 3
New Orleans Symphony/Werner Torkanowsky
29, 30 and 31 May 1975
Lincoln Centre, NYC
Rachmaninoff / Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
New York Philharmonic under Andre Kostelanetz
The hit of the evening was Jorge Bolet. He looks more like a German banker, a Swiss maitre d' or a Spanish police chief then the sensitive pianist he is. It's amazing to watch this mountain of a man caress the keys as if he were spinning Belgian lace, coaxing intricate patterns from the piano.
Thomas Palmer, Metropolitan Opera, baritone has just this return from Spain, where he spent a working vacation with famed pianist Jorge Bolet at the later's home in preparation for their forthcoming concert the next two seasons. Tom is going to be taking off with Bolet to entertain on a week's Rotterdam cruise to Bermuda and other nearby smiling isles.
(Connecticut Post, 13 July 1975)
18, 19 July 1975
Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles
Franck's Symphonic Variations and Liszt's Hungarian Fantasy {+ Offenbach, Gaite Parisienne]
Los Angeles Phil/ Andre Kostelanetz
25 July 1975
Carriage House Theater, Villa Montalvo, Saratoga, California
incl. Mendelssohn, Chopin sonata No. 3 and Liszt Tannhäuser
9 August 1975
Jay Gould Mansion, Lyndhurst in Tarrytown, New York
"Summer of Music on the Hudson"
Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23 [+Bartók, Concerto for orchestra]
The County Symphony/ Stephen Simon
Early September 1975
Haydn Conference/Festival, Esterházy Castle, Eisenstadt, Austria
Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Concerto for piano and orchestra in A flat major op. 113
17 September 1975
São Paulo, Brazil
recital
19 and 21 September 1975
Teatro Municipal de São Paulo, Brazil
Rachmaninoff's Paganini Variations
OSESP (Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo) under Gerard Devos
23 September 1975 [?]
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
recital
26 September 1975
Teatro Coliseo, Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Bach/Busoni, Chopin, Strauss and Wagner-Liszt.
29 September 1975
Teatro Coliseo, Buenos Aires (Argentina)
incl.Chopin's Sonata No. 3 in B minor Op.58 and the Mozart/Liszt Don Juan Fantasy
[According to what I have recorded thus far (24.4.2026), it is only now in 1975 that the Mozart/Liszt Don Juan Fantasy begins to appear on programmes. He was to record it in 1978 for L'oiseau-lyre/Decca]]
30 September 1975 [?]
Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Liszt 1 and 2
13 October 1975
Jefferson Civic Center, Birmingham, Alabama
incl.Chopin, Polonaises in C sharp minor, E flat minor and F sharp minor, Reger/Telemann; Liszt, 3 Concert Etudes & Don Juan Fantasy
First mention of Reger/Telemann...?
Oliver Roosevelt: a really stupendous, pianist, a prodigious, virtuoso, and withal a musician. But the Max Reger almost did me in. The very mediocre theme simply isn't worth 24 variations, though I admit that the blur of Bolet's hands in the seventh variation had a hypnotising effect, and the final fugue was interesting as writing, but the piece is prototypical of romantic excess.
25 October 1975
University of Exeter, England
Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor Op.23
Bournemouth Symphony under Paavo Berglund
Jorge's performance of Mozart/Liszt, Réminiscences de Don Juan, S. 418 can be heard on Marston CDs Volume 2, from a performance on 9 November 1975, New York City.
28 October 1975
Clearfield, Pennsylvania
Chopin, Polonaises in C sharp minor, E flat minor and F sharp minor, Reger/Telemann; Liszt, 3 Concert Etudes & Don Juan Fantasy
The husband of the President of the Concert Assoc. was George H. Lewis, for whom JB had acted as counsellor "at a private boys camp in the Poconos back in the summer of 1938".
**2 November 1975
Orrie de Nooyer Auditorium, Hackensack, NJ
Franck
NJ Symphony/Henry Lewis
**6 November 1975
Hunterdon Central High School, Flemington, New Jersey
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra/ Henry Lewis
(**JB's appearance cancelled because strike action would not have permitted enough rehearsal time)
8 November 1975
East Brunswick, NJ
(as above)
9 November 1975 (Sunday, 3pm)
Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, NY
(as 13 Oct.)
The rarely heard Reger score clocked in at 23 variations and 32 minutes; on both counts somewhat more than … Telemann's little minuet theme could profitably use. Mr. Bolet's keyboard wizardry gave satisfaction enough, however; and led to another comparative rarity, a pre‐intermission standing ovation.
(Robert Sherman, NY Times)
15 November 1975
Queens College, Flushing, NY
16 November 1975
Town Hall, NYC
18 November 1975
Woolsey Hall (primary auditorium at Yale University, located on the campus' Hewitt Quadrangle), New Haven, Connecticut.
On 19th Jorge flew to Milan, Italy
21 November 1975
Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi, Milan, Italy
Chopin: Three Mazurkas, Op.59, Three Nocturnes, Op.9, 2 Etudes, Op.25
Liszt: Three Concert Etudes, S.144, Réminiscences de Don Juan (Mozart), S.418
Previous visit to Milan was in May 1935 during his European début.
24/ 25 November 1975
Teatro Comunale, Bologna, Italy
Chopin, Three Nocturnes Op. 9, Three Mazurkas op. 56, Three Mazurkas op. 59, Twelve studies op. 25, Ballades op. 23, op. 38, op. 47, op. 52.
Mazurkas making a very rarer appearance in Jorge's repertoire.
23, 26, 27, 28 November 1975
Other performances in Budrio, Faenza (23), Modena (27), Parma (28) (Italy), according to the Bologna website.
In late November/early December 1975, Jorge gave recitals near his home in Fuenterrabia in northern Spain: Santander and Bilbao.
Television schedules are filled in December with "Jorge Bolet in Concert" (filmed by PBS at Bloomington): Mendelssohn, Variations serieuses, Chopin Sonata No. 3, Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody 12. It was recorded last April.
1 December 1975
Bilbao
(Carnegie Hall recital programme of February 1974)
2 December 1975
Santander
4 December 1975
Malaga (in the south, Andalusia)
E. Velez Camarero in Ritmo: revista musical ilustrada (1.12.75), reviewing the former, did not much care for "arrangements". Bach in his Chaconne must be respected at all costs; Strauss waltzes lose all their colour and charm when arranged, and the Tannhäuser overture is intolerable, 'even if it concerns a very illustrious relative [father-in-law Liszt]', pues que es intolerable, aunque es trate de un muy ilustre familiar.
9 December 1975
Philharmonie, Berlin
Chopin, Polonaises C sharp minor, E flat minor [Op.26/1 & 2), F sharp minor, Op. 44 (1840-41); Reger/Telemann Variations, Liszt, Don Juan Fantasy
15 December 1975
Carnegie Hall: 50th anniversary celebration of the W. W. Naumburg Foundation.
'Where else in a lifetime of concert-going could a comparable cast be savoured at a single concert? Jorge Bolet and Andre‐Michel Schub in Liszt's “Don Juan” Reminiscences for two pianos. The youngest winner was Mr. Schub, who won last year's first prize.'
Harold C Schonberg
Walking back to my hotel, I happened to pass the Teatro Coliseo, Buenos Aires: 25 September 2025, see 26 September 1975!
1976 South Africa & Japan
After Joseph Marx's death in 1964, his Romantic Piano Concerto met with the same fate as almost all the composer's other orchestral works and disappeared into oblivion, until it was finally resurrected by Jorge Bolet who reported that he had discovered the score in a private music collection in the mid-seventies. Over the following decade, Bolet performed his "favorite concerto" with well-known orchestras all over the world, including Germany (Berlin, Hamburg, Hannover, Munich) and other parts of Europe (among them Vienna, Linz and Zagreb). Still, the most memorable performance remains the enormous success at its legendary United States premiere with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta in 1976 [exact date/month?]. (Berkant Haydin)
3, 4 January 1976
Performing Arts Center, Uihlein Hall, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Prokofiev 2 [+Druckman, Otto Luening's Wisconsin Symphony, Mendelssohn]
Milwaukee Symphony/Kenneth Schermerhorn
10 January 1976, Bolet left for a tour of South Africa, with concerts in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Windhoek (Namibia since March 1990), Pietermaritzburg, Durban, Salisbury, Rhodesia. He flew back to the US on 20 February.
23 January 1976
Pretoria
On 26 January 1976, the Rand Daily News reported that 'because the new concert grand for Pretoria's City Hall did not arrive in time for Jorge Bolet's PACT concert [Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal] this weekend, a piano had to be hired from J'burg.
25 January 1976
Johannesburg City Hall
Liszt's Concerto in A major and Hungarian Fantasy
The conductor was the young Russian Israeli Shmuel Freidman.
(Same programme in Pretoria on either 23 or 27 January)
26 January 1976
Johannesburg
recital: Strauss/Tausig, Mozart/Liszt Don Juan, Bach/Busoni, Ciaccona, Chopin, Preludes Op.28
27 [30? in JB's date book] January 1976
City Hall, Pretoria
Brahms 2
2(?) February 1976
Bloemfontein
1 February 1976
Johannesburg [?]
Brahms's 2nd piano concerto in B flat majora
Pact Symphony Orchestra under Shmeul Friedman
2 February 1976
Windhoek (Namibia since March 1990)
all-Chopin recital (Etudes Op.25 and the four Ballades)
On 3rd, he flew on South African Airways to Cape Town, where he rehearsed on the 4th.
5 February 1976
City Hall, Cape Town/ Kaapstad
Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major & Hungarian Fantasy
with Enrique Garcia Asensio
6 February 1976
Bloemfontein?
9 February 1976
Sanlam Auditorium, Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), Johannesburg
Die Transvaler reported that Bolet had changed his programme: instead of Chopin's second book of Etudes Op.25, he would be playing the Reger/Telemann.
Also:Chopin's polonaises Op.26 and Op.44 and all four Ballades.
11 February 1976
Pietermaritzburg
12 February 1976
Durban
14 February 1976
Harry Margolis Hall, Salisbury, Rhodesia (from April 1980, Harare/ Zimbabwe)
all-Chopin recital (Etudes Op.25 and the four Ballades)
15 February 1976
Johannesburg
23/ 25 February 1976
Dade County Auditorium/Miami Beach Theatre (Florida)
Brahms 2
Greater Miami Philharmonic/Alberto Bolet
29 February 1976
Amsterdam.
incl. Reger's Telemann Variations, Mozart/Liszt Don Juan fantasy
In an interview for the Quad-City Times (Iowa), 5 March 1976, speaking of flights, he usually tells people his home is Frankfurt Airport. His flight from Chicago to Moline was his 77th in the last four months.
5, 6 March 1976
Centennial Hall, Augustana College, Rock Island, Ilinois USA
Prokofiev 2
Tri-City Symphony under James Dixon.
7 March 1976
Davenport Masonic Auditorium, Iowa (Sunday 3pm
Tri-City Symphony under James Dixon.
9 March 1976
Hoyt Sherman Place, Des Moines, Iowa
(as 17 Mar. 1976)
11 March 1976
Columbia Township auditorium, Orangeburg, South Carolina
15 March 1976 {?}
Recital with baritone Thomas Palmer
Hugo Wolf: Four Mörike Lieder,Claude Debussy: "Fêtes Galantes II"; Franz Liszt: "Tre sonetti di Petrarca", S. 270a & S. 158; Richard Strauss: "Für funfzehn Pfennige", op. 36, no. 2, "Befreit", op. 39, no. 4, "Ich liebe dich", op. 37, no. 2; Franz Lehar: "My very heavy Fatherland" (The Merry Widow)
17 March 1976
Ambassador College, Pasadena, California
Max Reger's Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Telemann Op.134, Chopin's Polonaise No. 5 Op.44 in F sharp minor (rarely found in JB's repertoire), Liszt/Mozart "Don Juan"
Daniel Cariaga (Los Angeles Times): "Awesome. The pianist from Cuba remains unique: his taste is impeccable, his technique sovereign, his command of the repertory masterful. His playing may be the least self-indulgent in the entire pianistic world."
21 March 1976
Reynolds Auditorium, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Chopin 1, Franck
Piedmont Chamber Orchestra/Nicholas Harsanyi (Hungarian-American, 1913-1987; a pupil of Hubay, Bartók, Dohnányi, Kodály, and Leo Weiner at the Budapest Academy of Music)
20 April
Clowes Hall, Butler University, Indianapolis (9th Romantic Music Festival)
Hummel No.7 in A flat major, Sgambati in G minor Op.15 [introduced by JB in 1971]
Indianapolis Symphony/Oleg Kovalenko (1936, Kyiv - 2025)
Despite the national coverage that the festival had been gaining, the whole was only half full. The festival concluded with Adolphe Adam's ballet Les Mohicans (1837) based upon James Fenimore Cooper's "Last of the Mohicans", which had only been heard a couple of times since Paris in the 1830s
22 April 1976
McKay Auditorium, Tampa, Florida
Tchaikovsky 1
Florida Gulf Coast Symphony/ Irwin Hoffman
Also at:
23 April 1976, Van Wezel Hall, Sarasota
24 April 1976, Bayfront Theatre, St Petersburg
1 May 1976
Jewish Community Center, White Plains, New York
Benefit concert & champagne reception
On Saturday, 9 May 1976, Bolet flew from San Francisco to Tokyo for recitals/concertos in Japan on 14, 19, 20, 21 and 22. This was the first time he had been back in Japan since 1946. He was to perform there again in 1988.
14 May 1976
Bunka Kaikan Hall (Ueno Koen, Tokyo)
Bach-Busoni: Chaconne
Chopin: 24 Preludes Op. 28
Liszt: Three Petrarca Sonnets (From "Italy", Second Year of "Year of Pilgrimage")
Mozart-Liszt: "Don Giovanni" Fantasia
An advert for the Tokyo recital on 14 May of 'First visit of keyboard giant to Japan announces the Wagner/Liszt Tannhäuser overture, rather than the Don Juan Fantasy. The Japan Times (8.5.76) announced the recital as being in Tokyo Metropolitan Festival Hall, which is the Bunka Kaikan.
19 and 20 May 1976
NHK Hall, Shibuya Tokyo
Brahms, Piano Concerto No.2 in B flat op.83
Wolfgang Sawallisch and the NHK Symphony Orchestra
21 and 22 May 1976
Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor op.37
Wolfgang Sawallisch and the NHK Symphony Orchestra
25 May 1976
Arlington Performing Arts Center, Santa Barbara, CA
Liszt 2, Hungarian Fantasy {+ Bruckner 3]
Santa Barbara Symphony/Ronald Ondrejka
2 June 1976
Holland Festival, de Doelen, Rotterdam
Rachmaninoff's Paganini Variations
Radio Philharmonisch Orkest /Jean Fournet
Jorge spent 7 weeks (after the Holland Festival) at his hideaway in the Bay of Biscay (Fuenterrabia) though the arid conditions made it disappointing. "For seven weeks we sat on the terrace and cursed the weather." (Ottawa Journal 25 September, 1976)
5 August 1976
Tawes Fine Arts Center, U of Maryland, Baltimore
Liszt, Reger
JB had planned this but the pianist who was scheduled to appear got stranded in Europe.
27 September 1976
L'Institut Canadien in Québec City, Canada:
Haydn's Sonata No.62 in E-flat major, Hob.XVI:52 Schumann, Carnaval Op. 9 and the third sonata of Brahms in F minor (Op. 5).
Of one of his encores there is the charming comment: 'Généreux, Jorge Bolet a également présenté, avec un chic sans pareil, une "Valse Caprice” [Liszt] qui pourrait bien être de Mozkovsky.' ('He played - with an unequalled elegance and style - a Valse Impromptu by Liszt that could have been by Moriz Moszkowski.').
30 September, 1976, Ottawa, Ontario
Rachmaninoff 2 with Mario Bernardi in Rachmaninoff 2
He had last appeared in the city in November 1954. A pianist "whose playing was a monument to restraint [and] whose talents are no longer in full bloom", wrote Maureen Peterson in the Ottawa Journal. His performance was full of reflective nostalgia. "The tremendous warmth of Mr Bolet's touch gives u s a sweetness that has inner strength." Playing of utter discretion and soulfulness. "If his playing is no longer what it was, it is still an invaluable lesson in musical refinement." Two other papers were less generous, one feeling the audience had been cheated of the Rachmaninoff Experience.
5 October 1976
Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center, Dartmouth, New Hampshire
(as 27 Sept. 1976)
12 October 1976
Klein zaal/ deOosterpoort, Groningen, Holland:
Joseph Haydn, Sonata in Es (Hoboken 16 no. 52); Robert Schumann, „Carnival" opus 9 Johannes Brahms, Sonata in f opus 5
20 October 1976
Teatro Real, Madrid (Haydn, Schumann, Liszt)
29 October 1976
Philharmonie, Berlin
Haydn, Sonata E-flat major; Schumann, Carnival; Brahms, Sonata in F minor op. 5.
12 November 1976
Town Hall, NYC
Gala
10/11 December 1976
Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg, Canada
Liszt's Hungarian Fantasy and Prokofiev 2
Winnipeg Symphony under Piero Gamba
1977
It is usually said that Bolet finally made a return to United Kingdom in 1977 for regular concerts, but he had visited periodically in the early 1970s. *See: March, October 1973, October, December 1974, October 1975. He also took up his post as Head of the Piano Department at Curtis in September. This required around 30 days of teaching a year.
15, 16 January 1977
Jorge's date book notes rehearsals ("ensayos") in Caracas, Venezuela
22 January 1977
Millburn High School, NJ
Rachmaninoff/Paganini; Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody.
New Jersey Symphony/Irwin Hoffman
27 January 1977
Willingboro High School, NJ
Rachmaninoff/Paganini; Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody [+Ulysses Kay "Of New Horizons" (1944), Berlioz, Symph Fantastique]
New Jersey Symphony/Irwin Hoffman
31 January 1977
Musical Arts Center, Indiana U.
Free recital inc. Schumann's Carnaval
1 February 1977
Bloomington
Haydn, Schumann, Reger
5 February 1977
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, U. of Michigan
incl. Haydn Sonata No.62 in E-flat major, Hob.XVI:52, Schumann, Carnaval, Brahms Sonata No. 3 in F minor Op.5
JB's third appearance for the University Musical Society (1954, 1968). John Harvith noted that the program was quite conservative, and that it was as if the pianist were attempting to smash the popular image of himself as a list specialist by delving into hard-core standard repertoire. He reaffirmed his standing as a supreme technician. A massive,debonair presence on stage, the pianist performed with quiet concentration at the keyboard, without wasting a single motion, or striving for theatrical effect. He displayed total control over dynamic levels and shading, remarkable facility in passage, work, absolute evenness of fingerwork, an ability to produce crunching fortissimo chords without this sounding ugly, brutal or nervous and the capacity to sustain limpid singing lines. [But at times] Bolet's immaculate craftsmanship took the place of musical substance. The Haydn sonata, one of the composer's mature works - written at the same time as the last Salomon symphonies, is a robustly dramatic piece filled to the brim with energy and brilliant flashes of wit.
At the hands of Bolet, the sonata became a series of pettipoint miniatures, with pearled passagework, shallow fortissimos, and superficially, beautiful, modulatory, sequences, lacking the slightest hint of underlying drama or tension. His Brahms was episodic, with rhythmically solid bass chords and staccatos, plus spineless pianissimo cantabile without tension or shape. The sonata is an ambitiously pretentious work of Brahms and sounded best when Arthur Rubinstein performed 10 years ago in Hill Auditorium with ordered simplicity.
17 February 1977, Thursday (aged 62)
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Haydn, Sonata in E flat (No.52), Telemann/Reger, Liszt 3 Concert Studies, Don Juan Fantasy
Jorge was generous with encores. Chopin: Nocturne in F minor, Op.55 No.1, Moszkowski: La Jongleuse, Op.52 No.4, Chopin/Godowsky: Etude in G-flat major, Op.10 No.5 (Study No.7 in G-flat major), Liszt: Valse-Impromptu, S.213 and Saint-Saëns/Godowsky: The Swan (from Carnival of the Animals).
Dr G. de Koos & Co. Management. Jorge hadn't been completely absent from the UK in the 1970s, cf. March 1973 (Birmingham) Oct/Dec 1974 (London), but these few events had been orchestral concerts. But it was in 1977 that he he was to have a big, possibly his biggest break - with a long-term record contract for a major international label, Decca; this was to bring him the fame he had sought for so long.
Edward Greenfield in The Guardian : 'Some years ago they issued records of the legendary pianist Josef Hofmann made from the piano rolls he cut in the 1920s, using the highly sophisticated Duo-Art system. I was sceptical that piano articulation at high speed could ever have been so miraculously clear and even.
'I still wonder whether some touching up was done on the actual rolls, but here was a pianist absurdly under-appreciated in this country who had me believing in the Hofmann legend after all. As Mr Bolet demonstrated over and over again, that miraculous clarity is achievable by human fingers in live performance. (...) It is not often that we have piano-tigers even from across the Atlantic pouncing to such effect.
19 February 1977
Hunter College (68th St. between Park and Lexington Aves.), NYC [?]
25 February 1977
Royal Albert Hall, London
Piano Concerto No.2 in C Minor, Op.18
New Philharmonia/Yoav Talmi
He would appear there again on 6 October with Talmi and the LPO in Beethoven's Emperor Concerto.
1 March 1977
Arlington Center, Santa Barbara
Dr John Lundberg, of the Westmont music department and majordomo of the music series, explained before the concert started that he had prevailed upon Bolet to make a major change in the programme – to substitute, as the second half of the musical offering Liszt's three concert Études and the Don Juan fantasy in place of the scheduled Brahms sonata. This please, the audience. Most of them had come to hear Bolet perform Liszt and they were not disappointed.
9 March 1977
McCarter Theater, Princeton, NJ
Grieg
New Jersey Symphony/Louis Lane
14 March 1977
Teatro Tapia, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Haydn, Sonata No. 62 in E-flat major, Hob. XVI/52, Schumann's Carnaval Op.9 and Liszt (Petrarch Sonnets, Don Juan Fantasy).
It looks as if his previous appearance on the island was way back in October 1958.
On 17 March 1977, The Philadelphia Inquirer announced that JB "has been named head of the piano department at the Curtis Institute and will begin teaching in September". His replacement at Indiana was James Tocco.
24 March 1977
Illinois State University.
On the invitation of IU pianist Tong Il Han, Jorge waived his fee in this benefit concert for musical scholarships.
Han Tong-il (Korean: 한동일; 1941 – 2024) was a South Korean pianist.
12 April 1977
Shrine Mosque, Peoria, Illinois
14, 16 April 1977
Ford Auditorium, Detroit
Franck, Weber [+Elliott Carter, Holiday Overture]
Detroit Symphony/Leonard Slatkin
23 April 1977
Coliseum, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Franck, Rachmaninoff/Paganini
Sioux Falls Symphony Orchestra/James Maclnnes
29/30 April 1977
Music Hall, 1241 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio
Hummel, Piano Concerto in A flat major op. 113, Chopin, Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise (piano only)
Cincinnati Symphony/Thomas Schippers (Music Director, who was ill and Carmon DeLeone took his place). JB's first performance with the CSO in 2 decades [?]
Nancy Malitz: Jorge Bolet demonstrated just how fascinating a search through dusty library shelves and publishers' attics can be. He breathed new life into the once popular concerto. At first, the Hummel did not seem like such a discovery. The orchestra accompaniment yawned predictably in key, phrase length, harmonic rhythm, and orchestration-especially in the 1st movement – and the themes did not etch themselves in the memories so well. But these shortcomings made what is really special about the concerto stand out even more: Hummel's work reveals a genuine aptitude for fleeting theatrics, and a downright Chopinesque sensitivity to pliable rhythms and lacy filigree. One can only hope that Hummel himself had something of Bolet's exquisite tone, his creamy smooth facility at a dozen different degrees, of pianissimo, his subtlety at shaping a phrase and leaving it floating in the air.
Jorge apparently told Betty Dietz Krebs that he'd got lost briefly - near a bassoon entry - but had covered so skilfully that no-one noticed. In the Green room he'd been interested in the scores for the Cincinnati Reds (baseball) game with Chicago; and after intermission he payed scrabble with Mr and Mrs James Mixter until the concert was over and fans could come back stage.
3 May 1977
Carnegie Hall, NYC
an all-Liszt recital which included the Sonata in B Minor, S.178 and Mozart/Liszt, Réminiscences de Don Juan, S.418
11 May 1977
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland
*The same programme as the famous Carnegie Hall 1974 recital
Jorge was staying at the famous North British Hotel, Edinburgh. The North British Station Hotel, opened in 1902 and now known as The Balmoral, is a luxury 5-star landmark at 1 Princes Street, Edinburgh. Designed in a Victorian/Scots Baronial style, it is famous for its clock tower, which runs three minutes fast to ensure passengers catch trains from adjacent Waverley Station. And Waverley Station is the only station in the world to be named after a novel (by Sir Walter Scott).
12 May 1977
City Hall, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England
(As I am Scottish, I was amused to see Jorge list this city as in Scotland in his date book)
15 June 1977
Konserthuset, Stockholm, Sweden
Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Sixten Ehrling.
It seems this was Jorge's first appearance again in the Swedish capital since June 1964.
There was a tour of Central (and possibly South) America in July 1977. On Saturday 2 July, Bolet had left for Mexico on AeroMéxico at 5:45pm.
4 July 1977
Palacio de Bellas Artes, México City
[JB's date book lists the porgramme of the 8th, for which he leaves a blank]
8 July 1977
Palacio de Bellas Artes, México City
Haydn sonata in E flat major, Schumann’s Carnaval, Liszt’s Sonnetti di Petrarca and Don Juan fantasy. [Agent: Conciertos Daniel]
Alberto Gomez Gomez in El Nacional Revolucionario (11 July 1977) interview Bolet, beginning by saying that 31 years ago (1946) Bolet came to Mexico, and after that time he reappeared in the Palacio de Bellas Artes as soloist with the Filarmónica de las Américas under guest director Stanislaw Skrowaczewski.
11 July 1977 (a date of the 5th is also given)
Teatro Degollado, Guadalajara (Jalisco, Mexico) recital
(replacing an indisposed fellow Cuban Horacio Gutierrez)
In a concert during this week (beginning 3rd June), Jorge replaced Polish-British-Canadian violinist Ida Haendel (1928-2020) who had cancelled due to the death of her mother. 'In her place the Cuban pianist Jorge Bolet played Liszt's First Concerto.
The concert was with the Filarmónica de las Americas under Polish conductor Stanisław Skrowaczewski, and was completed with Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin [A csodálatos mandarin, Op. 19, Sz. 73 (BB 82)] and Tchaikovsky's fourth symphony in F minor.
Jorge flew back on Saturday 9th to San Francisco. Was this flight (noted in his date-book) changed to accommodate the recital on 11th in Guadalajara? Or was the recital actually on the 5th?
On 16 July, Jorge arrived in the morning in Sydney on a Qantas flight from San Francisco via Honolulu, then continued immediately on to Adelaide, arriving at five o'clock in the evening. This was his second visit to Australia, the first being in 1965.
19 July 1977
Adelaide Town Hall: recital
After Launceston (Tasmania), he went to Melbourne, for Rachmaninoff's second concerto with Willem van Otterloo
23, 25, 26 July 1977
Melbourne Town Hall
Rachmaninoff 2 [+ Schubert, Rosamunde overture & Beethoven, Pastoral]
Melbourne SO/Willem van Otterloo
Apparently Jorge wasn't keen on Willem van Otterloo. When he was informed that he had to play Franck and Weber in Utrecht (Holland) under his baton of van Otterloo, he exclaimed 'I thought they had exiled him to Australia!'
Then Geelong, Broken Hill - an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, near the border with South Australia - thence to Sydney.
8 August 1977
Sydney Opera House
Chopin's third sonata and Mozart/ Liszt Don Juan.
This would have been rather special as it will have been the first time Jorge had seen the new Opera House (1973). 'The sun did not know how beautiful its rays were, until it saw them reflected upon the roof of Sydney Opera House.'
The recital was plagued by whistling noise from the cameras filming. Roger Covell thought Bolet's playing masterful but the finale of the Chopin sonata was "too restrained and cautiously emphatic".
Newcastle, NSW
?
12 August 1977
Town Hall, Wollongong
Recital
13 August 1977
Sydney Opera House
Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23
with David Zinman.
17-24 August 1977
Sydney Opera House
Brahms' Concerto No.2 in B flat and Rachmaninoff-Paganini (depending on Red/Blue series)
Willem van Otterloo
17, 18: Rachmaninoff-Paganini; 20, 22, 23: Brahms; 24: Rachmaninoff 2 [Sydney Town Hall]
27 August 1977
Brisbane, City Hall
Concerto performed with David Zinman
29 August 1977
City Hall, Toowoomba, Queensland
Recital
31 August 1977
Adelaide
Concert with Elyakum Shapirra
6 September 1977
Perth Concert Hall, Perth, Western Australia
Recital
9/10 September 1977
Rachmaninoff 3
West Australian SO & Elyakum Shapirra
11 September 1977: departs Sydney by air.
2 October 1977 (Sunday)
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Beethoven's Sonata No. 23 Op. 57, Schumann's Carnaval & Liszt's Dante Sonata.
Three Chopin-Godowsky études and a waltz as encores will have acted as a warm-up for the next two days.
3 & 4 October 1977 (aged 62)
Kingsway Hall, London
Recording a selection of Chopin/Godowsky Études and Waltzes.
(The next recording would be of Liszt in December 1978)
6 October 1977
Royal Albert Hall, London
Beethoven 5
LPO/Yoav Talmi. [G. de Koos agency]
15, 16 October 1977 (Sat eve./Sun 3pm)
Auditorium Music Hall, Memphis, Tennessee
Beethoven 3
Memphis SO/Vincent de Franck
[Newspapers list his howe as still Fuenterrabia, Spain: October 1977]
21,22, 23 October 1977
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Tchaikovsky 1
Brooklyn Philharmonia/Lukas Foss
Bill Zakariansen: 'One of the most exciting Tchaikovsky Firsts I've heard in recent years'
25 October 1977
Miami Beach, Florida
Beethoven Appassionata, Schumann Carnaval, Liszt, Petrarch, Dante etc.
"The Dante Sonata is flamboyant, duskily romantic, highly bravura. Bolet made it all of that and magnificently so. He spun the music into a dark foam that filled the big hall with the essence of an era." (James Roos)
8 November 1977
Jesse Auditorium, University, Columbia, Missouri
(as 25 Oct)
19 November 1977
Metropolitan Museum, New York City.
incl. Liszt's 12 Transcendental Etudes
Cristobal Diaz writing in El Mundo 7 November 1982 recalls "an unforgettable night" at the Teatro Tapia, San Juan, Puerto Rico in November 1977. Might he be thinking of March 1977?
8 December 1977
Civic Center, Jackson, Tennessee
14 December 1977
Curtis Hall, Philadelphia
Chopin, Frédéric, Barcarolle, op. 60, F# major; Fantasie, op. 49, F minor.
Schumann, Robert, Carnaval.
Liszt, Franz, Années de pèlerinage, 2e année (Selections)
17 December 1977
Garden City High School, Rockaway/Merillon Aves., Long Island, NY
1978
January 1978, The Netherlands
“The daily food of keyboard lions”
'The American keyboard lion of Cuban descent, Jorge Bolet, is giving a whole series of concerts in our country these days. He will perform with the Utrecht Symphony Orchestra under Willem van Otterloo tonight.
(Apparently Jorge did not care for van Otterloo: when he was informed that he had to play Franck and Weber in Utrecht under the baton of van Otterloo, he told a friend 'I thought they had exiled him to Australia!')
Jorge's diary lists 1365, York Avenue, NYC 10021 as his address.
14 January 1978
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
All Chopin programme
26 January 1978
Tivoli/Vredenburg, Utrecht, Holland
27 January 1978
Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Holland
César Franck's Symphonic Variations
Utrecht Symphony Orchestra under Willem van Otterloo
30 January 1978
Arnhem, Holland
Recital:Etudes by Godowsky. Beethoven's Appassionata, Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme by Chopin and Liszt's Dante Fantasy.
31 January 1978
Groningen, Holland
Recital
2 February 1978
De Bilt, Holland
8 February 1978
La Jolla, San Siego, California
Recital
[JB stays at Islandia Hotel, Sea World Drive, Mission Bay, now the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay Spa and Marina, 1441 Quivira Rd, San Diego, CA]
14 February 1978
Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Jorge gave a private recital of some two hours to friends, sometimes playing just selected passages. Of great interest is that he played movements 1,3 and 4 of Chopin's Sonata No.2 in B flat minor Op.35, and also Godowsky's weird and wonderful transformation ('Concert Paraphrase', if you will) of Chopin's Grand Valse Brillante Op.18 in E flat
20 & 21 March, 1978
Boettcher Concert Hall in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts
Rachmaninoff/Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini
Denver Symphony Orchestra/ Gaetano Delogu
26 (Easter Sunday) & 27 March 1978
Philharmonie, Berlin
Tschaikowsky, Konzert für Klavier und Orchester Nr. 1 b-moll
conductor Yuri Ahronovitch
27 March 1978
Malmö, Sweden (?)
March 1978, Jorge performed Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini with Christof Prick conducting the Badische Staatskapelle (Karlsruhe, Germany).
7 March 1978
Three Arts Theater, Columbus, Georgia
Rachmaninoff 2
Columbus Symphony/ Harry Kiruger
28 March 1978
Malmö, Sweden
4 April 1978
Gano Hall, William Jewell College, Liberty, Missouri
Beethoven's Sonata No. 23 Op. 57, Schumann's Carnaval & Liszt's Petrarch Sonnets/Dante Sonata
'Titanic, gargantuan, thunderous. Bolet belongs to a very special breed of pianist, and only a special vocabulary can do him justice.' Kansas City News
9, 10 April 1978
Hamilton, Ontario
Rachmaninoff 3 [+Holst, The Planets]
Hamilton SO/ Boris Brott
12 April 1978
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
recital
15 April 1978
Vanderburgh Auditorium
Chopin 1/ Liszt 2
Evansville Philharmonic/Minas Christian [+Hindemith Mathis der Maler]
21/22 April 1978
Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Liszt 1, Rachmaninoff 3
Winnipeg SO and Piero Gamba
28 May 1978
Ryerson Theatre, Toronto
CJRT Orchestra/Paul Robinson
Group of solos 93 Concert Studies & Hungarian Rhapsody No.12) & Liszt 1
Toronto-based broadcasting and concert ensemble formed in 1975 by Paul Robinson for the independent educational radio station CJRT-FM.
1 June 1978
Royal Albert Hall, London
Liszt, Piano Concerto No.1 in E Flat
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/ Paavo Berglund
[Symphonic Poems 'Vltava' and 'Sarka', Smetana; Symphony No.4 in F Minor, Op.36, Tchaikovsky; De Koos]
On this occasion, YLE, Finnish Broadcasting Company, making a programme about the conductor Berglund interviewed JB.
3 June 1978
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland
Rachmaninoff 2
Scottish National Orchestra under Sir Alexander Gibson
7 June 1978
Murray [*now Martin] Theater, Ravinia, Illinois
Bach-Busoni, Schumann, Liszt and Mozart/Liszt
20 June 1978
Robin Hood Dell, Philadelphia
Rachmaninoff 2 [+Kabalevsky Colas Breugnon/ Shostakovich 5]: but JB cancelled due to sore throat and Jeffrey Siegel took his place
Eugene Ormandy
In July 1978, there was a trip to Brazil for concerts. He took an American Airlines flight on Monday 3 July at 8.30pm, arriving Tuesday morning in Rio de Janeiro.
6 July 1978
Sala Cecilia Meireles, Largo do Lapa, Rio de Janeiro
Funerailles and the 12 Transcendental Etudes
8 July 1978
Palacio Boa Vista, Campos do Jordão, Brazil
Liszt’s Consolations 1and 2, the B minor Sonata, Petrarch Sonnets 47,104 and 123 and the Reminiscences of Don Juan (as part of the Winter Festival)
10/12 July 1978
Casa de Manchete/ Teatro Cultura Artistica, São Paulo, Brazil
recitals
On Thursday 13 he flew on American Airlines flight 251 to Buenos Aires, Argentina, but does not appear to have played in that city in July. On Sunday 16 July, he flew on AA370 to Mexico City (masterclasses on 18, 20 and 21). He presumably gave concerts; his date book mentions Tepotzotlán, 25 miles north-west of Mexico City. Jorge told Lisa Battle of he Columbus Ledger (6 March) that an impresario wanted to display his photography in concert halls during the Mexican tour.
On Monday 31 July he flew at 10:30am from Mexico City to JFK
Alternatively, another date books lists:
6 July 1978
Sala Cecilia Meireles, Largo do Lapa, Rio de Janeiro
Funerailles and the 12 Transcendental Etudes
8 July 1978
São Paulo, Brazil
9 July 1978
Flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina
10 July 19678
Lima, Peru or Buenos Aires
11 July 1978
Leave for Mexico
12 July 1978
Tepotzotlán
30 Jul 1978 arrive back in U.S.
5 August 1978
Pavilion, Ravinia Festival Illinois
Rachmaninoff 3
Chicago SO/Kazuhiro Koizumi
7 August 1978
Murray Theater, Ravinia, Highland Park, Illinois
Bach-Busoni, Schumann, Liszt and Mozart-Liszt
11/12 August 1978
Blossom Music Centre, an outdoor amphitheatre at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat, Op.83
The Cleveland Orchestra under Jerzy Semkow
Jorge had not played with this orchestra in 19 [?] years: see 14 November 1944 and 7 April 1959 (the latter with George Szell).
Strangely, Jorge never performed in the orchestra's Severance Concert Hall on Euclid Ave., only downtown or at its summer home, Blossom Music Center. 'Polish conductor, Cuban pianist, Viennese composer', noted Donald Rosenberg of the Akron Beacon Journal. 'Friday night offerred the richest, most artistically rewarding program that has been heard thus far this summer in the hills of Northampton Township. Bowed over the keyboard, and attacking the instrument, as if he were going to tame it, the aristocratic artist, now in his 60s, combined his prodigious technical gifts, massive sonority and heady musicianship in an interpretation that had power, sentiment, nobility and playfulness.' The Cleveland Press , noting this was JB's second appearance in 20 years with the orchestra, added: 'His performance was such as to point up what we had been missing all these years. His playing is not simply a big-muscle-toy affair. The Brahms also calls for a delicacy and airiness, at moments, which one associates with litheness, slenderness, and small boned agility and here too Bolet produces with equally high quality. There was a good sized crowd on hand – better, it appeared than usual for a Friday night, and it responded with a long and noisy ovation.
On 15 August 1978, JB flew from New York to Vienna on PanAm 64
16 August 1978
Schloss Esterházy, Eisenstadt, Austria (Haydn Festival)
Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Concerto No.5 in A flat major op. 113
(he stayed at the Hotel Garni Eisenstadt)
21 August 1978,
Vienna, Austria
concerto/recital?
8, 10 & 12 September 1978
Blaisdell Concert Hall, Honolulu, Hawaii
Chopin 1 [+ Saint-Saëns, Organ Symphony]
with conductor Robert LaMarchina (rehearsal on 7th)
Joseph Maltby of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin talked about these works as "at best second-rate works" but "the performance of each as first-rate". [I love both of them!]
19 September 1978
Richmond (-upon-Thames?), England
28-30 September 1978
Ford Auditorium, Detroit
Liszt 2
Detroit SO/Berhard Klee
11 October 1978
Mendenhall Theater, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina
14 October, 1978
Metropolitan Museum of Art (Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium), New York City, New York Brahms: Seven Fantasies, Op.116; Variations & Fugue on a theme by Händel, Op.24
Chopin/Godowsky: Six Etudes
Op.10 No.5 in G-flat major (Study No.12 in G-flat major | inversion)
Op.10 No.3 in E major (Study No.5 in D-flat major | for the left hand alone)
Op.25 No.1 in A-flat major (Study No.25 in A-flat major)
Op.10 No.6 in E-flat minor (Study No.13 in E-flat minor | for the left hand alone)
Op.10 No.7 in C major (Study No.15 in G-flat major | Nocturne)
Op.10 No.1 in C major (Study No.1 in C major)
Chopin/Godowsky: Two Waltzes
Op.64 No.3 in A-flat major
Op.70 No.3 in D-flat major
Godowsky: Concert Paraphrase on Chopin’s Waltz in E-flat major, Op.18
Harold C Schonberg: 'One doubts if any living pianist could have duplicated Bolet's playing in this repertory [Godowsky], and this is a considered judgement. There may be others who can play the notes but Bolet, with his roots in an older tradition than most today can summon up, has a feeling for the line, the elegance, the suave sound, the tapered phrase of high romanticism that is virtually unmatched today/. It was a technical and artistic tour de force, all the more impressive in that Bolet was not even breathing hard. Not since the old Moiseiwitsch recording has one heard the Handel Variations played with such subtlety and tonal control.'
17, 18 October 1978
Fort Lauderdale
Chopin 1
Fort Lauderdale SO/Emerson Buckley
James Roos: 'The Chopin E minor is an ardent youthful work ,filled with high hopes and tenderness and longing, spun with embroideries and tipped with the promise of noble fire. Bolet's playing was a trifle edgy and plagued by memory lapses, but his performance had a simple dignity of exposition that won immediate attention. The man is a formidable technician whose style is often robust to the point of muscular .Yet the Romanze, this time, was as delicate as a whisper, and he caught the proud charm of the Rondo.'
28, 29 October 1978
Terrace Theater, East Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, California
Rachmaninoff 2
Alberto Bolet
3-5 November 1978
Centennial Hall, Davenport, Iowa
Brahms 2 [+Respighi, Ancient Airs & Dances, and Copland's Billy the Kid]
Tri-City Symphony/James Dixon
8 November 1978
Rye High School, Yonkers NY
Brahms Op.116, Schubert, Wanderer, 7 Godowsky etudes, Liszt Dante.
12 November 1978 (Sunday, 12 noon)
Teatro de la Ciudad, Mexico City
Rachmaninoff 3 [+Lutoslawski, Shostakovich]
Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México and Polish conductor Andrzej Markowski (Jorge had performed with Markowski in Poland in 1961). But the Baldwin piano had not been secured and crashed off the stage.
14 November 1978
Sala Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico City
Rachmaninoff 3
Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México/Andrzej Markowski
(also cancelled?)
21 November 1978
Woolsey Hall, New Haven
Franck
New Haven Symphony/Murray Sidlin
25 November 1978
Reichhold Center, St Thomas, US Virgin Islands
Brahms's seven pieces of Op.116, Handel Variation Op.24, Godowsky arrangements of Chopin.
29 Novermber 1978
St Lawrence Music, Potsdam, NY
7-9 December 1978
Kingsway Hall, London
Jorge records Liszt: Three Concert Studies S144, Two Concert Studies S145 (Gnomenreigen, Waldesrauschen), and Liszt/Mozart, Réminiscences de Don Juan S418 in , for Decca/L'Oiseau-lyre, with Peter Wadland - who did so much for JB's career - as producer.
The next recording would be Reger/Telemann & Brahms/Handel in February/March 1980
12 December 1978
QEH, London, with the Juilliard Quartet
Haydn Op. 71 no. 1 in B flat, Bartok 2 and Schubert's Trout Quintet (with Donald Palma on double bass)
18 and 19 December 1978
Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress, Washington DC
Juilliard String Quartet's autumn season featured the works of Franz Schubert, in honour of the 150th anniversary of his death
Schubert's "Trout" Quintet (Forellenquintett), the Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667
Rachmaninoff: Cello Sonata in G minor, Op.19
Joel Krosnick, cello / Jorge Bolet, piano
In July 1983 in Gramado (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), Jorge will again take on the piano part in this work.
1979-80
For some reason, the glamour of an international concert career has never surrounded this 'Cuban pianist. One has the feeling that he surely deserves more special treatment than he has sometimes received.'
[Vianne Webb, Daily Press Newport News (25.1.1979)]
9 January 1979
New Orleans Theater for the Performing Arts
Brahms Op.116, Schubert, Wanderer, Liszt Dante, 6 Chopin/Godowsky.
10 January 1979
Miami Beach
Brahms Op.116, Schubert, Wanderer, Liszt Dante, 6 Chopin/Godowsky.
There has been some fine piano playing on Miami Beach this week with Misha Dichter and Ivan Davis, but none to compare with Jorge Bolet's superlative Wednesday evening recital for the Music and Arts League. The Godowsky studies seem to have attracted all of Miami's pianists to the theatre. These rarely played gems - who else can do them? - are a morass of technical pitfalls. To play them at all is remarkable, to play them as Bolet did is little short of titanic. Every note was clear and clean, every melody shining out above the complicated accomplishment, even in the two for left hand, alone – a breathtaking achievement.
(Edith Gold, Miami Herald)
13 January 1979
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, NYC
Juilliard Quartet
Schubert "The Trout"
20 January 1979
Metropolitan Museum. NYC
Musica Aeterna/Frederick Waldman
21 & 23 January 1979
Chrysler Hall, Norfolk, Virginia
Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11 [+ Walton's Henry V suite]
Russell Stanger / Norfolk Symphony Orchestra
Encore: Schumann/Liszt: Widmung, Op.25 No.1 (S.566)
For some reason, the glamour of an international concert career has never surrounded this 'Cuban pianist. One has the feeling that he surely deserves more special treatment than he has sometimes received.'
[Vianne Webb, Daily Press Newport News (25.1.1979)]
25, 28 January 1979
Powell Hall, St Louis
Tchaikovsky 1 [+Schubart Rosamunde Overture D644 and Symphony No. 4 in C minor D417 Tragic]
St Louis Symphony/ Jerzy Semkow
1, 2, 3, 6 February 1979
Academy of Music, Philadelphia?
Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 [+Shchedrin"Not Love Alone" suite
Philadelphia Orchestra under William Smith, assoc. conductor
16 February 1979
Carnegie Hall, NYC
Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18 (1900-1901),
NDR Symphony Orchestra of Hamburg and Zdenek Mácal
18, 20 February 1979
Fort Worth, Dallas (Tarrant County Convention Center Theater)
Liszt 1, Hungarian Fantasy
Fort Worth Symphony/John Giordano
21 February 1979
Paramount Theatre, Austin, Texas
Brahms Op.116, Schubert, Wanderer Fantasy, Liszt Dante Sonata, Chopin/Godowsky
& 5 encores.
'Five years ago this week, Cuban born American pianist, Jorge Bolet give a recital at Carnegie Hall. People who speak classical music are still talking about it. The 64-year-old musician has been a cult favourite for many years, but the New York recital catapulted him international prominence. To call Bolet an artist of the grand romantic tradition, is like calling the Super Drum, a big building: it doesn't begin to describe him. (In 1978, he played approximately 100 concerts – too many, he said.) The level of excitement was high beyond the measuring of it, but if a yardstick is needed, consider the five encores.' (Patrick Taggart)
24 February 1979
Veterans Memorial Auditorium, Providence, Rhode Island
Rhode Island Philharmonic
3 March, 1979
Carnegie Hall, NYC
Winnipeg SO and Piero Gamba played Carnegie Hall for the first time in an extravaganza.
Jorge was one of four pianists playing Vivaldi/Bach's Concerto in A Minor for 4 harpsichords BWV 1065.
7 March 1979
Lee High School, Montgomery, Alabama
15 March 1979
Curtis Institute
Faculty Recital: Godowsky, Mozart/Liszt Don Juan, Brahms/Handel
20 March 1979
Philharmonie, Berlin
Brahms Fantasias op. 116, Handel Variations; Chopin Four Ballades
31 March 1979
Rajah Theater, Reading PA.
Brahms Op.116, Schubert, Wanderer, Liszt Dante, 6 Chopin/Godowsky.
6 April 1979
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center NYC
Beethoven, Schubert, Franck
Chamber Music Soc of NY
Repeated Saturday 7th at Paula Cooper Gallery, 155 Wooster St., Soho, NYC
12 April 1979
Seattle Center Playhouse, Seattle, Washington State
Brahms Op.116, Schubert, Wanderer, Liszt Dante, 6 Chopin/Godowsky.
In reviewing a recital by Ira Levin in his South Florida debut Saturday 14 April, James Roos wrote: 'The musical grapevine carried provocative rumours of the young man's talent, and the small, but attentive audience turned out to test its reliability. The pianist is a protegé of Jorge Bolet, which was unmistakable. Fact is Levin has a big talent. Like Bolet, whom, Levin imitates, his hammer-handed technique, though powerful, lacks flexibility, and his playing often lacks sweep. His way with Chopin, for instance, was sometimes affected and flustered. The encored Liszt transcription on a theme from Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable concluded the concert with the bravura sweep of the spectacular.
21 April 1979
University of California, Riverside
Recital of Brahms (Fantasies Op.116), Schubert (Fantasy in C major, D.760, Op.15, Wanderer) and Leopold Godowsky
Chopin/Godowsky: Six Etudes
o Op.10 No.5 in G-flat major (Study No.12 in G-flat major | inversion)
o Op.10 No.3 in E major (Study No.5 in D-flat major | for the left hand alone)
o Op.25 No.1 in A-flat major (Study No.25 in A-flat major)
o Op.10 No.6 in E-flat minor (Study No.13 in E-flat minor | for the left hand alone)
o Op.10 No.7 in C major (Study No.15 in G-flat major | Nocturne)
o Op.10 No.1 in C major (Study No.1 in C major)
Godowsky: Two Concert Arrangements of Waltzes by Frédéric Chopin
o Op.64 No.3 in A-flat major
o Op.70 No.3 in D-flat major
Godowsky: Concert Paraphrase on Chopin’s Waltz in E-flat major, Op.18 (*a particularly exotic concoction, which I once thought Jorge never played - apart from his 1977 recording for L'Oiseau-lyre)
4 May 1979
Rotterdam
Liszt1
David Zinman
10 May 1979
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Chopin, 4 Ballades; Chopin-Godowsky (6 études & 3 waltzes, presumably as 21 April.)
Jorge Bolet being presented by de Koos, 'his only London recital this season'.
12 May 1979
North Worcester College, Bromsgrove, England
(as 10 May)
25 May 1979
Kennedy Center, Washington DC
Liszt, D Flat Consolation, Funerailles and the B Minor Sonata; three Liszt transcriptions of Schubert songs; Don Juan Fantasy.
In June/July 1979, Jorge was in Argentina and Uruguay. He flew on 18 June to Buenos Aires. His date book manetions repertoire (see below but also: Chopin, Barcarolle, Fantasy in F minor Op.49, Sonata No.3, Ballades, Rachmaninoff's third concerto and Weber's Konzertstück)
10 July 1979
Teatro Solís, Montevideo, Uruguay
30th anniversary of SODRE (Servicio Oficial de Difusión, Representaciones y Espectáculos; Official Service for Broadcasting, Performances and Entertainment) in con junction with the Embassy of the USA
Bach/Busoni, Ciaccona, Liszt's Sonata and his Transcendental Études 7, 6, 12, 9 and 8.
(JB's first appearance in the country)
El País (Montevideo): 'Inimitable style. The presence of this artist is an event and for Montivideo a revelation. Unfortunately, this revelation was enjoyed by a group of pianists and a small core of discerning, aficionados. Those that stayed home missed what might be considered one of the culminating recitals of the last decade. What Jorge Bolet does with list music surely has few parallels in our time.'
21 July 1979
Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, Argentina (his only appearance in this fabled venue.
Bach/Busoni, Ciaccona, Liszt's Sonata and his Transcendental Études 7, 6, 12, 9 and 8.
2 August 1979
Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles
Rachmaninoff 2 (replacing Horacio Gutierrez)
Los Angeles Philharmonic/Simon Rattle
Robert Riley of the Los Angeles Times wrote: Bolet's clean, fluent and vital playing - expressive, without becoming sugary - was also characterised by somewhat unpredictable retardations. Besides this, the last minute substitution may have permitted only minimum rehearsal. In any case, an impression was imparted that soloist and conductor were less than aware of one another's intentions. The concerto sagged, the orchestra sounded anaemic, and the conductor who later offered such a memorable second symphony, appeared intermittently confused.
"To me Jorge never talked much about the conductors he was [at present] working with. He preferred talking about the great memories he had working with Erich Kleiber, Stokowski, Krips, Monteux etc.The only exception was his first cooperation with Simon Rattle." (Mattheus Smits, possibly referring to this concert)
7 August 1979
University of Maryland 9th piano festival, College Park, Maryland
A selection of Godowsky's studies on Etudes by Chopin,"Fantasies, Op. 116" of Brahms, Hungarian Rhapsody No.12 (Liszt)
Jorge's date book mentions a cruise in the Aegean, sailing from Athens' harbour Piraeus on 10 August 1979, returning on 17th, then flying from Athens to Rome on 19th.
At the Edinburgh Festival, summer of 1979, Jorge gave masterclasses (advertised in The Times at the end of March as to be held during 24 August-2 September) on Liszt 1, Rachmaninoff Paganini and Brahms 2, all with orchestra.
22, 24 September 1979
Theater for the Performing Arts, San Antonio Texas
Liszt 2
San Antonio Symphony/ François Huybrechts
The concert master Julius Schulman was a longtime friend of JB; they knew each other at Curtis. After opening night, JB and Tex went to dinner at the Red Carpet with Ruth White. The historic "Red Carpet" restaurant in downtown San Antonio, located at Martin and Soledad streets, was a popular, famous dining spot from the 1960s to the 1980s. It was known as a premier venue that hosted celebrities and notable figures visiting the city during that era.
28 September 1979
Irem Temple, Wilkes-Barre, PA
Rachmaninoff 2
Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic/Thomas Michalak
29 September 1979
Masonic Temple, Scranton, PA
Rachmaninoff 2
Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic/Thomas Michalak
Harold G Munday had reviewed JB on 14 February, 1962 in the Masonic Temple, and said his concert was well-remembered. 'He maintained subtlety of colour that produced indescribable beauty in the slow movement. The fiery and extremely difficult coda which closes the first movement and the brilliant finale were awe-inspiring. The rubatos and ritards were frequent and heavy, but absolutely suitable in the super -romantic vehicle. Years ago, I heard Rachmaninoff play this concerto and though I have heard it many times since, this was as close to the composer's rendition as is possible.'
30th at Bloomsburg State College
A newspaper article mentions that Jorge's eldest brother Antonio, retired Cuban army officers, lives in Miami, Florida. 'My father Antonio was a military man in his youth. He belonged to that generation of Cubans, who, when they got to be 14 years old, we're given a rifle and a pair of boots and sent out into the jungle to fight the Spaniards.'
'how I got there is rather involved and I don't wish to go into it. I was made part of a special services detachment at the Ernie Pyle Theatre. A first there was really nothing for me to do. Captain Cameron, head of the detachment, said "Well, stick around, Bolet, we might be able to use you in a couple of variety shows". Bolet said he did play in one such show "sandwiched between acrobats and a chorus of dancing girls." Bolet could see no future in that, so he organised and directed The Mikado.'
(Democrat & Chronicle, 21.10.1979)
11 October 1979
Knoxville, Tennessee
Beethoven 5
Zoltan Rozsnyai
20 October 1979
Whiting Auditorium, Flint, Michigan
Liszt 2
Flint SO/JohnThomas Covelli
25, 27 October 1979
Eastman Theater, Rochester NY
Liszt 2
David Zinman
Democrat & Chronicle headlined the review: 'Jorge Bolet proves he has no peers', but was none too impressed with Liszt as music. The opening theme with woodwinds accompanied by shifting tonalities, moaning, like a calf taken from its mother; another theme came in a quiet, middle section when Samuel Cristler, principal cello, gave us a splendid solo full of warmth and finespun legato. It strikes me as a theme that ought to have been exploited far more than it was. Bolet, though he had only a handful of opportunities for extended solo playing, made it clear that he is a perceptive pianist, always concerned with the singing line. In this piece, however, he was valiantly trying to distil poetry from bombast, honey from a hornet. Technically he has no peers. His arpeggios were strung out like a necklace of pearls. Each one evenly matched in colour and weight.'
30 October 1979
Hamburg, Germany
Leopold Godowsky's arrangements of Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, Dante Fantasy.
2 November 1979
Freiburg, West Germany
Liszt: Six Consolations, S.172
12 Études d’exécution transcendante, S.139, in a special order
9 November 1979
Elmwood Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland
11 November, 1979 (Sunday 3pm; de Koos agency)
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Liszt, 6 Consolations, Transcendental Etudes.
Nicholas Kenyon: 'Lisztian territory of piano, diabolism, extreme gymnastics, and let it be said also some of his most hauntingly, beautiful piano writing as well. Mr Bolet showed his qualities of iron control and sustained power yet, impressive though it was, the playing was not flamboyant in a flashy, virtuoso sense. There was too much intellectual grip for that."
16, 17, 18 November 1979
Hempstead, Hauppauge, Huntington: Long Island
Rachmaninoff 2 [Stravinsky, Sacre du Printemps]
Long Island Philharmonic, Christopher Keene
The hamlet Hauppauge's name is derived from the Native American word for "sweet waters." Local Native American tribes would get their fresh drinking water from this area, instead of near Lake Ronkonkoma where the water was not potable.
21, 23, 24 November 1979
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 [+ Dvorak 6]
Chicago Symphony/ (Sir) Andrew Davis
The programme for this concert lists Gary Graffman as soloist, but he an injury to his hand in 1977 was causing him gradually to cease performing with his right hand altogether by around 1979, and he was replaced here by Jorge Bolet.
John van Rhein for the Chicago Tribune: This was a manly reading with plenty of tonal resource to back it up and the kind of instinctual rubato that joins phrase to phrase with the inevitability of song. In the Romanza, a long dreamy Nocturne some pianists stretch to the point of disintegration, he traced the purling poetry with the most considerate of touches, never submerging the line in the wash of pedal, always spinning out its embellishments with the finesse of a Joan Sutherland. It breathed its own moonstruck air. always a sign that a Chopin soulmate is in charge. The rondo finale? It received the sort of impeccably fluent fingerwork that made it a Polish krakowiak, truly dancing. If the opening Allegro was not quite as convincing, blame it on a few minor inaccuracies in the fast runs. They did not detract from a winning performance.
26 November, 1979
Uihlein Hall, Milwaukee
(as 21st etc, Chicago)
1, 3 December 1979
Chrysler Hall, Newport, Virginia
Beethoven, Choral Fantasy Op.80/Liszt 2
Virginia Philharmonic [*formerly Norfolk Symphony]/Russell Stanger
The Virginia Gazette's Carl Dolmetsch ( 1924 Vienna - 2019; - namesake of the famous recorder virtuoso) noted that Bolet is a favourite with Tidewater audiences.
9 December 1979
North Junior High School, Great Neck, NY
Great Neck Symphony/Herert Grossman
12 December 1979
Fine Arts auditorium, Pan American University, Edinburg (Rio Grande festival)
15, 16 December 1979
Civic Center auditorium, Des Moines, Iowa
Franck, Liszt 2 [+Respighi/ Diamond, Music for Romeo and Juliet (1947)]
Des Moines Symphony/Yuri Krasnapolsky
1980
"Jorge Bolet who is fast becoming a living legend..." Betty Dietz Krebbs (March 1980)
"I've taken the Liszt E-flat concerto out of my repertoire. I got so tired of playing it. Once it got to be a chore, I decided that's the time to stop." Syracuse Herald (1 Feb. 1980)
18 January 1980
Symphony Hall (1280 Peachtree St.), Atlanta, Georgia
Beethoven, Andante Favori
Brahms, Sonata No.3
Rameau, R.Strauss, Schubert and Weber {Godowsky]
1, 2 February 1980
Crouse-Hinds Theater, Syracuse, New York
Syracuse Symphony/Christopher Keene
Prokofiev 2
4 February 1980
Fort Myers, Florida
6 February 1980
Riverside Theater, Vero Beach (at the Indian river), Miami, Florida
"On a gorgeous new grand the Association has just purchased". Earlier that week, Vincent Price had been doing his one-man Oscar Wilde show)
12-13-16, February 1980
Music Hall, Kansas City, Missouri
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”
Kansas City Philharmonic Orch./Maurice Peress
21 February 1980
Town Hall, Birmingham, England
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”
CBSO/Erich Bergel
29 February-2 March,1980
In Kingsway Hall, London, JB records:
BRAHMS Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel Op.24
REGER Variations & Fugue on a Theme of Telemann Op.134
A recording which is often forgotten.
18 March 1980
George Washington High School Auditorium, Daneville, Virginia
(as 18 Jan. 1980)
21/22 March 1980
Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio
Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor Op.11
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under the young Japanese conductor Kazuhiro Koizumi
'He can play Chopin so soft and sweet you would swear he was stroking a baby's skin.'
(Nancy Malitz, The Cincinnati Enquirer)
27 March 1980
Kansas City Music Hall
William Jewell College presents JB in recital
(as 18 Jan. 1980)
29, 30 March 1980
Kleinhans Music Hall, Buffalo, New York
Franck – Symphonic Variations for Piano and Orchestra
Liszt – Piano Concerto No.2 in A major
Buffalo PO and Irwin Hoffman, guest conductor
2 April 1980
Gano Hall, William Jewell College, Liberty, Missouri
9 April 1980
Alice Tully Hall, NYC
with Guarneri Quartet: Schubert, Quartet in G minor, Faure, Quartet in E minor, Dohnányi, Piano Quintet in C minor.
12 April 1980
Rider College, New Brunswick, New Jersey
18 April 1980
Carnegie Hall, NYC.
The programme included Schumann's Carnaval (Scènes Mignonnes sur Quatre Notes) Op.9, Weber/Godowsky, Contrapuntal Paraphrase on 'Invitation to the Dance' Op.65 and Liszt's Dante Sonata.
Daily News: 'The incredible hulk of the piano, Jorge Bolet will give his usual marathon of...'
22 April 1980
Academy of Music, Philadelphia
(as 18 Apr. 1980)
a marvellous recital, but "oddly, in repertory in which he has made such an impact, Bolet's command was below his own standard." Daniel Webster, Phila. Inquirer
14, 17 May 1980
Bushnell Memorial Hall,166 Capitol Street in Hartford, Connecticut
Grieg Concerto [Beethoven 5 & Prokofiev 5]
Hartford Symphony/ Arthur Winograd
15, 16 May 1980
Louisville, Kentucky
In Central & South America
26 May 1980
Teatro Nacional, Panamá City, Panamá
Recital
The National Theater of Panama is located in the heart of the Old Quarter;it was built on the site of the former courtyard and orchard of an old convent (Convent of the Nuns of the Conception – 1673), which later became a military barracks (1862). The old structure was demolished at the beginning of the 20th century, and the space was used for the construction of the Government Palace and the National Theater (opened 1908).
30 May 1980
Palacio de Bellas Artes (?), Mexico City, Mexico
Liszt 1 (+ Wagner, Berlioz)
Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional (OSN)/ Sergio Cardénas
A newspaper review dated 26 May 1980 mentions a concerto with Armando Krieger and the Orquesta Sinfónica del Sodre (in Montevideo, Uruguay). It featured Uruguayan composer. León Biriotti's Symphony No. 3, "in memoriam Lauro Ayestarán" and JOrge playing Rachmaninoff 3
12 June 1980
Teatro Nacional, San José, Costa Rica
Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 4 [Stravinsky + Debussy]
Conductor Agustín Cullel
La Nación (10 June): «La presentación en Costa Rica de Jorge Bolet es un verdadero acontecimiento artístico de gran envergadura»,dice don Miguel Serrano, funcionario de la Sinfónica Nacional.
"Jorge Bolet's performance in Costa Rica is a truly major artistic event," says Mr. Miguel Serrano, an official with the National Symphony Orchestra.
24 June 1980
Mann Music Center, Philadelphia (al fresco theatre)
Rachmaninoff 2
Philadelphia Orchestra/Mehli Mehta
27 June 1980
Brigham Young Summer Piano Festival, Provo, Utah
incl. Schumann's Carnaval, Liszt, Dante Sonata and Weber/Godowsky).
(as 18 Apr. 1980)
Heterofonía 70, México (July-September 1980) mentions that JB performed Liszt 1 and the Hungarian Fantasy in Mexico City with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional under Guatemalan conductor and composer Jorge Sarmientos.
26 July 1980
Baxter Concert Hall, Cape Town, South Africa
recital for Cape Town Concert Club (Die Kaapstadse Konsertklub), 16 years since he last played there (Die Transvaler 24.7.80).
3 August 1980
Civic Theatre (Stadskouburg), Johannesburg, South Africa
Recital as Carnegie Hall on 18 April
5 August 1980
Musaion, Pretoria, South Africa
all-Liszt
[?] August 1980
Potchefstroom, South Africa
all-Liszt
7 August 1980, Johannesburg (?), South Africa.
National Symphony Orchestra of the SABC (South African Broadcasting) with the Israeli conductor Elyakum Shapirra
12 August 1980
Esterházy Castle, Eisenstadt, Austria
Recital
15 August 1980
Esterházy Castle, Eisenstadt, Austria
Beethoven's 4th piano concerto in G major Esterházy Castle
25 August 1980
Freemasons Hall, Edinburgh for the Edinburgh International Festival
Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Handel Op.24
Liszt: Petrarch Sonnet 123, Dante Sonata
Weber arr. Godowsky: Invitation to the Dance
The critic of the Dublin Evening Herald, Fanny Feehan, spotted JB in a front seat of the audience at a Claudio Arrau recital at the Usher Hall.
28 September 1980
Brighton, England
Tchaikovsky No. 1
2 October 1980
Hamburg
Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23
Mendelssohn Songs without words, Schumann Carnaval, Chopin Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor
7 October 1980
Woolsey Hall, New Haven, Connecticut
Mozart [No. 15 in B flat major K450]
New Haven Symphony/Murray Sidlin
8-10 October 1980
Andrew jackson Hall, Nashville, Tennessee
Franck, Liszt 2
(replacing Lazar Berman: see 18-28th)
Nashville Symphony
15, 16 October 1979
Symphony Hall, Phoenix, Arizona
Theo Alcantara
18 October 1980
California Theater, San Bernardino, CA.
Mozart [No. 15 in B flat major K450] and Prokofiev 2
San Bernardino Symphony/ Alberto Bolet
11 November 1980
O'Laughlin Auditorium, St Mary's College at Notre Dame, Indiana
Mendelssohn, Schumann Carnaval, Chopin Sonata [No. 2?] in B flat minor, Liszt, Valse Impromptu, Hungarian Rhapsody No.12
8, 9 November 1980
Metropolitan Museum, New York City
Rachmaninoff 3 [+Strauss, Ibert, mozart]
Musica Aeterna Orchestra
14 November 1980
First Assembly of God Life Center, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington State
Chopin 1
Tacoma Symphony/Edward Seferian
16-18 November (Sat/Sun)
Orpheum, Vancouver, Canada
Brahms Piano Concerto No.2
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra under Kazuyoshi Akiyama.
He was replacing Lazar Berman, whose cancellation - due to diplomatic difficulties between the US and USSR due to the invasion of Afghanistan - was announced early on the season. [Of Bolet:] "It was like the substitution of one diamond for another of equal or even greater brilliance."
Doug Hughes of The Province: 'Once in a very great while, an experience in the theatre or concert hall can be so transporting that it sends you out into the streets, confused and dizzy, and it takes some time to readjust to reality. There is every reason to suspect that the most, if not all of those who left the Orpheum on Sunday afternoon after Jorge Bolet's performance, felt that way. In my years of concert going, I have heard Brahms 2 played by some highly distinguished artists, among them Dame, Myra, Hess, Solomon, Sir Clifford Curzon, Wilhelm Backhaus, and Rudolf Serkin. I have heard more recordings of it than I can possibly remember. But with Bolet's incredible performance of this towering work on Sunday afternoon, I believe I have now heard it in all its glory, perhaps as close as it is possible to come to the way the composer intended it to be played. There were many things about this performance that were less than technically ideal. Nevertheless, it added up to one of those all to rare instances in which musicianship (bolet, orchestra, conductor) took the lead over mere technique.'
(*Bolet played in Vancouver, for example, on Sunday, 1 November 1953, and was advertised for the 1954-55 season. On 12/13 January 1964 he played Beethoven's fourth piano concerto.)
25 November 1980 (7:30pm)
Recital at Royal College of Music, Manchester, England
incl. Haydn’s Sonata No.62 in E-flat major, Hob.XVI:52, Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No.12, Liszt Sonata, Brahms/Handel variations.
26 November 1980
Vernon Gallery, Preston; same recital as Manchester
28 November 1980
Groningen (Holland) recital
30 November 1980
Amsterdam
Jorge mingled the Ballades and Scherzos of Chopin together.
Ballade No.1 in G minor, Op.23
Scherzo No.1 in B minor, Op.20
Ballade No.2 in F major, Op.38
Scherzo No.2 in B-flat minor, Op.31
...
Scherzo No.3 in C-sharp minor, Op.39
Ballade No.3 in A-flat major, Op.47
Scherzo No.4 in E major, Op.54
Ballade No.4 in F minor, Op.52
2 December 1980
Twickenham, St. Margaret’s Church
Chopin 4 Scherzi, Liszt Sonata and Rhapsody #12.
[6 December 1980]
Bilbao, Spain
Recital
8 & 9 December 1980
concerto with the orchestra of Stadt Hagen (Germany) and Michael Halasz
10 December 1980
Hamburg recital
HAYDN: Andante & Variations in F minor, Hob.XVII:6 (Un Piccolo Divertimento);
BRAHMS: Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op 24; LISZT: Sonata in B minor; Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12
14 December 1980 (3pm)
Orchestra Hall, Chicago USA
Mendessohn, Schumann Carnaval, Années Italie (selections)