Mendelssohn’s Song without Words, Op. 19 and Prelude and Fugue in E. minor, Op. 35; Schumann’s Carnaval, Op. 9; and Liszt’s Années de Pélerinage, Book II (“Italie”), Sonetto 104 del Petrarca, Sonetto 123 del Petrarca, and Aprés une lecture de Dante (Fantasia quasi Sonata).

On a new $26,000 dollar Steinway. "Never has a piano been broken in as epically, as thrillingly as the new Steinway was this night."

15 & 16 February 1981

Jubilee Auditorium, Calgary, Canada

Rachmaninoff 3

Árpád Jóo and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra

"Nothing short of magical. Rachmaninoff's masses of cascading note he handles with unspeakable ease... the music phrased with a naturalness which defies description. This may be the most extraordinary event the Calgary PO will paly host to this season." Calgary Herald

15 March 1981

QEH, London

Mendelssohn Prelude and Fugue In E minor. Op. 35 No. 1: Franck Prelude. Choral et Fugue: 3 p.m. Weber/Godowsky InvItation to the Dance: Chopin, Sonata in B minor Op. 58: Andante spianato and grande polonaIse. [de Koos management]

18 March 1981

Pavilion, Weymouth, Dorset (UK)

Rachmaninoff 3

Bournemouth Symphony and George Hurst

19 March 1981

Festival Theatre, Paignton, Devon (UK)

Rachmaninoff 3

Bournemouth Symphony and George Hurst

[22, 23 March 1981]

Orchester des Staatsorchester Braunschweig/Heribert Esser

(One of the oldest orchestras in the culture world, formed in 1587 as the Hofkapelle of the Duke Julius of Braunschweig/Wolfenbüttel.)

24 March 1981

Hamburg, Germany

BEETHOVEN: Sonata No. 31, Op 110 in A flat; REGER: Telemann Variations; LISZT: 3 Petrarch Sonnets, 47, 104, 123; MOZART/LISZT: Don Juan Fantasy.

A German newspaper headline in the 1980s ran thus: "Jorge Bolet, für Reger und Reagan". Ronald Wilson Reagan served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989.

[26 March 1981]

Köln/Cologne, Germany

recital

29 March 1981

Gordon Craig Theatre, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England.

Programme included Beethoven’s Sonata in A flat Op 110, Max Reger’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Telemann Op 134, six keyboard transcriptions of Schubert songs by Liszt, as well as his Rhapsodie Espagnole.

31 March 1981

Bishopsgate Hall, London

Lunchtime recital

2 April 1981

City Music Society, Goldsmiths' Hall, London

[3 April 1981]

Köln/Cologne, Germany

recital

5 April 1981

Curtis Institute

In honour of Mieczysław Horszowski (June 23, 1892 – May 22, 1993) Polish/American pianist. Horszowski was born in Lwów (Lemberg), Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary (now Ukraine). He was first taught piano by his mother, a pupil of Karol Mikuli, who had himself been a pupil of Frédéric Chopin. Horszowski's final performance took place in Philadelphia in October 1991. He died in that city at age 100. He gave his final lesson a week before his death.

Jorge plays 4-hands with Anton Kuerti

12 April 1981

Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, NYC

Beethoven 5

Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra/Kurt Masur

The DDR's Berliner Zeitung (14 April 1981): '50,000 listeners from twelve US states experienced the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under the direction of Kurt Masur on its third US tour, which ended on Sunday in New York. The final bars of Brahms's First Symphony, as well as the encore from Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies, were lost in thunderous applause and hundreds of bravos from the 3,000 listeners who gave a standing ovation. They received the interpretation of Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" music with genuine enthusiasm. Along with the conductor and orchestra, pianist Jorge Bolet was also celebrated, his brilliant technique particularly evident in the acoustically excellent Avery Fisher Hall during Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5. The previous day, the East German orchestra had performed for 2,500 residents of Hartford, Massachusetts, and on Friday for the same number in Boston.

23, 25, 26 April 1981

Music Hall, Fair Park, Fort Worth, Dallas

Chopin 1

Dallas Symphony/Eduardo Mata

'His performance conjured up the ghosts of Romantic piano playing that have been exorcised by most pianists active today.'

28 April 1981

Shreveport, Louisiana

(as 2 Feb. 1981)

3 May, 1981 (Sunday, 12 noon)

Sala Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico City

Chopin, Barcarolle, Fantasy in F minor Op.49, Schumann, Carnaval, Liszt Sonetti del Petrarca 104 & 123, Dante Sonata

5 May 1981

Sala Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico City

Brahms, Concerto No 2 in B flat Op.83

(also José Pablo Moncayo, Tierra de temporal (1949) and Mendelssohn, Symphony No. 4)

Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM/ Armando Zayas

15, 16 May

Macauley Theater, Louisville, Kentucky

Liszt 2

Louisville Symphony/Akira Endo (or Peter Leonard?)

16 June, 1981

Milan, Italy: recital

[21 June 1981]

Italy recital

Australia, July/August 1981

16 July 1981

Hobart, Tasmania

Beethoven, Piano Concerto No.5 in E flat, "Emperor"

Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra under Barry Tuckwell

18/ 20/ 21 July 1981

Town Hall, Melbourne

Chopin E minor Concerto [No. 1]

Melbourne Symphony/Harold Farberman

24/ 25 July 1981

Adelaide

Beethoven, Piano Concerto No.5 in E flat, "Emperor" {+Ives, Symphony no. 3, Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet]

Adelaide Symphony/ Jose Serebier

27 July 1981

Town Hall, Adelaide: recital

29 July 1981

Perth Concert Hall, Perth, Western Australia

Recital

30 July 1981

[Perth?], Western Australia

Recital

31 July & 1 August 1981

Perth, orchestral

Liszt 1 and 2 [?] {+Copland, Rodeo; David Morgan Symphony N0. 4]

West Australian Symphony/Albert Rosen [+radio broadcast/recording]

5 August 1981

Albury, NSW: recital

8 & 11 August 1981

Brisbane City Hall, Brisbane

Beethoven, Piano Concerto No.5 in E flat, "Emperor"

Queensland Symphony/ Vančo Čavdarski [+radio broadcast/recording]

13 August 1981

Dallas Brooks Hall, Melbourne

Andante favori; Sonata No. 31, Op. 110 (Beethoven), Andante spianato & Grand Polonaise, Op. 22 (Chopin) Years of Pilgrimage, Book 2: Petrarch Sonnets Nos. 47, 104,123, (Liszt) Rhapsodie espagnole (Liszt)

A recital by the "French-Cuban" pianist Jorge Bolet, according to ⁨⁨The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne)⁩⁩, 21 August 1981⁩. 'It is a pity for Mr Bolet and for the ABC who presented this concert that the hall was not full. A pianist of the stature demands a capacity audience.'

15 August 1981

Syndey Opera House

incl. Schumann, Carnaval, Liszt, Dante Sonata

17? August 1981

Civic Theatre, Newcastle, NSW

Recital

19 August 1981

Sydney Opera House

Chopin's E minor concerto

Sydney Symphony Orchestra/ Kurt Sanderling [+TV recording]

20, 22, 24, 25 August 1981

Sydney

incl. Liszt, Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat [25th]

with East German maestro Kurt Sanderling

26 August 1981

Town Hall, Sydney

Beethoven, Piano Concerto No.5 in E flat, "Emperor"

Sydney Symphony Orchestra/ Kurt Sanderling

28/29 August 1981

Canberra School of Music

Mendelssohn Songs without Words, Prelude & Fugue in E minor Op. 35/1, Schumann's Carnaval, Weber/Godowsky Invitation to the Dance, Liszt, Dante Sonata.

14, 16, 16 September 1981

Seattle Opera House, Seattle, Washington State

Mozart, Concerto No. 24 in C minor (Gabrieli's 3 Canzonas, Tchaikovsky 6)

Seattle Symphony Orchestra/ Rainer Miedél (in his 6th season with the orchestra)

23 September 1981

Ovens Auditorium, Charlotte, North Carolina

Rachmaninoff 3 [+Copland's Music for a Great City]

Charlotte Symphony/ Leo Driehuys

2, 3 October 1981

Grand Opera House, 818 Market Street Mall, Wilmington. Delaware

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 {+ Hanson, Symphony No. 2, "as plain as Nebraska"]

Delaware SO & Stephen Gunzenhauser

"Volcanic powerful playing", but "the joining of piano with orchestra was often patchy enough to slow the flow of music" Edgar Koshatka, Philadelphia Inquirer

[13 October 1981]

Pasadena.California

recital

On Wednesday 14th, Jorge flew [?] from New York to Guadalajara, Mexico.

15 October 1981 [originally 18th?]

Teatro Degollado, Guadalajara (Jalisco), Mexico

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto no. 2 in C minor Op. 18

Conductor: Hugo Jan Huss

16, 17 October 1981

Dade County Auditorium,/ Miami Beach Arts Miami, Florida

Samuel Barber, Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance
Prokofiev, Concerto No. 2 in G minor for Piano and Orchestra, op. 16
Brahms, Symphony No. 1 in C minor, op. 68

Florida Philharmonic/Sixten Ehrling

Very confusing. Contract problems (not involving JB) were only averted Saturday (17) afternoon. No time for rehearsal so JB played solo items (16th?).

(Jorge had performed with Ehrling before e.g April and July 1963, June 1964 in Stockholm)

27 October 1981

de Doelen, Rotterdam (Holland): recital.

Mendelssohn's Fantasie in F sharp op.28 (alias 'Scottish Sonata'),Schumann's Fantasy in C major op.17, five Schubert songs in Liszt's arrangements, Mephisto waltz.

Jorge had played there in December 1965 when they were testing the acoustics for the hall's reopening

4 November 1981

Utrecht, Holland

6 November 1981

Freiburg, West Germany
· Mendelssohn: Prelude & Fugue in E minor, Op.35 No.1

· Mendelssohn: Six Songs Without Words

o Op.62 No.1 in G major

o Op.102 No.3 in C major

o Op.62 No.3 in E minor (Funeral March)

o Op.19 No.3 in A major (Hunting Song)

o Op.19 No.1 in E major

o Op.19 No.5 in F-sharp minor

· Mendelssohn: Fantasy in F-sharp minor, Op.28 (Sonate Écossaise)
· Chopin: Piano Sonata No.3 in B minor, Op.58

11 November 1981 (Wednesday)

Ambassador College, Pasadena, California, USA (JB will be 67 on Sunday]

Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847), Fantasia in F sharp minor, Op. 28, ‘Sonate écossaise’ (1833)

Robert SCHUMANN (1810–1856), Fantasy in C major, Op. 17 (1838)

Franz LISZT (1811–1886):
Schubert Song Transcriptions
12 Lieder, S558: No. 2. Auf dem Wasser zu singen (1838)
6 Müllerlieder, S565: No. 2. Der Müller und der Bach (1846)
Winterreise, S561: No. 7. Der Lindenbaum (1839)
Schwanengesang, S560: No. 3. Aufenthalt (1839)
2 Lieder, S558: No. 4. Erlkönig (1838)

Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke, S514, ‘Mephisto Waltz No. 1’ (1861)

Listen

14 November 1981

Kobacker Hall, Bowling Green State University, Ohio

Mendelssohn, Schumann Fantasy, Schubert/Liszt Lieder, Mephisto waltz (as 11 Nov. 1981)

Boris Nelson, in The Toledo Blade 16.11.81:

Mr Bolet's brilliant playing has been honed to the very edge. His immense, virtuosity, experience, and sheer intelligence all concentrate on the music's lyricism. And being a romantic at heart, he envelops it with a luminous sound that whispers or propels into a sunburst of passion that still remains crystal clear. Yes, he personalises what he plays, and why not? [Of the Schubert Liszt songs:] These transcriptions can sound, well, cheap in the hands of a lesser musical mind than Mr Bolet, who gave them an iridescence that was astonishing. The sheer liquidity and power of the development – never mind, the staggering technical demands – were realised superbly, as was indeed the entire program. Mr Bolet is about as extraordinary a representative of romantic pianism, as can be found alive today. His playing was imbued with elegance, an effervescence, and an an Innerlichkeit (clumsily translated: an inwardness) which made for bedazzling piano playing.'

On Thursday 19 November Jorge flew from New York to the Dominican Republic, flying back on 21st.

20 November 1981

Teatro Nacional Eduardo Brito, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schubert & Liszt

In El Caribe (12.11.81), Lamela Geler stated that Jorge visited the city in the early 1950s and played in the Teatro Olimpia, under the auspices of Sociedad Pro Arte. Now he gives a second recital in Santo Domingo.

24-27 November, 1981

It was in November of this year that he recorded his first Liszt pieces in the Kingsway Hall, London for the Decca series (music which turned out to be Vol. 2 Liszt/Schubert songs, one of the finest of his recordings. The producer was Michael Haas and the date was 24-27 November, 1981 Kingsway Hall. It was issued in November 1983. It was Jorge's friend and business partner Mac Finley who, after the death of Tex Compton, dealt with Decca.

On 28th JB flew London to Washington DC

1-4 December 1981

Kennedy Center, Washington DC

Chopin 1

National Philharmonic/Hugh Wolff

7, 9 December 1981

Alice Tully Hall

Concord Quartet with JB in Schumann, Piano Quintet in E flat Op.44

12, 13 December 1981

Jones Hall, Houston

Liszt 2

Houston Symphony and Sir Alexander Gibson (the Scottish conductor with whom Jorge had made his début in Glasgow, Scotland on 24 June, 1963)

27 December, 1981

Hayes Street Grill, San Francisco, California.

incl. Mendelssohn: Fantasy in F-sharp minor, Op.28 (Sonate Écossaise)

'This concert was arranged by a close friend of Bolet’s, who hired the restaurant and invited 60 or so people. The event was very much in Bolet’s honour, who probably played without fee. After the concert and the following dinner Bolet sat down and socialised and played informally for a number of the guests, mostly music at their request – including an improvisation.' (Christian Johansson)

1982

"He makes a sound that is rich, deep and thoughtful, like an El Greco painting"

2, 3 January 1982

Ford Auditorium, Detroit

Rachmaninoff 2

Detroit Symphony/Peter Erös

JB had performed with Erös in Cape Town South Africa in 1964

(IPAM has an entry: 3 January 1982, Mozarteum-Orchester/Luis Herrera de la Fuente, Mexican conductor)

5 January 1982

Carnegie Hall, NYC

The Juilliard Quartet, Itzak Perlman

Debussy, Franck, Chausson

The Juilliard, now 35 years old and sounding like an ensemble in its prime, began with a work out of its basic repertory, the Debussy String Quartet. Mr. Bolet came aboard for the Franck Quintet for Piano and Strings and gave an impeccable performance. This was a reading of almost symphonic breadth and fervor in which Mr. Bolet's virtuosic pianism was invaluable though by no means obtrusive. His supple phrasings and concern for shadings of color provided a dimension of languor and hopeless yearning to the piece that struck this listener as ideal. Franck can be made to seem heavy and academic if the emphasis is placed too much on his cyclical obsessions; this performance, in spite of some inevitable meandering in search of harmonic resolutions and grand statements, pleaded the case eloquently for Cesar Franck as Tannhauser the voluptuary.

(Donal Henahan, The New York Times)

6 January 1982

Ernest Chausson, Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet in D, Op. 21

with Itzhak Perlman, The Juilliard String Quartet

Recorded in NYC by CBS

The first movement of the Chausson: 'Just a flowing, richly expressive rhapsodic account of this quintessentially – despite the influence of Wagner – French music, and the Grave slow movement (in which the harmonic richness is of Black Forest Gateau proportions) and the long finale are enthralling; this is one of the great unsung chamber recordings.' (Charles Rosen, 2015)

9 January 1982

92nd Street Y, New York City

Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schubert, Liszt

21, 23, 24 January 1982

Tampa, St Petersburg, Dunedin (Florida)

Respighi, Schwanter ["Aftertones of Infinity"}, Brahms, 2nd concerto

Florida Gulf Coast Symphony/ Irwin Hoffman

On 27 January JB flew Philadelphia-Atlanta-Chattanooga

28 January 1982

Guerry Auditorium, University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee

recital

1 February 1982

Hamman Hall, Rice University, Houston, Texas.

Fantasy in F-sharp minor, op. 28 / Felix Mendelssohn -- Fantasy in C major, op. 17 / Robert Schumann -- Five Lieder/ Franz Schubert ; transcribed by Franz Liszt -- Mephisto Waltz / Franz Liszt.

'For a man with only one facial expression, Bolet presented an amazing amount of emotion to his audience. Precise pedal control, combined with a lateness of touch, gave great clarity, even to the thickest of passages. There is no question that he is a superhuman at the keyboard. His control is absolute.' His performance was spectacular. Not consistently spine-tingling, he was nevertheless one of the best things that has hit Hamman Hall, Rice, or even Houston recently.' Jon Reeder, The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex. a weekly student newspaper), February 5, 1982

Listen here

6 February 1982

Van Wezel Auditorium, Sarasota, Florida.

Recital includes Schumann's Fantasy, 5 Schubert/Liszt Lieder and the Mephisto waltz.

'His fingers are made of steel but the tips have the Midas Touch - except that what he touches turns into liquid, not solid gold. It flows endlessly with a mellifluous shading from strength to gentleness. Surprisingly, he is very undramatic himself. No fuss, no feathers, and rarely a smile.'

9 February 1982

Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia , Pennsylvania
– Faculty Concert –

· Mendelssohn: Fantasy in F-sharp minor, Op.28 (Sonate Écossaise)

· Schumann: Fantasy in C major, Op.17
· Schubert/Liszt: Five Song Transcriptions

o Auf dem Wasser zu singen, D.774 (S.558 No.2)

o Der Müller und der Bach, D.795 No.19 (S.565 No.2)

o Der Lindenbaum, D.911 No.5 (S.561 No.7)

o Aufenthalt, D.957 No.5 (S.560 No.3)

o Erlkönig, D.328 (S.558 No.4)

· Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No.1, S.514 (Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke)

17-19 February 1982

Kingsway Hall, London
Jorge records for Decca pieces which will form Volume 1 of his Liszt series:

Funérailles S173/7
Hungarian Rhapsody S244/12
Rigoletto - paraphrase de concert S434
Mephisto Waltz No.1 S514

On 22 February 1982, Jorge had lunch in London with Charles Hopkins.

'Charles Hopkins was a major authority on Godowsky, Classical Persian literature, Medtner, the history of the piano and pianists and many other and diverse things, besides being a consummate linguist, translator, critic and mathematician. He taught piano for some years in Manchester at the University and Chetham’s School.

'He worked from time to time with John Ogdon and was a veritable walking encyclopædia, though at the same time the very opposite of a stuffy intellectual and light-years from a (no-) point-proving overbearing one. He elevated the act of hiding one’s light under a bushel to an art-form in its own right (for one bushel, read several megatons in his case).' He recorded Sorabji's Gulistān

Alistair Hinton

23 February 1982

Wigmore Hall, London [with Edward Greenfield, interviewer]

British Institute of Recorded Sound

He closed with a performance of "the horrendously difficult" {his words} Weber-Godowsky.

26 February 1982

Salzburg, Austria

Recital

4 March 1982

Musikhalle, Hamburg, West Germany

(as ( February)

Encores:

· Debussy: La fille aux cheveux de lin (Préludes, Book I No.8)

· Weber/Godowsky: Invitation to the Dance, Op.65

14, 15 March 1982

Staatstheater, Karlsruhe, West Germany (Radio Broadcast )

Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini, Op.43

Christoph Prick {Perick} / Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe

19 March 1982

Grosser Sendesaal des Funkhaus, Hannover, West Germany (Studio Radio Broadcast )

Franck: Symphonic Variations for Piano & Orchestra

Weber: Konzertstück in F minor for Piano & Orchestra, Op.79

NDR-Sinfonieorchester Hamburg/Ferdinand Leitner

On 22 March 1982 at 11am Jorge was interviewed for WNCN by David Dubal: 1180, 6th Avenue, NYC

27/ 28 March 1982

Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum New York City

Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major Op.58

Musica Æterna Orchestra and conductor Frederic Waldman

With the same forces he had performed Beethoven's third concerto in the same locale on 8 December 1973.

The Jackson County Banner (7 April) has a"Letter from Germany" on the Rachmaninoff/Paganini in Karlsruhe: "His entrance was greet with polite but subdued applause, his departure with frenzied cheering, foot-stomping and sustained applause.'

[3 April 1982]

Festspielhaus, Recklinghausen {?} Germany

Westfälische Sinfonieorchester/Karl Anton Rickenbacher

5 April 1982

St Andrews Presbyterian Church [King & Simcoe Streets], Toronto (Canada)

Selection: some Chopin Preludes (D flat, B flat], Liszt , Weber (Rondo), Godowsky, Paul de Schloezer

William Littler, Toronto Star: The Spanish Rhapsody - probably the most brilliant Liszt playing heard in this city since Claudio Arrau tossed off the B minor sonata in Massey Hall a few seasons ago. In fact as an exercise in sheer bravura playing, it left Arrau at the starting post. He played it for all its worth - which if we are to be candid amounts to a row of chilli beans. [Of the Weber-Godowsky Invitation] "He took the music off the page and flung it dancing into the air. He is a musician who gives virtuosity a good name."

10 April 1982

Nanuet High School, (Rockland Community College), New York

Mendelssohn, Fantasie in F sharp minor, Op.26 "Scottish"

Schumann Fantasy in C major Op.17

Liszt/Schubert + Mephisto Waltz

17 April 1982

Ocean State Performing Arts Center, Providence, Rhode Island USA

Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat by Liszt

Franck's Symphonic Variations

Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, under Alvaro Cassuto

21, 22 April

Miriam Rosenthal Memorial Hall, Dayton, Ohio

Chopin 1

Dayton Philharmonic/Charles Wendelken-Wilson

"His is understated Chopin - tenderness yes, but a tenderness couched in strength and nobility rather than sentimentality." Richard Schwarze

29/ 30 April, 1/ 4 May 1982

Avery Fisher Hall, New York

Joseph Marx’s Romantisches Klavierkonzert/ Romantic Piano Concerto in E major (1916-19)

New York Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta

"And from here, I'm taking it straight to Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg, Linz, Zagreb and Munich"(Interview with Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, April 1982)

Jorge had last played with the NY Philharmonic in May 1975 [?]

[7 May 1982]

Philharmonisches Orchester der Stadt Bielefeld/ Rainer Koch

[10 April 1982]

Westfälische Sinfonieorchester

13/14 May 1982

Großer Saal, Musikverein, Vienna

Joseph Marx’s Romantic Piano Concerto in E major (1916-19)

[Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 4 in G major (Krisztina Laki, soprano)]

ORF Symphonieorchester / Ali Rahbari

18 May 1982

Augsburg, Germany

Augsburger Philharmoniker [?]/ Bruno Weill

Weil was named General Music Director of the City of Augsburg in 1981 (aged 31), being Germany’s youngest General Music Director at that time. See also 3/4 October 1983.

[19 May 1982]

Munich, Germany

Recital

21 May 1982

City Hall, Perth, Scotland

Liszt, Schubert and Chopin incl. Mephisto Waltz, Chopin's Barcarolle & third sonata.

'It was, quite simply, the finest Chopin and Liszt playing Perth is likely to have heard.'

The Dundee Courier

24 May 1982

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.

incl. Schumann Fantasy Op.17, Mendelssohn's Fantasy Op. 28, five of Liszt's versions of Schubert's songs, Mephisto Waltz [Basil Douglas Ltd.]

Edward Seckerson: "The technique is in lethal condition". But the Schumann was rather detached emotionally in the first two movements, - the composer never wrote anything more passionate."

Robert Henderson, Daily Telegraph: "Without any firm sense of structure to underpin its improvisatory style and starkly romantic contrasts, the Schumann simply crumbled into an unconvincing sequence of isolated incidents and dislocated events. Often it seemed to be teetering on the verge of some major lapse of memory from which he just managed to save himself in time. The notoriously difficult coda of its second movement was not only surprisingly flawed but also surprisingly weak, conveying little feeling of climax, the finale, like the performance in general, unexpectedly lax and formless."

He then flew that evening (24th) to Amsterdam.

26 May 1982

Oosterpoort, Groningen, Netherlands

Rachmaninoff concerto No. 3

Noordelijk Filharmonisch Orkest under Lucas Vis [Jorge's datebook says the conductor was
Andrzej Markowski (with whom he had first worked in Poland 1961)]

Jorge's itinerary states that 1-15 June 1982 were reserved for Mexico. His date book notes a flight from New York to Mexico City on 31 May 1982.

4 & 6 June, 1982

Sala Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico City

Franck, Symphonic Variations

Rachmaninoff, Variations on a theme of Paganini

Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) / Enrique Diemecke

Saturday, 5 June 1982

Palacio de la Antigua Escuela de Medicina, Mexico City

(República de Brasil #33, corner of Venezuela, Plaza de Santo Domingo, Centro Histórico)
Mendelssohn, Fantasie in F sharp minor, Op.26 "Scottish"

Schumann Fantasy in C major Op.17

Liszt/Schubert + Mephisto Waltz [?]

*This Mexico recital was advertised in El Nacional as Saturday 29 May 1982 (in the same location) with Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms and Chopin.

5/6 June 1982

Lima, Peru?

7/8 June 1982

Santiago, Chile?

La Nacion (14 June 1983), however, states that his first appearance in Chile was in June 1983

12 June 1982

Teatro Solís, Montevideo, Uruguay

Liszt, Concerto No. 2 and the Hungarian Fantasia

Brazilian conductor Isaac Karabtchewsky & the Sodre Symphony Orchestra, the national orchestra

15 June 1982

São Paulo, Brazil

On 16th he flew form Brazil to New York

[22-27 June 1982]

AMSA International Piano Competition, Cincinnati, Ohio

'Jorge Bolet will chair the panel of judges rating entrants to the 26th annual International Piano Competition & Festival sponsored by the American Music Scholarship Assn., to be held in Cincinnati June 22 -27. Grand prize is a debut recital in New York, valued at $5,000...'

On Wednesday, 25 August Jorge flew from San Francisco to New York JFK, from where on 26 he flew to London, and on the 27th to Edinburgh

15 July 1982

Alaska

19 July 1982

12th University of Maryland Piano Festival

19 August 1982

Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles

Rachmaninoff 3

Los AngelesPhilharmonic/Erich Leinsdorf

28 August 1982

Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Liszt's second piano concerto in A major [Mendelssohn 4, Elgar, Falstaff...]

Scottish National Orchestra/ Sir Alexander Gibson

On 29 he flew from Edinburgh to Hannover (Germany), via London

30/31 August 1982

On 29 August Jorge flew Edinburgh to Hannover, via London. His date book says:

30 August: (Monday) Hannover, NDR (North German Radio): Joseph Marx Romantic Piano Concerto

31 August recording for NDR

The conductor seems to have been Reinhard Peters, with whom Jorge also performed the concerto in Berlin. Berkant Haydn, a specialist in the music of Joseph Marx, notes two recordings with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin) under Reinhard Peters in 1982/83. Presumably this was the orchestra in August 1982. LISTEN where the orchestra is listed as Rundfunkorchester Hannover des NDR.

Reinhard Peters had brought the Deutsche Oper Berlin production of Melusine (1971) by Aribert Reimann, to the Edinburgh Festival in September 1971.

2 September 1982

Royal Albert Hall, Prom concert [+ Haydn 92 and Sibelius 1]

Liszt Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, S.124

Paavo Berglund + BBC Welsh Symphony

Jorge's first appearance at the famous Promenade concerts. Christian Johansson has noted that, as an encore in the 2nd September Prom, Jorge played Liszt: Funérailles, S.173 No.7 (from Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses). 'The encore was dedicated to the memory of Sir Clifford Curzon (1907-1982), who had died the previous day.'

6 September 1982

A morning recital (11am) in the Freemasons' Hall, Edinburgh

Beethoven, Sonata No.26 Op.81a Les Adieux, Rachmaninoff, Variations on a theme by Chopin, Liszt, Sposalizio, Campanella

The Dundee Courier: 'It has been suggested that Bolet is at his best as a solo recitalist, rather than in concertos. It does seem that his rapport with the audience is more quickly, warmly and firmly established as a solo recital. (During the interval a hanging E flat on the Bechstein piano - it sounded like a sticky damper - was put right in time for the Liszt). Not even the uncomfortable and noisy bentwood chairs in the Freemasons' Hall (they creak loudly even when one draws a breath!) could make this 2 hour recital, seem a moment too long, and it reinforced Jorge Bolet's position as one of the truly great pianists of our time.'

The Scotsman's Raymond Monelle wrote quite an acerbic review. 'Sad man strikes back at world. (...) His hard and aggressive passagework is only a symptom of his general musical pathology. He is a private, almost gloomy player, who sits in near-foetal position, his head bent in deep study. Often the tone is withdrawn, and the texture clouded by over-liberal pedalling, giving a murmuring or grumbling effect that sounds full of mystery. In slow pas-sages the constant delayed placings reflect not so much a mood of reverie as a brooding celebration, always pondering darkly over something beyond the music and the act of communication.
When virtuosity breaks out it is with a kind of bitter desperation, a sad man striking back at the world. This can be very impressive, and Chopin's Winter Wind study, one of the encores, raged and cascaded as much as anyone could wish. But in fact, Mr Bolet's big bravura performances are unreliable; the last item on the printed programme, Liszt's La Campanella, was approached in a stiff painstaking way and was full of mistakes.
The highest achievement of this concert, however, was Liszt's Il Penseroso, not a bravura piece at all. The com- poser said he was thinking of injustice and shame when he wrote it, and this performance had a kind of dark, fathomless desperation. It was a terrible reminder of loss and mortality, as Liszt intended, and a pledge of this player's standing as an artist, not just a conjuror.
Mr Bolet's inward style of playing ought to have matched Beethoven's Das Lebewohl Sonata, but this music tended to fall apart into expressive chunks that lacked coherence. Rachmaninov's splendid Chopin Variations were better, the cross-rhythms wayward but controlled, the big B flat minor variation advancing with a crushing and powerful tread

10 September 1982

Wuppertal, Germany

with conductor Hans-Martin Schmidt

18 September 1982

Fairfield Hall, Croydon, south London

Rachmaninoff 3

LSO, Ivan Fischer

"The continual bending and breaking of tempo forced the conductor to make some instant estimates to keep the ensemble together. All redit to Mr Fischer and the LSO for doing as well as they did in Mr Bolet's chasing game!"

19/20 September 1982

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor Op.30 was recorded on with London Symphony Orchestra and Ivan Fischer in Kingsway Hall, London.

'Jorge's schedule in the UK became so tight and sometimes so stressful... Decca wanted from Jorge everything they could get on record. These recording sessions were usually sandwiched between the increasing performances from Jorge all over the UK. Sometimes recording dates were changed on the last moment.

In order to record Rachmaninoff's third concerto for Decca, Jorge had to cancel at the last moment his recital in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam [19th] which was taken over by Daniël Waayenberg.' Mattheus Smits

De Volkskrant 18.9.1982: 'The first concert in the International Piano Series is not by Jorge Bolet as planned, but by the French pianist Francois-René Duchable. He plays Beethoven (Tempest Sonata), Schumann (Fantasiestücke, Op. 12), and Chopin (24 Preludes). Sunday at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw [Concertdirektie Dr G. de Koos] .

Pech voor de Internationale Pianoserie (van concertdirectie De Koos). De befaamde, dikke sigaren rokende, op een eigen Bechstein spelende klavierleeuw Jorge Bolet heeft zijn optreden afgezegd. (Trouw. 14.9.1982)

Bad luck for the International Piano Series (organised by De Koos Concert Management). The renowned Jorge Bolet – a piano virtuoso known for smoking thick cigars and playing his own Bechstein – has cancelled his performance.

23 September 1982

Düsseldorf [?]

6 October 1982

Harrisburg, PA

Rachmaninoff 2

Harrisburg Symphony/Larry Newland

9 October 1982

Colden Center, Queens College, Flushing, NYC

Beethoven, Piano Concerto No.5 in E flat Op.73

Queens Symphony Orchestra/ David Katz

16 October 1982

Stony Brook School

A benefit recital in aid of the Frank E. Gaebelein Hall (he died later on January 19, 1983)

23, 24 October 1982

Regina, Saskatchewan (Canada)

Brahms 2

Regina Symphony/ Simon Streatfeild (sic)

Denise Ball in The Leader-Post wrote:'Bolet turned the work into a highly personal statement. He takes his own time, lingering over some phrases, rushing forward with others, well coaxing, a remarkable variety of tone qualities and textures from the instrument. He plays with the rhythms and accents, opening up a whole new range of musical ideas, as if he were discovering them for the first time. While Bolet's approach to the work was often fascinating, the performance as a whole was curiously disappointing. In the first two movements, the massive nature of the work gave way to an overweight sound. That heaviness, combined with the rather tinny sound of the Baldwin piano brought in for the performance, proved to be a strange mixture. In the slow third movement, the orchestra played with fairly conventional gentility while Bolet seemed to be in a completely different emotional world, all dreamy and mysterious. Nevertheless, it was a pleasure to hear the Romantic master at work. After a steady diet of pianists who play it safe, but Bolet's Old School approach sounds revolutionary.'

[25 October 1982?]

Harrogate, Yorkshire, England

Recital

31 October, 1982

Angelico Auditorium, Dominican College, San Rafael (California)

Schumann, Fantasiestucke Op 12, Brahms, Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op 24, Rachmaninov, Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op 22, Kreisler-Rachmaninov, Liebeslied & Liebesfreud.

"The heroics of the Brahms swept like a typhoon through the Angelico Auditorium." The Rach/Chopin was long and rather morose (as music), yet even Bolet failed to bring off this grievously flawed work. "It was good to ehar it in a live performance, and even more delightful to have done with it. At his best, Bolet is an Olympian of the paino world...but standards varied on Sunday evening. After a sterling start, the Brahms suffered about 10 minutes of coasting before it really hit sparks." (Heuwell Tircuit, San Francisco Chronicle)

The Schumann is not otherwise available in JB's discography, though the pianist had a long acquaintance with the music. For example: on Thursday 27 October 1932, students of the Curtis Institute played in Bomberger Hall, Ursinus College, a liberal arts college in Collegeville, Pennsylvania (25 miles from downtown Philadelphia). Jorge performed four pieces from Schumann's Fantasiestücke (Des Abends, Fabel, Aufschwung, Ende vom Lied). 'Very noticeable were [JB's] clarity and melody in the slow parts.'

7 November 1982

Belknap Campus, University of Louisville, Kentucky

(as 31 Oct. 1982)

10 November 1982

West Palm Beach, Florida

recital

On 11 November, Jorge flied from Palm Beach to San Juan, PR; orchestra rehearsal on 12th.

13 November 1982

Sala René Marqués of the Centro de Bellas Artes, San Juan (Puerto Rico)

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto no. 2 in C minor Op. 18

Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico under John Barnett

Cristobal Diaz writing in El Mundo 7.11.82 recalls an unforgettable night at the Teatro Tapia in November 1977, which seems to be when he last heard Bolet in San Juan, or it may be the last time JB performed in the city.

On 14 November he flew San Juan to New York

19/20 November 1982

Lyric Theatre, Kansas City, USA

Rachmaninoff 2

with Thomas Schuback (of the Royal Opera Stockholm)

30 November 1982

Münchner Residenz (Herkulessaal), Munich, West Germany

Joseph Marx, Romantisches Klavierkonzert (1919)

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Marek Janowski

3 December 1982 (or more likely 5th, as Jorge's date book lists 'Recording Decca' for 3rd)

Sir James Hawkey Hall, Woodford, Greater London/Essex (England)

Step into timeless elegance at Sir James Hawkey Hall, a historic venue opened by none other than Sir Winston Churchill in 1955.

(as 31 October 1982)

4 (or 6) December 1982

City Halls, Glasgow, Scotland

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor

Scottish National Orchestra and Paavo Berglund

5 December 1982

Woodford Green, Essex (England)

recital

He flew to Glasgow on 6th for rehearsal at the SNO Centre (Henry Wood Hall, Claremont Street)

7 December 1982

Aberdeen, Scotland.

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor {+Dvořak, Scherzo Capriccioso & RVW 4]

Scottish National Orchestra and Paavo Berglund

8 December 1982

Caird Hall, Dundee, Scotland

as 7th Dec

'Few of the SNO's recent concerts can have been looked forward to with keener anticipation and greater hopes than last night's concert, especially by music lovers who heard Jorge Bolet at the Perth or Edinburgh Festivals earlier this year. The crystalline purity and translucent clarity of the textures which Bolet achieved were not less remarkable than the amazing articulation of the excruciatingly difficult bravura passages - it was, indeed ,a performance about which superlatives are for once inadequate.' Garry Fraser (?), Dundee Courier

10 December 1982

Usher Hall, Edinburgh

as 7th Dec

11 December 1982

City Halls, Glasgow, Scotland

As 7th Dec.

Jorge flew to London on the 12th and thence to Rome on the 13th

15 December 1982

Teatro Olimpico, Rome

An all-Liszt recital

[Rome, 15 December 1982?]

Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century (Orkest van de Achttiende Eeuw) /Frans Brüggen

[Billed as Orchestra del Settecento di Amsterdam]

19, 20 December 1982

Haus des Rundfunks, Berlin

Liszt, Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major, S125

Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra/Edo de Waart

Sechs Kurze Orchesterstücke op. 4 (Sechs Kurze Orchesterstücke Op. 4), Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund
Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, op. 68 (Symphony No.1 In C-minor, Op.68), Brahms

Jorge records Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major, S125 with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under Edo de Waart: 19 December 1982 in the Großer Sendesaal, Haus des Rundfunks, Berlin, Germany

1983

6 January 1983

Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, Metropolitan Museum New York City.

Haydn, Andante & Variations in F minor, Hob.XVII:6 (Un Piccolo Divertimento) and Sonata No.62 in E-flat major, Hob.XVI:52, Brahms, Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel (Op. 24), Liszt, Sonata in B minor and, as a programmed encore, the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12

26 January 1983

Curtis Hall, Philadelphia

with Oscar Shumsky, violin

Beethoven, Violin Sonata No.10 in G major Op.96

Gabriel Fauré, Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major Op.13

Franck, Violin Sonata in A major

28 January 1983

Penn's Landing, Delaware River, Philadelphia

Beethoven 3 [+ Symphony No. 4 in B flat, Coriolan etc.]

Curtis Symphony/ Oscar Shumsky

29 January 1983

Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, NYC

Beethoven 3 [+ Symphony No. 4 in B flat, **Violin Sonata No.10 in G major Op.96]

Curtis Symphony/Oscar Shumsky

2 February 1983

Ruby Diamond Auditorium, FSU, Tallahassee, Florida

recital

5 February 1983

Symphony Hall, Newark, New Jersey

Rachmaninoff 3

Newark Symphony, Thomas Michalak

6 February 1983

John Harms Englewood Plaza

New Jersey Symphony/Thomas Michalak

13 February 1983 (Lincoln's birthday, 12th)

War Memorial, Trenton, NJ

Rachmaninoff 3

Newark Symphony, Thomas Michalak

(Cancelled because of heavy snow; rescheduled to 18 March, but then JB couldn't make that date so he was replaced by Hirokazu Yoshikawa, who performed Saint-Saëns 2)

Jorge flew on 15th from NYC to Frankfurt.

18 February 1983

Nuremberg, Germany

Liszt 2, Weber

Jorge flew on 19th Nürnberg to London; London to Edinburgh on Sunday 20 February. On Monday he was interviewed by Robin Ray for the Masterclasses on Rachmaninoff 3, which were filmed 22-25th.

27 February 1983 (Sunday)

Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30

[+ Vaughan Williams, Wasps overture; R. Staruss songs (Margaret Marshall); Shostakovich 9]

BBC Scottish SO and Bryden Thomson

This would be broadcast on BBC television in the summer of 1983, as the culmination of three programmes of masterclasses on the concerto. Tickets were offered free, courtesy of an invitation to attend from the BBC.

28 February 1983

St. John’s, Smith Square, London

including Mendelssohn, Fantasy Op. 28 in F sharp minor (‘Scottish’), Chopin’s Third Sonata and the Kreisler/Rachmaninov lollipops.

4 March, 1983

Stadtcasino Musiksaal, Basel, Switzerland

Gershwin, Concerto in F (1925) [+"An American in Paris"]

Radio-Sinfonieorchester/ Matthias Bamert

7 March 1983

Theatre Royal, Nottingham, England

Recital

8-11 March 1983

Kingsway Hall, London

Records Liszt, Années de Pèlerinage - Première Année Suisse, S. 160

On 13 March he flew NYC to Quebec City, Canada.

15,16 March 1983

Québec City, Canada

21 March 1983 (The Paderweski Foundation Concert)

McCarter Theater, Princeton University, NJ [first appearance in Princeton]

Schumann, Fantasiestücke

Brahms/Handel variations

Liszt Sonata * Hungarian Rhapsody No.12

Rena Fruchter thought the Schumann "pedestrian" but Bolet found the magic in the Brahms.

26 March 1983

Powers Auditorium, Youngstown, Ohio

Youngstown Symphony/Peter Leonard

[30 March 1983]

Philadelphia Orchestra/Ricardo Muti

19 April 1983

Seton Hall, University of South Orange, New Jersey

recital: Schumann, Brahms, Rachamninoff

23 April 1983

Mt Vernon High school, Westchester, NY

Brahms 2

Philharmonic Symphony of Westchester/Martin Rich

25 April - 1 May 1983

Indianapolis, USA: Butler University's Romantic Festival XVI was called "Brahms and His Vienna".

During which...

28 April 1983

Brahms 2

Butler University Orchestra & Jackson Wiley

Bonn Beethoven Spring Festival, April 1983

Claudio Arrau was born on 6 February, 1903, in Chillán, Chile celebrated his 80th birthday in 1983. Dieter Schüren wrote in Die Welt (28 April 1983): 'Because the 80-year-old Claudio Arrau suddenly withdrew from the Bonn Beethoven Festival, the spring cycle began a day late and with Jorge Bolet at the piano as a replacement.' [At the moment, I cannot fit this into Bolet's chronology.].

The comprehensive Arrauhouse site has this:

Pro Musica, subscription Master Recital at the Philharmonie, Berlin, performed by Claudio Arrau on Saturday 30th April.
Beethoven: Sonate Nr.4 Es-Dur Op.7, Sonate Nr.26 Es-Dur Op.81a, Brahms: Sonate Nr.3 f-Moll Op.5

Of Beethoven, Jorge Bolet only played the Appassionata on this occasion (review link). See also 12.9.1983 below.

25 April and 9 May 1983 [did JB take part?]

The Sydney Morning Herald (20 March 1983) advertised "Music Festival at Sea" Royal Viking Line cruises departing Athens's (Greece) harbour Piraeus on 25 April and 9 May, 'sailing on the sparkling blue waters of the Mediterranean and the Adriatic', enjoying performances at sea by such renowned artists and Jorge Bolet and Victoria de los Angeles, with stops in Dubrovnik and Venice.' There is no mention of it in JB's date book

On 12 June he flew from San Francisco to Santiago de Chile.

14 /16 June 1983

Teatro Municipal, Santiago de Chile, Chile

Rachmaninoff 3 [+ Wagner, Cirilo Varga, Elegía a Bartok and Stravinsky's Firebird]

Orquesta Filarmónica de Santiago/ Juan Pablo Izquierdo

La Nacion (14 June 1983) states that this was Jorge's first appearance in Chile. Segio Escobar, in La Nacion (18.6.1983) expressed a little surprise - 'A surprising choice, when we see that Mr. Bolet graduated in 1934, almost half a century ago. An apprehension that had no basis, when we see that he made his performance one of the artistic events of recent times. With an impressive technique, which allowed him to overcome each of the countless obstacles, down to the last trill, and all the dynamism he needs adequately to delineate the melodies of the work. Above all, he showed that rare intelligence that makes a work transcend mere virtuosity. (...) In short, it was something exceptional and the audience gave a standing ovation to the participants for the magical moments provided. It was the most remarkable part of the programme, but the other works...'

There's some confusion as the season schedule lists Tuesday and Thursday 14/16 June 1983 as conducted by Franz Paul Decker; the Rachmaninoff is there but it's framed by Hindemith's Mathis der Maler symphony and Richard Strauss's Rosenkavalier Waltzes. Indisposition?

On 17th he flew back to San Francisco on LAN Chile at 10.30pm, with a stop in Miami. Jorge was back in Chile again on 5 June 1984

29 June 1983

Granada, Spain: solo recital for the Festival Internacional de Granada

This summer (July/August 1983, but recorded in February), Jorge was to hit the big time on television when the BBC broadcast an interview and the Rachmaninoff 3rd concerto masterclasses. In the Financial Times [20.9.83] Dominic Gill, referring to the programmes, said that ‘Four television appearances can do for an artist what music critics fail to achieve in twice as many years'. They were aired on American television by the A&E Network in June 1984.

17 July 1983 [Sunday afternoon]

Whittington-Pfohl auditorium, Brevard Music Center, North Carolina

Rachmaninoff, Phapsody on a Theme of Paganini

BMC Orchestra/Henry Janiec (1929-2015)

Jorge first played here on 8 August 1953, in the beautiful Transylvania Music Camp, in the shadow of Mt Pisgah. He played again in 1986. (Date to be determined.)

A South American tour in July

23 July 1983 (Saturday)

Arequipa, Peru (possibly in the Teatro Municipal or the Teatro Fénix?)

Schumann, Fantasiestücke

Brahms, Handel variations

Liszt, Petrarch Sonnets & Hungarian Rhapsody No.12

Birthplace of Peruvian author and Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa (1936-2025)

25 July 1983

Auditorio Santa Úrsula, Lima, Peru

C. Franck, Symphonic Variations

Rachmaninoff, Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op.18

Orquesta Sinfónica de la Escuela de Música/ Peruvian conductor Armando Sánchez Málaga

On 26th he flew from Lima to Brazil

2nd Gramado International Festival

29 July 1983

Cine-Teatro Embaixador, Gramado (Rio Grande do Sul), Brazil

Recital

(Programme as 23 July 1983)

30 July 1983

Gramado (Rio Grande do Sul), Brazil

Schubert's Trout ["Die Forelle"] Quintet in A major D.667, with Telmo Jaconi, Miguel Mutuberria, Dennis Parker and Milton Masciadri.

31 July 1983

Gramado (Rio Grande do Sul), Brazil

Brahms 2

Orquesta Sinfônica de Porto Alegre/ Eleazar de Carvalho

The organisers of the II Gramado International Festival, which will begin on the 1st of next month, are encountering the same difficulty faced last year: a lack of resources. Of the Cr$ 200 million requested from the Ministry of Education, for example, only Cr$ 15 million were released. Even so, maestro Eleazar de Carvalho, its creator, is enthusiastic about the event, for which more than 500 music students have already registered, and which will feature 13 foreign musicians and another 12 Brazilians, to the point of stating that in 1985 he will create another festival, in the same format, in Fortaleza.

Eleazar de Carvalho, conductor of the Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestra, organizer of the festival, invited important names such as the Cuban Jorge Bolet, one of the best pianists in the world... From Brazil itself, for example, Arnaldo Cohen, Magdalena Tagliaferro, Temo Jacomi and Marcos Barbero will be present. With the exception of Bolet, the invited musicians will also act as professors of the chamber music, instrumental music, percussion instruments and applied theoretical subjects seminars.

The festival is similar to the Berkshire Musical Center in Tanglewood, Massachusetts, USA, where Eleazar studied. Ultima Hora (Rio de Janeiro, 27 June 1983)

3 August 1983

Lima, Peru

Schumann, Fantasiestücke

Brahms, Handel variations

Liszt, Petrarch Sonnets & Hungarian Rhapsody No.12

[6 September 1983]

Ascona, Italy

Recital

12 September 1983

Beethovenfest, Bonn, West Germany

Beethoven: 32 Variations on an original theme in C minor, WoO 80

Sonata No.26 in E-flat major, Op.81a (Les Adieux)

Sonata No.31 in A-flat major, Op.110
Liszt: Années de Pèlerinage II (Italie), S.161

o 4. Sonetto 47 del Petrarca

o 5. Sonetto 104 del Petrarca

o 6. Sonetto 123 del Petrarca

Liszt: Après une lecture du Dante (Fantasia, quasi Sonata), S.161 No.7 (from Années de Pèlerinage II)

His Excellency the President of Zambia, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda and his wife Betty attended the Festival on 12th.

[13 September 1983]

Philharmonische Orchester Hagen, Hagen/Westfalen./Michael Halasz

[15 September 1983]

Katholische Akademie, Hamburg

18 September 1983

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Brahms, Intermezzi Op.117 & Sonata No 3 in F minor, Op 5; Rachmaninoff, Variations on a theme by Chopin, Op 22; Liszt Venezia e Napoli: Gondoliera; Tarantella (G 162).

Basil Douglas Ltd.

[22 September 1983?]

Philharmonische Orchester Hagen, Hagen/Westfalen./Michael Halasz

23, 24, 25 September 1983

Chrysler Hall, Norfolk Virginia/ Ogden Hall, Hampton (25)

Rachmaninoff 2

Virginia Philharmonic/Richard Williams

'Another special feature of the concert will be conductor Richard Williams’ programming of Morton Gould’s “Spirituals for Orchestra,” in honor of the American composer’s 70th birthday. Bolet has had more than one man’s share of spectacular triumphs, but his career is primarily the story of steady growth and artistic maturity.'

Suffolk News-Herald, 21 September 1983

[1 October 1983]

Munich, Germany

Recital

[3, 4 October 1983]

Augsburg/Bruno Weil

[7 October 1983]

Aalen or Berlin, West Germany

recital

[10 October 1983]

Spain?

JB's date book says he flew on 17 October 1983 from JFK to London

On 19-22 October 1983 in Kingsway Hall, London, Jorge recorded Liszt's Années de pèlerinage: Venezia e Napoli S162, Les Jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este S163/4, Ballade No.2 in B minor S171 and Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude S173/3.

25 October 1983

Lounge Hall, Harrogate, Yorkshire (England)

recital

On 27th he flew to Amsterdam, styaing in Utrecht at the Hotel des Pays-Bas at Janskerkhof 10 which had a rich history as one of the city's most prestigious 19th-century hotels. Today, the heritage-listed building no longer operates under that name, but instead houses the NH Centre Utrecht

29 October 1983

Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, Utrecht (Holland)

Années de pèlerinage: Deuxième Année (Italie) S.161: Sonetti 47, 104 & 123 del Petrarca

Après une lecture du Dante. Fantasia quasi Sonata (S.161/7)

Sposalizio (S.161/1)
Il Pensieroso (S.161/2)
Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa (S.161/3)

Venezia e Napoli: Supplément aux Années de pèlerinage S.162

On 3o October Jorge flew Amsterdam-Chicago-Dallas

1 November 1983

Ed Landreth Auditorium, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth (Cliburn Celebrity Series)

Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Liszt

"Keeper of the keyboard flame" proclaimed Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Michael Fleming (30.10.1983), "He is the last of his kind. Today there are piano players by the dozen - bright, smiling, eager, to please. But to compare Bolet to these models of efficiency is like comparing a volcano to a tea kettle. There is something about his solemn manner that suggests the age of gaslight, when a pianist was not a mere ivory-rattler, but a demigod."

On 13 November 1983, JB flew from JFK to London, then on the 14th from London to Glasgow, staying at the Central Hotel, 99 Gordon Street. The hotel forms the front of the Glasgow Central railway station on Gordon Street, directly adjoining onto the station concourse. It was one of Glasgow's most prestigious hotels in its heyday, hosting residents such as John F. Kennedy, Frank Sinatra, Winston Churchill, Gene Kelly and Laurel and Hardy.

15 November 1983

Glasgow, Scotland

recital

17 November 1983

Elmwood Hall, Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Brahms, Intermezzi Op.117 & Sonata No 3 in F minor, Op 5; Rachmaninoff, Variations on a theme by Chopin, Op 22; Liszt Venezia e Napoli: Gondoliera; Tarantella (G 162).

There were four encores by Godowsky, including Schubert Rosamunde.

'His programme seemed to to concentrate on intimacy and anyone looking for tinsel or fireworks would have been disappointed. Bolet was however entirely absorbing in his very personal account of the Op.117 Intermezzi and Sonata of Brahms.' Philip Hammond, Belfast News-Letter

19 November 1983

Ulster Hall, Belfast

An all-Gershwin concert (Piano Concerto in F)

Ulster Orchestra/Bryden Thomson

'Rathool' in the Belfast Telegraph, hinted the concerto - despite being a powerful performance - may have had 'a shade more refinement than the music demanded'.

'I felt that the essential element of a sense of fun and enjoyment was missing.'

Philip Hammond, Belfast News-Letter

23, 24 November 1983]

Essen, Germany [?]

Folkwangkammerorchester Essen/ Guido Knüsel

28 November, 1983

Sala Puccini of the Conservatorio di Milano, Milan, Italy

This concert was advertised as being in honour of Godowsky's appearance in Milan in 1913.
Brahms: Three Intermezzi, Op.117; Piano Sonata No.3 in F minor, Op.5
Godowsky: Elegy for the left hand alone

Schubert/Godowsky: Ballet Music from Rosamunde

Godowsky: The Gardens of Buitenzorg (Java Suite, Book III No.2)

Chopin/Godowsky: Four Études

o Op.25 No.1 in A-flat major (Study No.25 in A-flat major)

o Op.10 No.7 in C major (Study No.15 in G-flat major | Nocturne)

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.5 in G-flat major (Study No.12 in G-flat major | inversion)

Kreisler/Rachmaninoff: Liebesleid & Liebesfreud (from Three Old Viennese Dances)

3 December, 1983

Salle Gaveau, Paris, France
Brahms: Three Intermezzi, Op.117; Piano Sonata No.3 in F minor, Op.5
Rachmaninoff: Variations on a theme by Chopin, Op.22

Liszt: Tarantella, S.162 No.3 (from Venezia e Napoli)

*The contract for this recital had been arranged between M.Robert Salles, 16 rue Cortambert, Paris and Konzertdirektion de Koos, Badestrasse, Hamburg for 10,000 francs. Dominique Werner has also been named as Jorge's agent in France for part of the 1980s.

7 December 1983

Arnhem, Holland

Recital (orchestral?)

This was the official inauguration of a completely restored and renewed Musis Sacrum . 'The renowned pianist Jorge Bolet was the soloist last night during the festive AOV concert ["Arnhemsche Orchest Vereeniging" being the old name for Het Gelders Orkest], to conclude the celebration of the somewhat neglected, non-secretive, sometimes difficult but charming lady, who is now full of life again, as architect Amsterdam had wittily put it. (De Telegraaf: Ter afsluiting van het feest van de wat verwaarloosde, niet eenkennige, soms lastige maar charmante dame, die nu weer springlevend is, zoals architect Amsterdam het geestig had uitgedrukt.)

8 December 1983

Apeldoorn, Holland

recital

Sunday, 12 December 1983

Grote Zaal, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

as 3 December

14 December 1983

Musis Sacrum, Arnhem, Holland

Liszt 1 [?]

Het Gelders Orkest/ Gerard Oskamp

Leidsch Dagblad (5 December, 1983) had a big feature with Charles van der Leeuw, in which Jorge stated: 'I played under [Dutch maestro] Eduard van Beinum in Chicago [possibly in June 1955].' Van der Leeuw had interviewedJ orge on 28 October

1984

'I've had a frustrating career in many ways. It has come late but it has finally arrived.'

'He is a prince among pianists' (Daniel Cariaga, April 1984)

28 January 1984

Whiting Auditorium, Flint , Michigan

Franck , Chopin1

Flint Symphony/Isaiah Jackson

In February 1984, cantankerous Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache (aged 72) - regarded as a musical visionary by some, but not by others, notorious for his very slow tempos, a great Brucknerian - had a three-week residency at Curtis, arranged by John de Lancie. Jorge attended a lecture which he gave. Sergiu Celibidache had visited Havana, Cuba in January 1950 for concerts but he and JB never performed together.

2 February 1984

Metropolitan Museum, New York City

Brahms, Sonata No. 3 in F minor; Rachmaninoff, Variations on a Theme by Chopin; three Brahms, Intermezzi (Op. 117), Liszt's ''Venezia e Napoli''

At the heart of Jorge Bolet's piano recital at the Metropolitan Museum Thursday night was a kind of Romantic thickness. Before intermission, Mr. Bolet played the long, often ponderous, F minor Sonata from Brahms's youth. Afterward came Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme by Chopin, an equally long and seemingly exhaustive look at one of the Chopin Preludes. Mr. Bolet's big technique seemed most at home in the Rachmaninoff and in the ''Gondoleria'' and ''Tarantella'' from Liszt's ''Venezia e Napoli,'' which came at the end of his program. Musically, he was probably least at ease in technically the simplest of his music, the three Brahms Intermezzi (Op. 117). Here there was careful attention to the small subdivisions of Brahms's phrases but rarely ever a feeling of how they flow together. There were occasional small memory slips and a pervasive tendency to bang in the loud passages, but Mr. Bolet's powerful physical abilities were evident throughout the evening. (Bernard Holland, NYT 5.2.1984)

12 February 1984

Orchestra Hall, Chicago

(as 2 Feb. 1984)

Howard Reich, Chicago tribune:

And then there's the difficulty of comparisons, for any all-Romantic program is bound to bring to mind the great old virtuosos of this repertoire Josef Hofmann, Arthur Rubinstein, Josef Lhevinne, Ignace Paderewski and so forth. On all scores, Bolet acquitted himself handsomely. He covered a greater emotional range and with even more brilliant technique than one might have expected from this Brahms-Rachmaninoff-Liszt program. And he went the Romantic tradition one better by applying high intellect to works that are often treated with swooning emotionalism.

Bolet has an unusual gift for sensuousness of sound. His Rachmaninoff sings sweetly, and even the most unpianistic passages of his Brahms are elegantly voiced.

But perhaps the best lesson of the afternoon was to be taken from Bolet's Liszt. Though so many young titans of the keyboard think Liszt sounds best fast and loud, Bolet easi-ly proved that that is not the point at all.

True, he took Liszt's Gondoliera and Tarantella, from "Venezia e Napoli," at a furious speed, but that isn't really what made the impression. Rather, it was Bolet's rhythmic pulse and tonal imagination that made these pieces sound like more than just empty technical displays.

14 February 1984

Wharton Center Great Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan

Brahms, 3 Intermezzos, Sonata No.3

Rachmaninoff, Variations on a theme of Chopin

Liszt, Venezia e Napoli

[JB's first appearance here]

29 February 1984

Dade County Auditorium, Miami, Florida

(as 2 Feb. 1984)

On 3 March, Jorge flew from Philadelphia to London

8 March, 1984

Barbican Hall, London

Hungarian Fantasy; Totentanz (Liszt)

LSO with Ivan Fischer

The two works in which the pianist Jorge Bolet was soloist took off with splendid effervescence and glitter. Liszt's wild (and for the 1830s wildly avant-garde) Totentanz is musically more than a little preposterous - but it is nothing if not colourful and a great deal of fun. Bolet spun off variations with marvellous elegance and most sophisticated devilry; and worked the same magic to still greater effect on Liszt's less well-known Fantasia on Hungarian Folktunes (S123) which is actually a rather better piece (the traditional Hungarian tune of "Mohax's Field" is more interesting and far more awarding of elaboration than the Dies Irae. (Dominic Gill, Financial Times 12.3.1984)

10 March 1984

Barbican Hall, London

Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor

11 March 1984

Barbican Hall, London

Recital incl.Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata, Chopin's Barcarolle, Etudes Op.25/1, Op10/3, 5, Liszt...

"Even less easy to forget, however, will be the spiritual insight of the Bénédiction de Dieu dans Ia Solitude, which took us beyond piano playing, almost beyond music."

Max Harrison

On 12 March JB flew from London to New York

14 March 1984

Carnegie Hall, NYC

Schumann Concerto

Czech Philharmonic and Jiří Bělohlávek

20 March 1984

St Lawrence Centre, Toronto, Canada

Jorge flew to Alaska from San Francisco on 29th [9:35am, arriving 3:45pm] and returned on 31st.

30 March 1984

Hering Auditorium, Fairbanks, Alaska

7, 8 April 1984

Civic Center, Des Moines, Iowa

Rachmaninoff Paganini

Des Moines Symphony/Yuri Krasnapolsky

16-22 April: Curtis Institute 60th anniversary

25 April 1984

Ambassador Auditorium, Pasadena, California

(as 2 Feb. 1984)

Daniel Cariaga: Though he will be 70 in November, Jorge Bolet "retains the freshness of his prime. He is a prince among pianists...All the power without bombast that one will ever hear from a superior Hamburg Steinway."

28 April 1984

Von Braun Civic center, Huntsville, Alabama

Franck, Rachmaninoff/Paganini

Huntsville Symphony/ Dr Marx Pales

8/9 May 1984

War Memorial Auditorium, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Fort Lauderdale SO

10 May 1984

Dade County Auditorium

Liszt 1 and 2

Jorge may have had concerts or visited the Grand CAnyon, 24-29 May 1984

In June 1984 there was a tour (?) of South America; he flew from San Francisco to Miami on 1 June and then on LAN Chile LA141 to Santiago. where he arrived at 10:40pm. It may be that Jorge's appearance in Peru, was the one on which he performed his recital in a bank, Banco Continental (whose principal offices are located in San Isidro, Lima).

An article in Chilean newspaper El Mercurio (17.3.84) led with "there is a great probability that Claudio Arrau will come to Chile this year" and "the great Cuban American pianist Jorge Bolet will play Liszt's two concertos.

5, 7 June 1984

Teatro Municipal, Santiago, Chile

Liszt, concertos 1 & 2 [+ Tchaikovsky 6]

Orquesta Filarmónica de Santiago/ Simón Blech (1924-1997, Polish-Argentinian)

'This year Jorge Bolet has returned—tall, erect, with large hands—and, in case anyone remained unconvinced that he is one of the finest pianists of Romantic music, he has just performed—with the Philharmonic conducted by Simón Blech—the two concertos written by Franz Liszt. Both of them! And this under circumstances where either one alone poses a challenge few can successfully meet. (It is true, Mr. Bolet, that you have made your name internationally by playing Liszt’s music, but, in truth, you did not need to prove
it so lavishly.) Liszt’s concertos (1839 and 1849)—revised repeatedly by the composer until he was satisfied—are often played as displays of impressive bravura, yet few performers manage to extract their true essence, the spirit their creator imbued in them. Bolet played them with unabashed Romanticism, varying the tempos as if following a narrative arc. (...) Jorge Bolet's performances have been, for us, the most memorable we have heard in concerts, because they have helped to understand Liszt's music, sometimes so poorly executed and without relief.' Sergio Escobar, La Nacion (8.6.1984)

11 June 1984

Teatro Cultura Artística, São Paulo (rua Nestor Pestana 196), Brazil

Rachmaninoff 2

Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado/ Eleazar de Carvalho

12 June 1984

Teatro, Casa da OSPA, Avenida Borges de Medeiros 1501, Praia de Belas,

Porto Alegre, Brazil

Rachmaninoff 2 and Paganini Variations

Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado/ Eleazar de Carvalho

19 June 1984

Lima, Peru

This may have been Jorge's final visit to South America (but see 7 October 1985)

He flew back to the U.S. on the 20th

30 June 1984

Waterloo Village, New Jersey, as part of the Waterloo Festival

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, Op.18

Gerard Schwarz / Waterloo Festival Orchestra

7 July 1984

Salle Louis-Fréchette of the Grand Théâtre de Québec, Canada

Beethoven's 4th and 5th concertos

Simon Streatfeild (sic) and the OSQ

8 July 1984

Salle Octave-Crémazie (Grand Théâtre), Quebec City, Canada

Beethoven sonatas, Moonlight, Les Adieux and Apassionata

On Wednesday 11 July, Jorge flew on TWA from Philadelphia to JFK then LHR

arriving London on the Thursday morning.

13 July 1984

New Embassy Concert Hall, Skegness, England (sponsored by Yorkshire Television)

Skegness is a seaside town in Lincolnshire. The Skegness Standard (20 July 1984): 'Here is Skegness, of all places, was the world's greatest living pianist honouring us by playing the recital he was to perform the next evening at the Cheltenham Festival. And all this whilst recovering from jet lag having been delayed on his overnight flight from North America. He plays in every continent and in every major city, except Paris - until, and I quote his manager - "they can provide an adequate piano (sic!)."' Skegness provided a Steinway.

14 July 1984

Town Hall, Cheltenham, England

Liszt's Consolations, "a brace of the Etudes d'Execution Transcendante, half a dozen transcriptions of Schubert Lieder and Schubert's Wandererfantasie."

16-20 July 1984

City of London Festival at Bishopsgate Hall, London

Liszt's Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude and Chopin’s third sonata, broadcast on BBC Radio 3

21 July 1984

St Nicholas’ Chapel, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, England.

Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Chopin's Barcarolle in F # major Op.60, Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No 12 etc.

On the 26th, Jorge travelled by rail to Scotland.

On 27-29 July 1984, in Edinburgh he recorded a series of masterclasses on Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto in C minor for the BBC (broadcast November 1985, with among others Kathryn Stott and Makoto Ueno, the latter a student of JB at Curtis [1st mvt.], Ingrid Jacoby & Julia Hazelton [2nd mvt.] and Chikako Shibata & Gavin Martin, Goan-born student of JB at Curtis [3rd mvt.]). His performance of the Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Berglund, probably recorded from the performance on 2 August 1984. in the Usher Hall.

8, 10 September 1984

Lila Cockrell theater, San Antonio, Texas

Tchaikovsky 1

San Antonio Symphony, Lawrence Leighton-Smith

15, 16, 17 September 1984

Orpheum, Vancouver, British Columbia (canada)

Rachmaninoff/Paganini

Vancouver Symphony, Mario Bernardi

28, 29 September 1984

Louisville, Kentucky

Tchaikovsky 1

[3 October 1984]

Munich, Germany

recital

6 October 1984

Leeds, England

Piano Concerto (Schumann)

LPO - Klaus Tennstedt

7 October 1984

Royal Festival Hall, London

Piano Concerto (Schumann)

LPO - Klaus Tennstedt

On Thursday 11 October, Jorge recorded an interview with Michael Oliver for the BBC. I recall hearing this in the broadcast. The introduction was a segment of the Chopin-Godowsky Waltz Op.18 in E flat and I've always remembered the interviewer saying, "And yes, that WAS a chromatic glissando you heard. Mr Bolet is Head of Piano at Curtis where he teaches this and other such sorcery!"

12 October 1984

Sutton Manor, Sutton Scotney, Hampshire, England

recital

[13 October 1984]

Dublin, Ireland

Recital

[16, 17 October 1984]

Philharmonische Orchester Hagen, Hagen/Westfalen./Michael Halasz

Jorge returned to Poland for a brief visit to the country where he'd last been in May and June 1961.

19/ 20 October 1984

Filharmonia Narodowa, Warsaw (Poland)

Liszt, Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2

Warsaw Philharmonic under the Hungarian Ádám Medveczky.

(The archives of the Warsaw Philharmonic have this concert down for 19/20 October 1985, but Słowo Powszechne reviewed the concert on 15 November 1984. The journal also stated that in 1961 Bolet played in the Poznań Philharmonic (but I haven't - yet - seen that information)

Zycie Warszawy (26.10.1984) notes that:"As an encore, the pianist added Chopin's Nocturne in F-sharp major. 15 No. 1 (beautiful narration!) and Maurycy Moszkowski's miniature "La Jongleuse" (Op. 52 No. 4), little known in our country, which is in the essential repertoire of pianists such as J. Hofmann, L. Godowski, S. Rachmaninoff, and Mischa Levitzki.

22 October 1984

Teatro Margherita, Genoa, Italy

including Schubert (Wanderer Fantasy), Liszt, 2 Transcendental Etudes [11 and 8] & 6 Schubert/Liszt transcriptions

La Stampa entitles the review: 'Bolet, a pianist wasted for the "worst" Liszt'; 'The performances were, overall, enjoyable; unfortunately, the program was not particularly interesting. Schubert's Lieder, entirely resolved in the perfect fusion of sounds and words, do not, however, lend themselves to Liszt's virtuoso treatment.

3 November 1984

Brooklyn Center for Performing Arts (Flatbush & Nostrand aves.)

Bach-Busoni, Schubert, Wanderer, Liszt, 2 Transcendental Etudes

9, 10 November 1984

Music Hall, Cicinnati, Ohio

Grieg

Cincinnati Symphony/ Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos

[14 November 1984]

Rockefeller University Concerts, NYC

recital

16 November 1984

Metropolitan Museum, New York City

70th Birthday Recital

Debussy - Preludes:
Danseuses de Delphes; La Puerta del Vino
Bruyères; La Sérénade interrompue;
Ce qu’a vu le Vent d’Ouest; Minstrels;
Ondine; General Lavine – eccentric;
La Fille aux cheveux de lin; La Danse de Puck;
La Terrasse des audiences du clair de lune; Feux d’artifice

Chopin, Preludes Op.28

19 November 1984

Academy of Music, Philadelphia 2pm

23, 24 November 1984

Academy of Music, Philadelphia

Philadelphia Orchestra under Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos

Weber, Konzertstück for piano and orchestra; Franck, Symphonic Variations

Jorge's 9th [?] performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra, previously 1980

27 November 1984

Carnegie Hall, NYC

(as 23/24)

5 December 1984

CASA (Conservatory of Music), St Louis, Missouri

Schubert Wanderer, Liszt 6 Consolations, Schubert songs, 2 Transcendental etudes (Harmonies du soir/Wilde Jagd).

Larry Katzenstein observes that there is nothing in the Consolations which an amateur couldn't master, "but Bolet brought to them a kind of thoughtfulness and detail that is within the reach of only the greatest masters".

1985

[7 January 1985]

Munich

Bayerischen Staatsorchester/Wolfgang Sawallisch

[9 January 1985]

Stadtstheater Kempten, Bavaria (Germany)(?)

Recital

'On January 13th and 14th January [1985], Bolet will perform Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in the Musikhalle Hamburg, and on the 19th in Hamburg and again on January 22nd in the Musikhalle he will be making a guest appearance with a programme he presented on the occasion of his 70th birthday in November in New York: some Debussy Preludes, and Chopin's complete set.'

Hamburger Abendblatt (5.12.1984)

The Tchaikovsky was with the NDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Günter Wand.

17 January 1985

St George's, Brandon Hill, Bristol, England

lunchtime recital by the 'legendary Spanish pianist' as the Western Daily Press claimed (recorded live by the BBC)

Schubert, Fantasy for piano in C (D 760) (Wanderer)
Schubert, transc. Liszt, Auf dem Wasser zu singen; Der Müller und der Bach
Liszt, Transcendental Studies: No 8 in C minor (Le Chasseur maudit) No 11 in D flat (Harmonies du Soir)

St George's was built in the 1820s by Sir Robert Smirke. It is a Grade II* listed building. The main body of the church seats 562 people and the crypt has been transformed into a bar and recording studios which are regularly used by the BBC.

19 January 1985

Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

Chopin recital

22 January 1985

Großen Musikhalle, Hamburg

Chopin, Preludes Op.28, selection of Debussy Preludes

26 January, 1985

Kongresshalle, Saarbrucken, West Germany (Radio Broadcast | date of performance?)

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B-flat minor, Op.23

Myung-Whun Chung / Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra

Tuesday, 29 January 1985

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Chopin, Preludes Op.28, selection of Debussy Preludes

(This was the first time I myself heard JB in concert; he played Ballade No. 3 in A flat as one of his encores and in the green room I overheard him saying he was going to Paris the next day. Christopher Tennant, who was attached to Basil Douglas Ltd. which managed the recital, told me in October 2026 that thought this performance was one of the finest Jorge gave.

31 January 1985

Recital for Radio France, Paris

Liszt: Six Consolations, S.172

Schubert: Fantasy in C major, D.760 (Op.15) (Wanderer)

Schubert/Liszt: Six Song Transcriptions

o Auf dem Wasser zu singen, D.774 (S.558 No.2)

o Ständchen (Horch’, horch’, die Lerch’!), D.889 (S.558 No.9)

o Das Wandern, D.795 No.1 (S.565 No.1)

o Der Müller und der Bach, D.795 No.19 (S.565 No.2)

o Lebe wohl! (S.563 No.1) [by Weyrauch, misattributed to Schubert]

o Aufenthalt, D.957 No.5 (S.560 No.3)

· Liszt: Transcendental Etude in D-flat major, S.139 No.11 (Harmonies du Soir)

· Liszt: Transcendental Etude in C minor, S.139 No.8 (Wilde Jagd)

Encores:

· Chopin: Nocturne in F minor, Op.55 No.1

· Chopin: Two Etudes

o Op.25 No.1 in A-flat major

o Op.25 No.2 in F minor

· Chopin: Ballade No.3 in A-flat major, Op.47 (which he also played on 29th January when I heard him in London)

8 February 1985

Murphy Recital Hall, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles.

Schubert and Liszt: Three “Consolations,” followed by the “Wanderer” Fantasy, six song-transcriptions and two “Transcendental” Etudes.

12/14 February 1985

Twichell Auditorium, Converse College/ Greenwood High School Spartanburg, Georgia

(as 8 Feb 1985)

But Christian Johansson has this for 12 February 1985 (which I have for 23, 24 November 1984 and also for 12 March 1985):

Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

· Franck: Symphonic Variations for Piano & Orchestra

· Weber: Konzertstück in F minor for Piano & Orchestra, Op.79

– Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos / The Philadelphia Orchestra

*I think the correct one date is 23 7 24 November 1984*

20 February

Stamford, Connecticut

(as 8 Feb. 1985)

On Friday 22 February Jorge flew to London from Philadelphia. He made recordings for Decca on 25/26 February/1, 4-5 March 1985 in St.Barnabas, Woodside Park, the main body of which was Liszt's Transcendental Studies S139

28 February 1985

Barbican Hall, London

Brahms, Piano Concerto no.2 in B flat

London Symphony Orchestra under Jeffrey Tate

2 March 1985

Barbican Hall, London

Grieg concerto

LSO/Richard Hickox

Jorge flew to New York on the 6th.

9 March 1985

JB took part in the intermission Texaco-Met quiz at the Metropolitan Opera, talking about operatic transcriptions. The opera broadcast was Verdi's Ernani (with Montserrat Caballé)

Jorge lists in his diary 11,12,14,15 March 1985 as Curtis teaching days 20-23.

[12 March 1985]

Academy of Music, Philadelphia

César Franck, Variations Symphoniques & Carl Maria von Weber's Konzerstück in F minor Philadelphia Orchestra and Rafael Frübeck de Burgos

*I think the correct one date is 23 & 24 November 1984*

Christian Johansson's website:

March 12, 1985: Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (House Recording | FLAC)

– Faculty Concert –

· Debussy: 12 Preludes

o Danseuses de Delphes (Book I No.1)

o La puerta del Vino (Book II No.3)

o Bruyères (Book II No.5)

o La sérénade interrompue (Book I No.9)

o Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest (Book I No.7)

o Minstrels (Book I No.12)

o Ondine (Book II No.8)

o Général Lavine – excentrique (Book II No.6)

o La fille aux cheveux de lin (Book I No.8)

o La danse de Puck (Book I No.11)

o La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune (Book II No.7)

o Feux d’artifice (Book II No.12)

· Chopin: 24 Preludes, Op.28

Encores:

· Chopin: Nocturne in F-sharp minor, Op.48 No.2

· Liszt: Funérailles, S.173 No.7 (from Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses)

Eugene Ormandy had died in his Philadelphia home that morning – Bolet followed the Nocturne with a touching speech and offered Funérailles to conclude the recital, asking there be no applause afterwards.

In 1984/5 Jorge cut his programme schedule down to 12/13 concertos and 2 recital programme, one of which was a selection of Debussy's and Chopin's complete preludes (Op.28).

20 March 1985

Philharmonie, Berlin: Brahms/Handel Variations, Fantasien Op.116, Chopin Ballades.

6 April 1985

Memorial Hall, Stanford University, CA.

(as 8 Feb. 1985)

13 April 1985

Rider College, Lawrenceville, NJ

(as 8 Feb. 1985)

25 April 1985

St. Anne's Church, Brooklyn Heights, NYC

Recital

26 April 1985

Alice Tully Hall, NYC

2 May 1985

Kennedy Center, Washington DC

incl. Schubert/Liszt songs

4 May 1985

Providence, Rhode Island, USA

Grieg Concerto [+ Umbrian scenes by Ulysses Kay]
Rhode Island Philharmonic, Alvaro Cassuto

10-12 May 1985 in Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Dahlem, Berlin

Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly
GRIEG Piano Concerto in A minor Op.16
SCHUMANN Piano Concerto in A minor Op.54

Jorge's diary lists the sessions as 7-10 May and that on the 11th he flew from Berlin to San Francisco.

The Peninsula Times (Palo Alto) 19 May 1985 in its "Living" section says that Jorge loves living -sporadically - in his condominium in beautiful downtown Los Altos. "It was in the late 1950s and I was touring some of the smaller cities. After a concert in Petaluma, I stopped off for a few days with some friends in Los Altos Hills. Why do I have to live in New York? So I found a little gardener's cottage way up in the hills and lived there - when I wasn't travelling - for many years. Now I have this apartment which is more convenient. ( According to 1960s records, his home was listed as 27466 Black Mountain Road, Los Altos Hills - which doesn't look like a condominium. He spent the final years of his life living in Mountain View (25 Toro Court), California, which is in the immediate vicinity of Los Altos)

19, 20 May 1985

Montreal, Canada

Rachmaninoff 3

Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal / Charles Dutoit

On 2 June Jorge flew from Dallas Forth Worth to Paris.

4-8 June 1985

Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, France

Recital series by 'le pianiste américain d'origine cubaine'

Of a Liszt recital in thie series, Mihai de Brancovan wrote (La vie musicale, August 1985): 'Not spectacular, Jorge Bolet does not abuse his prodigious virtuosity. He does not let himself be swept away by the music's momentum, particularly in *Mazeppa*, where the breathless quality and the epic scale were missing from his playing.'

11 June 1985

Rouen, Normandie, France

recital

On 12 June he flew Rouen-Paris-San Francisco.

18 June 1985

Snowbird Pavilion, Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

Schubert/LIszt and Liszt: 6 “Consolations,” followed by the “Wanderer” Fantasy, six song-transcriptions and two “Transcendental” Etudes - Harmonies du Soir & Wilde Jagd.

The Deseret News: 'It is a patrician brand of pianism Bolet brings to these composers, marked by clarity, concentration, and above all control, so immense as to almost dominate the music's impulses. The Wanderer almost seemed to have been carved out of granite. Strong, and once again deliberate, it reminded one that for Schubert this, too, is a rather Lisztian essay.' Of the evening as a whole, 'this traveller knew his destination from the outset, and nothing that happened along the way made him deviate from that course in the slightest.'

The Salt Lake Tribune 16.6.1985 list this as: Jorge Bolet, featured guest artist at festival, will perform in the Alpine Room Tuesday at 8 p.m. Jorge as also judging the upper divisions of a piano competition there.

Australia

JB departed San Francisco 9pm on Thursday 27 June 1985 on Qantas QF4, arriving via Honolulu in Sydney, Australia on Saturday (29th) at 7.30am.

2 July 1985

Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane

Recital

4 July 1985

Ford Theatre, Geelong

Recital, Ford Theatre

6, 8, 9 July 1985

Melbourne Concert Hall, St Kilda Road, Melbourne

Liszt, Totentanz/Hungarian Fantasy [+Debussy, Images]

David Atherton was ill and Wilfred Lehmann took over at 24 hours' notice (that of 6th broadcast live on radio).

"Bolet, 70 years old, and still doing what Almighty God fashioned him for, bespoke and particular - to play virtuoso piano of the late 19th century." (Kenneth Hince)

11 July 1985

Llewellyn Hall, Canberra

Bach-Busoni, Ciaccona; Chopin Preludes Op.28; Liszt, Valse impromptu in A flat, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12

16 July 1985

Town Hall, Sydney

Schumann Concerto [+ Mahler 9]

Sydney Symphony

17, 18 July 1985

Sydney Opera House

Schumann Concerto

Sydney Symphony/Georg Tintner

David Vance, The Sydney Morning Herald: "The tempos never acquired a rhapsodic pulse, the piano tone was persistently harsh, accuracy left to science and expression no forte of the soloist. This leaden, earthbound performance sensed no rapture, indeed no music. It would be unfair to dismiss so distinguish the pianist on the basis of this one performance: one can only hope that Wednesday's recital was not indicative of this musician's talents."

20, 22, 23 July 1985

Sydney Opera House

Beethoven's 4th concerto

Patrick Thomas

Sir Charles Mackerras was meant to have conducted, but he was taken ill, and the conducting was shared between Georg Tintner and Patrick Thomas

24 July 1985

Civic Hall, Newcastle, New South Wales

26/27 July 1985

Perth Concert Hall, Perth, Western Australia

Albert Rosen and the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra

29 July 1985

Perth Concert Hall, Perth, Western Australia

Recital

3 August 1985

Dallas Brooks Hall (now demolished), Melbourne

Consolations (Liszt), Wandered Fantasy in C (Schubert), To be Sung on the Water, Hark Hark the Lark, (The Fair Maid of the Mill), The Miller and the Brook, (Swan Song = Schwangesang): Abode (Schubert/trans. Liszt), Transcendental Studies, (i) Harmonies du soir, (ii) Wilde Jagd.

6 August 1985

ABC Odeon, Hobart (Tasmania)

8 August 1985

Sydney Opera House
Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 in C-Sharp Minor, Bach/Busoni, Partita No. 2 for Solo Violin in D Minor, BWV 1004, Chopin, Preludes, Op. 28, Liszt Valse Impromptu, S. 213, Rachmaninov, Variations on a theme of Chopin, Op. 2.

10/13 August 1985

Brisbane

Queensland Symphony/Werner Andreas Albert

16, 17 August 1985

Adelaide, South Australia

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra & Patrick Thomas

(*A September radio broadcast on ABC has: Copland, Appalachian Spring, Prokofiev 2, Schumann Symphony No. 4 in D minor, as part of the1985 orchestral subscription concert season. But with the same forces he also performed Beethoven 4 - when?)

Jorge departed Sydney on Sunday 18 August for Hong Kong on QF27 at 11.00am

6, 7, 8 September 1985

Uihlein Hall, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Brahms 2

Milwaukee Symphony under Lukas Foss.

10 September 1985

Guerry Auditorium, University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee

recital

12 September 1985

Civic Center, San Rafael, a city located in the North Bay region, San Francisco

Benefit concert at the Marin Veterans Auditorium

Schumann's Carnaval, Liszt's Bénédiction de Dieu was dedicated to the memory of a good friend of Bolet’s who had just passed away. Chopin: Piano Sonata No.3 in B minor, Op.58.

The friend may have been Bob Hagopian (1945- July 1984), a young pianist, based in San Francisco, who died of an HIV related illness.

19-21 September 1985

Symphony Hall, Atlanta, Georgia

Liszt's Totentanz & Rachmaninoff, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Op. 43

Atlanta SO under William Fred Scott

[Also: Walton, Variations on a Theme of Hindemith (1963), the theme coming from Hindemith's cello concerto of 1940]

28 September 1985 (Saturday)

Oscar Meyer Center, Madison, Wisconsin

Liszt Totentanz, Franck

Madison symphony/Roland Johnson

For which Jorge is paid $8,000. Not so steep when Vladimir Ashkenazy rakes in $30,000. Hurricane Gloria delayed Jorge's flight on Friday and he was unable to make the dress rehearsal Friday night.

30 September/1 October 1985

Seattle Symphony/Maxim Shostakovich

On Thursday 4 October Jorge flew Philadelphia-Rome-Naples

7, 8 October, 1985

Teatro San Carlo, Naples, Italy

Recital in São Carlos, Brazil [254 km from the city of São Paulo]. Or is this São Carlos in Portugal? Actually I finally realised it's the Teatro San Carlo, Naples!

[10 October 1985]

Reutlingen, Germany

Recital

[12 October 1985]

Paris

Marek Janowski

15 October 1985

Preston, England

16 October 1985

Liverpool, England (for the second time in the city after 20 years)

Rachmaninoff 3 [+ Sibelius 4] - the rehearsal had been on the 14th

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/Marek Janowski

The packed house gave him a tumultuous reception. A local pianist Douglas Miller (1888-1984) had died the previous year; both he and Bolet had worked with Godowsky (for Miller, this was in Berlin). (Rex Bawden of the Daily Post)

Circa 1910/1911 Miller played the new Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 3 at St George's Hall, Liverpool with organ (he had already played it for Godowsky in Berlin); repeated at St Agnes’s Church, Ullet Road, again with organ. These may have been either rehearsals or for an invited group. A performance with the Bournemouth Municipal Orch was cancelled, the composer having withheld the band parts.

The concerto premiered on November 28, 1909, in New York with the composer as soloist and Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Symphony Society.

26 October 1985

92nd Street Y, New York City

Liszt (David Diamond, Mozart)

Y Chamber Orchestra/ Gerard Schwarz

1 November 1985

Jesse Auditorium, Columbia, Missouri

3 November 1985

Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Chopin, Sonata No. 3 in B minor, op. 58

Jorge substituted at the last minute for an indisposed Maurizio Pollini (and I doubt he received Pollini's customary fee - see 28 Sept. 1985!). Jorge himself postponed a Rockland, NY concert of the same evening for this.

7, 8, 9 November 1985

Indianapolis. Indiana

Liszt 2 [+Jacob Druckman, "Prism" and Respighi]

John Nelson

[10 November 1985]

Lawrence Senior High School, New York

21, 22, 24 November 1985

Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh, PA

Rachmaninoff 3 [+Aaron Copland, El Salon Mexico; Elgar, Enigma Variations]

Pittsburgh Orchestra/Yoshimi Takeda

Takeda was born in Yokohama, Japan, in 1933, and graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts in 1958 before moving to the United States. Music director of the Kalamazoo Symphony. He conducted Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" at the Neal Blaisdell Center Concert Hall, Hawaii in March 1985. He died in 2000. The Pittsburgh Press 17 Nov 1985 refers to Jorge's appearance in the city as a rare one. Carl Apone described the performance as lyrical, understated. 'He is an artist who leaves heaven-storming to younger pianists. His performance gave meaning to this lovely music.' The conductor was felt to be in need of experience, and the orchestra was having the most dismal season in memory without a permanent conductor, André Previn (1976–1984) - widely credited for launching a new era for the symphony - having departed. Jorge's previous performance here is noted as 1949 - substituting for Horowitz - and a Beethoven concerto (3) in February 1974 - substituting for Radu Lupu.

1 December 1985

Royal Festival Hall, London (Sunday afternoon)

Schumann's Carnaval, Liszt & Chopin (Sonata No. 3 in B minor)

'Probably no-one has ever searched into Liszt's Bénédiction de Dieu with such unhurried generosity and other performers would be unwise to try; Bolet unfolded it with infinite tenderness, keeping it aloft with a magically delicate touch.'

(David Murray, Financial Times)

4 December 1985

Philharmonie, Berlin

Schumann's Carnaval, Liszt's Bénédiction de Dieu & Ballade No.2, Chopin's 4 Ballades

6 December 1985, Sunday 4pm (originally scheduled for 28 November)

BBC 2 broadcasts Jorge rehearsing Rachmaninoff 2 with Paavo Berglund. Recorded in July 1984.

Australia May 1985 tour

Utrecht, Holland

1986

'The mysterious reasons which determine the fate of fame'

The Liszt year

A European concert tour in January/February 1986

11 [?] January 1986

Ambassador College, Pasadena, USA

Chopin, Frédéric, 1810-1849. Piano concerto no. 1, op. 11, E minor

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Iona Brown & Kent Nagano

8 January 1986 (9pm)

Rai Auditorium, Turin, Italy

Liszt (Ballade no.2 and Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude), Carnaval by Schumann and Sonata No. 3 Op. 58 by Chopin

Enzo Restagno in Stampa Sera (9.1.1986): 'Naturally, Bolet is not a Creole; indeed, he possesses an aristocratic pride of bearing like an ancient Hidalgo with a hint of Junker severity, but something of the hypersensitive nature of the tropics must have deposited some very precious residue in his fervent and highly refined musical temperament. To keep the record straight, Bolet presented the Turin audience with a program more romantic than one could imagine. Liszt's sumptuous "Bénédléctlon de Dieu dans la solitude" and Ballade No. 2 in B minor, both performed with such fervent and penetrating nobility of phrasing that they enchanted even the most backward listener, and Schumann's "Carnaval" full of dazzling flair and rarely imaginable languor, constituted the first part of the monumental concert. Not much is known about Jorge Bolet in Italy: experts recognize him as a pianist of the highest quality, but his appearances in our concert halls have been overall rather rare.

[Naturalmente Bolet non è un creolo; in lui c'è anzi una fierezza aristocratica di portamento da antico Hidalgo con qualche punta di severità da Junker, ma qualcosa della ipersensibile natura dei tropici deve aver depositato qualche preziosissima scoria nel suo fervido e raffinatissimo temperamento musicale. ]

On 15 January Jorge flew from Hanover to Amsterdam

'One of the highlights of the festival is the performance by Jorge Bolet , Liszt interpreter par excellence. "He is a late bloomer," says S. Samama of the Dr. G. de Koos agency, which brought the pianist to the Netherlands. "Only in the last ten years has his career begun to take shape in Europe as well. In fact, his light has remained hidden under a bushel for far too long." Yet Bolet has been known here for many years. He made his debut in our country 50 years ago (Concertgebouw in Amsterdam) and is performing at the festival for the second time.' Algemeen Dagblad (16.1.1986)

17 January 1986

Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, Utrecht

Liszt recital

18 January 1986

Eindhoven, Holland

19 January 1986

Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

Chopin recital (Ballades, Sonata No. 3?)

Soviet/Dutch pianist Youri Egorov played the next evening, Tuesday (including Debussy, Schumann). He died at his home in Amsterdam on 16 April 988 aged just 33 from complications of AIDS; he had given his final concert on March 5, 1988, a solo recital in Maastricht. I think I heard him in London around this time, but it was possibly Andrei Gavrilov. Anyway, backstage, I asked the pianist what his delightful encore was: Prokofiev's shimmering Prelude in C major, Op. 12, No.7.

On 20 January Jorge flew from Amsterdam to London

On 21, 22, 25, 27, 28 & 31 January 1986, Jorge was busy recording in St.Barnabas, Woodside Park, London for DECCA.

SCHUMANN Carnaval Op.9, Fantasie in C Op.17
RACHMANINOFF Variations on a Theme of Chopin Op.22

23 January 1986

St David's Hall Cardiff, Wales

Liszt, Benediction de Dieu Dans La Solitude and Ballade No 2, Schumann's Carnaval and four Ballades by Chopin (as Berlin, December 1985)

Bizet's L'Arlesienne (Godowsky) as an encore caused a lot of whispered mystification among the audience.

30 January 1986

Barbican Centre, Lodnon

Liszt 1

LSO/Richard Williams

3 February 1986

Hanley Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, UK

Schumann’s Carnaval, Liszt's Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude, Chopin's Third Sonata in B minor

'Cynics sneer that Liszt's religion was more religiosity, but this piece, as interpreted last night, touched levels of visionary contemplation usually associated with late Beethoven.'

Eric Snape, Staffordshire Sentinel, 4.2.1986)

5 February 1986

Edinburgh, Scotland

Rehearsal

6 February 1986

Younger Hall, North Street St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland

Chopin, Concerto No. 1 in E minor [+ Bartok, Divertimento]

Scottish Chamber Orchestra/ Wilfried Boettcher

7 February 1986

Mitchell Hall, Aberdeen, Scotland

Chopin, Concerto No. 1 in E minor [+ Bartok, Divertimento]

Scottish Chamber Orchestra/ Wilfried Boettcher

8/9 February 1986

The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh & City Halls, Glasgow

Chopin, Concerto No. 1 in E minor [+ Bartok, Divertimento]

Scottish Chamber Orchestra/ Wilfried Boettcher

'A simple and moving Bizet Adagietto (in Godowsky's surprisingly straightforward arrangement) was the encore..'

Duncan Heggie, Edinburgh Evening News: Super pianist JB raised great expectations on Saturday, eveb though playing nothing more outrageous than Chopin 1. Amply fulfilled, for his performance was miles above the ordinary. And on that beautiful Berlin-provided Bechstein, too.' Conrad Wilson for The Scotsman wrote that Jorge came 'armed with his own superlative Bechstein with which he has been touring Scotland. The Cuban wizard drew the first movement from his fingers like a series of diamond necklaces, each more sparkling than the one before.'

On 10 February, Jorge flew from London Heathrow to Philadelphia

27 February 1986

Orchestra Hall, Detroit

Liszt recital (Benediction, selections from Années de Pelerinage:Italie, Transcendental etudes)

Jorge had to stop midway through his opening number because of a stuck pedal on his Baldwin. It was ably corrected in record time by piano technician extraordinaire Thomas Pettit, who had to perform his surgery in full view of the audience, which is something like walking through a Roman Catholic cathedral stark naked during midnight mass. (John Guinn)

1 March 1986

Ford Auditorium, Detroit

Liszt Malediction, Totentanz

Detroit SO/Gunther Herbig

Hunnenschlacht (The Battle of the Huns), S.105, is a symphonic poem by Franz Liszt, written in 1857 after a painting of the same name by Wilhelm von Kaulbach. The painting depicts the battle of the Catalaunian Fields around 20 June 451 AD, where the Hun armies led by Attila fought a savage battle against a Roman coalition led by Roman General Flavius Aëtius and the Visigothic king Theodoric. According to legend, the battle was so ferocious that the souls of the dead warriors continued their fighting in the sky as they rose to Heaven.

No one could make Hunnenschlacht worthwhile, and Herbig was no exception! (John Guinn)

The Philadelphia Inquirer notes (6 March) that Jorge has resigned from Curtis.

7 March 1986

Curtis Institute, Phiadelphia

incl. Grieg, Brahms (Ballades Op.10), Liszt and Chopin (Ballades).

12 March 1986 [?confusion for 3 December]

Ambassador College, Pasadena, CA.

incl. Grieg, Brahms (Ballades), Liszt and Chopin (Ballades).

3 April 1986

Carnegie Hall, New York

Chopin's and Brahms's Ballades (the latter's 4 Ballades Op. 10, written in 1854) and Edward Grieg's Ballade Variations on a Norwegian Melody, Op. 24 (1875-1876)

5 April 1986

McMillin Theater, Columbia University, New York City

Liszt Centennial Celebrations

Benediction de Dieu dans la Solitude, Ballade #2 in B minor, the Petrarch Sonetti 104 and 123, and the Dante Fantasia, quasi Sonata

9-10 April 1986

Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

César Franck, Variations Symphoniques

Royal Concertgebouw/ Riccardo Chailly.

These would seem to be Bolet's only appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, according to the online archives. A recording for Decca was made (along with the Symphony in D minor) in Grote Zaal, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, 7-11 April 1986.

11 April 1986

Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, Utrecht, Holland

César Franck, Variations Symphoniques

Royal Concertgebouw/ Riccardo Chailly.

14 April 1985

Turin/Torino, Italy

Liszt, Concerto No.1 & Totentanz

with Hans Zender

15 April 1986

Donizetti Theatre, Bergamo (Italy)

Liszt, Concerto No.1 & Totentanz

Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI di Torino under Rudolf Barshai.

Cancelled. There seems to have been an orchestra strike/ industrial action.

So Jorge played a solo Liszt recital instead, including Bénédiction de Dieu, Fantasia quasi sonata Après une lecture de Dante, Ballade No. 2 in B minor . He stayed at the Hotel San MArco.

22 April 1986

WMU Miller Auditorium, Kalamazoo, Michigan (still being advertised 6 April)

Jorge cancelled (in January) - because of his European tour? - and was replaced by Earl Wild.

25 April 1986

Münchner Philharmoniker and Hans Werner Henze

3 May 1986

Santa Ana High School, Santa Ana, Ca.

Liszt 1 and 2

Orange County Pacific Orchestra/Keith Clark

Haydn, Il Mondo della Luna; Bartók, A csodálatos manadrin, Op. 19, Sz. 73 (BB 82)

Daniel Cariaga, of the Los Angeles Times, was there to record: "He probed the songful portions of both works with deliberate pacing, and honeyed tone, re-examining every melody with new-found affection. In oratorical passages, he stormed, ranted and made every octave speak. Bolet's masterful playing, remains cherishable for the freshness and passion with which he invests it; he seems incapable of making a routine or half-meant musical statement.

A curious note from the date books seems to suggest that on Friday, 30 May 1985 Jorge flew from San Francisco to Japan. This must be (?) an error.

17 June 1986

Notre Dame Basilica, Montreal, Canada

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30

Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal under Charles Dutoit

26, 27 June 1986

Afternoon masterclass at the Library of Congress, Washington DC (Coolidge auditorium)

'The Franz Liszt Centennial Celebration will be the major musical event in Washington this week, with free concerts, lectures and master classes at the Library of Congress, the Washington Cathedral and St. Matthew's Cathedral. On the evening of 27th, Jorge gave his recital in the Baird Auditorium of the Smithsonian Institute. Also 29th.

5 July 1986

Aix-en-Provence, France

recital

On Sunday 6 July, Jorge flew from Marseilles to London Heathrow

7-11 July 1986

Recording with Solti for Decca

12 July 1986

Town Hall, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK

Liszt

"An evening of revelations and insights into the mind and spirit of the composer. It was played on a Bechstein from Berlin. In the Dante sonata, the sound became abrasively percussive in its intensity. It was not only in his playing that Jorge Bolet was compelling, but also in the power of silence in the pauses. Awe-inspiring too was his virtuosity, his crisp peddling, balance of hands and sheer keyboard wizardry."

Gillian Campbell, Gloucestershire Echo.

21 July 1986

Montpellier, France

Schubert/Liszt: Fantasy in C major, D.760 (Op.15) (S.366) (Wanderer)

John Eliot Gardiner / Orchestre de l’Opéra de Lyon

31 July 1986

London Proms in the Royal Albert Hall [JB's 2nd Prom appearance]

Schubert/Liszt: Fantasy in C major, D.760 (Op.15) (S.366) (Wanderer)

James Conlon / London Symphony Orchestra

'For all that Liszt kept the pianist as protagonist, the orchestra can become as an albatross around the player\s neck. Jorge Bolet, distinguished in both composers, played as if he were unaware of the burden and was able to relate the inflation of Schubert's lyricism to the extravagance of orchestral rhetoric.' Noël Goodwin, The Times (2.8.1986)

The next Proms performance of the work was 24 July 2018 by Louis Lortie ( (playing a beautifully toned and prepared Bösendorfer) with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under John Storgårds. 'Time was when Liszt’s concertante realization of Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy was a staple at these concerts, but this was only the second hearing in nearly six decades. 33 years ago, the soloist was Jorge Bolet at his unpredictable best.' Richard Whitehouse

On Sunday 3 August 1986, Jorge arrived at Bayreuth (northern Bavaria, Germany), for the Wagner Festival. He saw Tristan (4?), Meistersinger (5) Das Rheingold (7), Die Walküre (8), Siegfried (10?). Complex, because his diary also states that on Sunday 10th he flew Nurnberg-Frankfurt-LHR-Edinburgh.

This was the Sir Peter Hall Ring cycle conducted by Peter Schneider, with Siegfried: Toni Krämer/Manfred Jung, Brünnhilde: Hildegard Behrens, Siegmund: Siegfried Jerusalem, Sieglinde: Gabriele Schnaut. Meistersinger was conducted by Horst Stein, with Hans Sachs, Schuster: Bernd Weikl, Walther von Stolzing: Siegfried Jerusalem, David, Sachsens Lehrbube: Graham Clark, Eva, Pogners Tochter: Lucia Popp (lucky Jorge to hear the great Slovak soprano)

11 August 1986

Edinburgh Festival, Usher Hall, Scotland

Beethoven, Piano Concerto No.5 in E flat, "Emperor"

BBC Symphony / Sir John Pritchard

Seems to have been a very bad rapport between pianist and conductor.

During the summer of 1986, JB made his first appearance on Friday 15 August at the 6th Festival International de Piano, La Roque d’Anthéron, France, with a Liszt recital at 9.30pm in Parc du Château de Florans, Aix-en-Provence. A masterclass was held on the afternoons of the 14th. and 16th.

Bolet also reportedly said: 'Now you see, now I have been discovered in France and I cannot make all the dates they want.' (Until the 1980s, the only performance I've so far located is in April 1967.)

18 August 1986

IMF Luzern/ Internationale Musikfestwochen Luzern/Lucerne, Switzerland

All-Liszt recital incl."Après une lecture de Dante" and "Venezia e Napoli"

'For the obligatory Liszt piano recital, Jorge Bolet came to Lucerne. His beginnings date back to the immediate post-Liszt era, and his playing, both in the internalised savouring of the lyrical lines (three Petrarch sonnets) and in the powerful and forceful portrayal of Dante's Inferno (Fantasia quasi sonata), was directly reminiscent of the great master.' Otto Bantel, Die Welt, 23 August 1986

c.21 August 1986

Cervo, Liguria, Italy

Liszt recital

'His touch is one of rare precision, and the quintessentially Lisztian sound – with its symphonic expansions, grandiose hyperboles, the infinite proliferation of ornamentation and, above all, the interplay of continuous repetitions, each time more elevated and majestic – finds few connoisseurs today who are equally refined. Bolet thus possesses a masterful precision of touch, the charm of which reaches the listener through a phrasing that is unrivalled. This music, which despite the grandiloquence of its imagery never strays from the perspective of an intimate narrative, must be rendered with an extremely long breath, with a melancholic subtlety of inflection such that it borders on silence. And it is precisely in these spasms verging on silence that the fate of this music is decided. The great interpreter manages to unravel this intangible thread without severing it; indeed, he suspends upon it all the seductions of the Romantic imagination, and in this supreme art, our Bolet has very few equals.' [Enzo Restagno, La Stampa ] FULL REVIEW HERE

29 August 1986

Teatro Carignano, Turin (Italy)

Haydn, Andante & Variations in F minor, Hob.XVII:6 (Un Piccolo Divertimento) and Sonata No.62 in E-flat major, Hob.XVI:52, Schumann, Fantasy in C, Chopin, 4 Ballades

3-5, 8 September 1986

Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London: recording
CHOPIN Ballade No.1 in G minor Op.23, Ballade No.2 in F Op.38, Ballade No.3 in A flat Op.47, Ballade No.4 in F minor Op.52; Fantasie in F minor Op.49; Barcarolle in F sharp Op.6

[c.16 September 1986]

Frankfurt, Germany

Recital

18 September 1986

Salle Olivier Messiaen, Paris

Liszt, Concerto pour piano et orchestre n°2 en la majeur

"Nouvel" Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/ Marek Janowski

24, 25 September 1986

Oakland

Liszt 2

JB flew on 2 October from Las Vegas-JFK-LHR

5 October 1986

Royal Festival Hall, London

(as 10 Oct. 1986)

'The recital high point was Bolet's sensitively coloured account of Grieg's G minor Ballade.'

(Richard Morrison, The Times)

8 October 1986

Royal Festival Hall, London

Philharmonia/James Loughran

Beethoven, Emperor Concerto

'Jorge Bolet failed to locate either the subtleties in the music, or, indeed, a good number of the notes.' The 73 year old Witold Lutoslawski received the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society. Reading the names of the other 72 musicians honoured in the 115 years of the award induced vertigo in him; it was presented by Sir Michael Tippett. Lutoslawski then conduced his own third symphony.

(Richard Morrison, The Times, 10.10.1986)

10 October 1986

de Doelen, Rotterdam

Haydn, Grieg's Ballade in G minor (Ballade i form av variasjoner over en norsk folkevise), Franck, Prelude, Aria & Finale, Liszt, Venezia e Napoli

13 October 1986

Munich, West Germany (radio broadcast)

Haydn: Andante & Variations in F minor, Hob.XVII:6 (Un Piccolo Divertimento)

Haydn: Piano Sonata No.62 in E-flat major, Hob.XVI:52

16 October 1986

Berlin, Philharmonie

(same programme as 10th; Konzertdirektion Otfried Laur, Hardenbergstrasse 6)

23, 26 October 1986
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England

Liszt 1/ Tchaikovsky

Hallé Orchestra/ Stanislaw Skrowaczewski

[These were Jorge's only performances with the Hallé, an orchestra founded in 1857 by Sir Charles Hallé, a Prussian and later British pianist and conductor.]

24 October 1986

City Hall, Sheffield, England (JB's Sheffield début, return visit in February 1987)

Tchaikovsky 1 [+ George Benjamin, Ringed by the Flat Horizon & R. Strauss, Ein Heldenleben]

Hallé Orchestra/ Stanislaw Skrowaczewski

The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligence opined that the inclusion of the Benjamin - music depicting a storm in New Mexico - ensured dozens of empty seats!

JB flew on 27 October Manchester (9:45am)-LHR (1:30pm on TWA)-JFK (5:50pm on TWA)-San Francisco, scheduled to arrive at 9:02pm

14, 15 November 1986

Cincinnati Symphony, Paavo Berglund

21, 22 November 1986

Austin, Texas

Austin Symphony Orchestra / Sung Kwak

[South Korean Sung Kwak served as the Music Director and Conductor of the orchestra from 1982 to 1996.]

24 November 1986

VII FESTIVAL DE MUSICA ROMANTICA Palau de la Musica Catalana, Barcelona

Grieg, Brahms, Liszt, Chopin (or was this 24 January 1987? Or were there two recitals?)

25 November 1986

The Playhouse,Harlow, Essex, England.

(as 27 Nov.)

27 November 1986

London

Brahms 2

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Hungarian/American Antal Dorati

30 November 1986

Avery Fisher Hall, NYC

as 10th October

Jorge was filling in for a canceled recital by Martha Argerich, and he zipped in between European engagements to do so. (Will Crutchfield, The New York Times 2.12.86)

2 December 1986

St Louis Missouri

3 December 1986

Ambassador College, Pasadena, USA.

Grieg, Edvard, 1843-1907. Ballade i form av variasjoner over en norsk folkevise Op.24

Liszt, Franz, 1811-1886. Ballade no. 2, B minor

Brahms, Johannes, 1833-1897. Ballades op. 10

Chopin, Frédéric, 1810-1849. Ballades

Encores: Georges BIZET (1838–1875), L’Arlésienne Suite No. 1 (1872) III. Adagietto (arr. 1927, Leopold GODOWSKY, 1870–1938)

CHOPIN 12 Etudes, Op. 25 (1837), No. 1 in A flat major, ‘Harp Study’ & No. 2 in F minor

Listen here

9-10 December 1986

Georgia Pacific Auditorium, 133 Peachtree St., Atlanta, Georgia

The Virtuoso Pianist (Jorge is filmed by Frank Bell before a live audience)

12 (15?) December 1986

Herbst Theater, San Francisco, California

Haydn: Andante & Variations in F minor, Hob.XVII:6 (Un Piccolo Divertimento); onata No.62 in E-flat major, Hob.XVI:52

Schumann: Fantasy in C major, Op.17

Grieg: Ballade in G minor (in the form of Variations on a Norwegian Folk Song), Op.24

Liszt: Venezia e Napoli, S.162

1987

'The French in particular have taken to Jorge Bolet in a big way. "I find what the French press have written about me actually embarrassing. I feel a terrible responsibility. Everywhere I play is sold out weeks in advance. I get on the stage and say to myself, "I am sure that every person has come into this whole convinced that they are going to hear the world's greatest pianist. That's a terrible reputation to live up to. It's almost frightening" And later:

"I'm a disaster in a small hall. I am used to the big concert hall and my whole playing is geared to the big space."'

The Age, Melbourne (28 February 1987)

4 January 1987

Eastern Branch Library (Monmouth County), Allentown, NJ

Franck Quintet (with 4 members of the New York Philharmonic)

8 January 1987

Carnegie Hall, NYC

Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat and his Hungarian Fantasia

Orchestra of St. Luke's/ Julius Rudel

10 January 1987

Royce Hall, Los Angeles

as 20 January.

"With a recital at the start of a new year by a musician of Jorge Bolet's longevity, the situation seemed right for a profound meditation on the passage of time. But Saturday night, his pianism proved timeless, an absolute standard unto itself. Though Bolet is still, an indomitably stiff, patrician figure, the years were apparent as he took the Royce Hall stage. But they disappeared at the keyboard under the force of a technique that is the despair of much younger fingers everywhere. (John Henken)

20 January 1987

Salle Pleyel, Paris, France

Haydn: Andante & Variations in F minor, Hob.XVII:6 (Un Piccolo Divertimento)

Haydn: Piano Sonata No.62 in E-flat major, Hob.XVI:52

Schumann: Fantasy in C major, Op.17

Grieg: Ballade in G minor (in the form of Variations on a Norwegian Folk Song), Op.24

Liszt: Venezia e Napoli, S.162

22 January 1987

Teatro La Fenice, Venice

Programme as 20 January

Jorge's only appearance (?) in this illustrious house (1792).

24 January 1987

Palau de la Música, Barcelona

Grieg, Brahms, Liszt, Chopin.

2 February 1987

St John, Smith Square, London at 1pm.

Grieg, Ballade in G minor, Op 24 Rachmaninoff, Four Preludes; Polka de W. R. (advertised but apparently not played); Kreisler, transcribed Rachmaninoff, Liebesleid; Liebesfreud.

4 February 1987

Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, England

Liszt, Piano Concerto No. 1 & Totentanz [+ Mozart 34 "Linz" & Dvorak, Golden Spinning Wheel]

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/ Libor Pešek

[This was the Czech maestro's first appearance as conductor elect of the orchestra. Pešek would later appointed an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1996 for his services to music in Britain, on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II's state visit to Prague. Sandra Parr, Artistic Planning Director (Orchestra and Ensembles): “Without doubt he lifted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra to international heights whilst principal conductor for ten seasons from 1987."

In a little bit of amusing local rivalry, the Manchester Evening News stated that Jorge's Liverpool performance would be a good warm-up before Manchester on 10th!]

6 February 1978

The Derngate, Northampton

(as 4 Feb.)

7 February 1987

City Hall, Sheffield, England

Liszt, Piano Concerto No. 1

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Libor Pesek. Jorge would also play Chopin's Ballades 2 & 4 as encores (?)

10 February 1987

Manchester Free Trade Hall, England

Liszt 2 [+ Jan Václav Voříšek, Symphony in D major Op.23 (1821); Ravel, Alborada del gracioso]

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/Bernhard Klee

The hall was onyl half-full. THe symphony by Beethoven's Bohemioan contemporary was agreeable but left no lasting impression, said Chris Aspin, The Manchester Evening News (10 February 1987) mentions piano technician Denjis de Winter and the Bechstein brought from Europe. See here.

c.12 February 1987

Cologne, Germany (?)

20 February 1987

De Vereeniging, Nijmegen (Holland)

Recital (as 10 January)

22 February 1987

Main Hall (Grote Zaal) of the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

Recital (as 10 January)

On Monday 23, he flies home from Amsterdam to San Francisco, via JFK on TWA

On 23 February JB flew from Amsterdam to San Francisco via JFK on TWA, arriving that evening at 8:57pm. He then flew the next evening (24) on Qantas QF4 on their flagship transpacific route from San Francisco at 9pm to Sydney, via Honolulu (1:40am). He landed in Sydney at 8:40am on Thursday 26th, then flew immediately on to Melbourne at 10am.

Australian tour

Jorge Bolet will appear with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hubert Soudant:

28 February 1987

Melbourne

Beethoven 3 in C minor, Rachmaninoff/Paganini

Melbourne Symphony/ Hubert Soudant [b.1946 in Maastricht, Netherlands]

None of these concerts should be missed. Bolet's talent is unique and will be marked down in the history of piano playing. (Kenneth Hince, though he found the Schubert Wanderer on 4 March a bit stilted and rigid - "His approach to the music was very set, preconceived, cut, and dried. It was as if he expected the conductor and orchestra to follow his lead strictly, and absolutely, so that he did not have to establish with them a relation of tact and compromise. Well, so they did, but at a price.")

4 March 1987

Melbourne

Beethoven 4 in G major, Schubert/Liszt, Wanderer fantasy

Melbourne Symphony/ Hubert Soudant

7 March 1987

Melbourne Concert Hall

Beethoven, Piano Concerto No.5 in E flat, "Emperor"

Melbourne Symphony/ Hubert Soudant

On Sunday 8th, he flies from Melbourne at 2:15pm to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific, arriving 8pm

9 March 1987

City Hall Concert Hall, Hong Kong

Haydn's Andante con variazioni Hob XVII/6 and Sonata No.62 in E-flat major, Hob.XVI:52; Schumann's Fantasy in C major Op. 17; Grieg, Ballade in G minor Op. 24 and ending with Liszt's Venezia e Napoli.

(Jorge had performed once before in HK, on 6 July 1965 during his first tour of Australia.)

Singapore?

Concerts in Singapore on Friday and Saturday,13/14 March 1987 were advertised in late 1986 (The Straits Times, 22 December): Rachmaninoff 3 with the Singapore Symphony under Choo Hoey, followed by the challengingly severe Symphony No 4 in F minor by Ralph Vaughan Williams (a Singapore première in the presence of the composer's widow, Ursula VW). This was to be in Victoria Concert Hall, the oldest concert hall in Singapore. But Jorge does not appear to have played there, nor does he mention it in his date book.

Jorge flew from Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific on 11 March to South Korea arriving 3:10pm

He had a rehearsal on the 13th.

14 March 1987

[Sejong Centre for the Performing Arts?], Seoul, South Korea

[Rachmaninoff 3?]

Seoul Philharmonic/ [Jae-Dong Jeong was Music Director during 1974~1990.]

Earl Wild was also in South Korea in late April 1987 when he performed the Tchaikovsky concerto with the KBS Symphony Orchestra (KBS 교향악단), the radio orchestra of the Korean Broadcasting System. The orchestra had two homes, KBS HAll in Yeouido, Seoul, and the Seoul Centre for the Performing Arts. (Wild had only one tour of Australia, in March 1988, Bicentennial year. He had problems with Czech conductor Jiří Stárek, who was a substitute for Mark Elder, and in fact cancelled a concert in Perth, Western Australia, because of this. )

18/19 March 1987

City Hall Concert Hall, Hong Kong

Schubert/Liszt's Wanderer Fantasy (an arrangement of Schubert's Fantasie in C, D760)

Hong Kong Philharmonic / Kenneth Jean.

'Bolet was called out for an unheard-of eight curtain calls' (South China Morning Post)

22 March 1987

Melbourne Concert Hall

recital (as 20 January)

24 March 1987

Adelaide, South Australia

recital

26 March 1987

[Opera House], Sydney

recital (as 20 January)

At one of these above three recitals - probably in Sydney (as reported by Fred Blanks in ⁨⁨The Australian Jewish Times⁩, 9 April 1987⁩, clapping erupted at the end of the March of the Schumann Fantasy while Bolet still had the sustaining pedal on, as he liked to let the big crashing final chord die out before moving on to the slow movement without a break. He waved impatiently with one hand, clearly upset.

28 March 1987

Perth Concert Hall, Perth, Western Australia

César Franck's Symphonic Variations; Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto no. 2 in C minor Op. 18

West Australian Symphony Orchestra under Dobbs Franks (actually Patrick Thomas)

The Age, Melbourne, Saturday 28 February 1987 published an interview with Jorge in his suite of the Hyatt Hotel, on Collins Street, during which he told that he'd just performed in a bank in Saarbrucken, West Germany. (He also mentioned somewhere else a recital in a bank in Peru.)

During this tour, Jorge was filmed in a Chopin & Liszt recital at Rippon Lea House and Gardens, 192 Hotham Street, Elsternwick, Victoria 3185.

The previous year (1986) Larry Tucker (Columbia Artists Management) had sent a telegram to a Japanese agent Masahide Kajimoto dated 4 April: 'Mr Mac Finley, who is business manager of the great pianist Jorge Bolet, will be in Tokyo May 7 and 8 [1986]. It is my hope that you could meet with him to discuss possible tour with Mr Bolet in the near future. He will be touring the Orient in March 1987 and still has March 8-11 as well as 28-31 available.'

Kajimoto Concert Management had been founded in May 1951 in Osaka by Masahide's father, Naoyasu. It was based in the Tokaido Ginza Bldg., Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo. In 1970 it had extended the first invitation to Japan to Martha Argerich; Vladimir Horowitz (1983, 1986), Herbert von Karajan (1984, 1988). An email to me (April 2022) from the present Kajimoto CM states: 'We have checked our files, and it seems Kajimoto has never worked with Mr. Bolet. According to our senior colleagues, he might have worked with either Kanbara or another agency in Japan, but both of them do not exist anymore.' (It transpires that Jorge did indeed work with Kanbara: see November 1988 for his third and final appearance in Japan.)

Publicity states 'Jorge Bolet is making a return visit to New Zealand to perform as guest soloist with the NZSO. He was last here in 1964.'

4 April 1987

Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington

Beethoven C minor concerto (No. 3)

New Zealand SO, Franz-Paul Decker, conductor.

7 April, 1987

Town Hall, Wellington

Peter Mechen, a New Zealand-based music reviewer, may be referring to this recital: "I was privileged to hear his Schumann C Major Fantasia in Wellington in 1987 - then, after the interval at the same concert we got Liszt's Venezia e Napoli - simply coruscating! He also, I remember, put carpet slippers after wearing his patent leather shoes to the piano - one of the most unselfconscious musicians I've ever encountered!"

Wellington's National Library moved into a new building at this time. 'The 200-seat auditorium, an integral part of the new building, opened with a recital and reception for the Wellington music community, at which the National Library’s Bechstein grand was played by visiting international pianist Jorge Bolet. The magnificent new National Library of New Zealand: Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa finally opened to the public on 1 July 1987.'

Julia Millen, Te Rau Herenga, a century of library life in Aotearoa : the New Zealand Library Association 1910-2010

11 April 1987

Town Hall, Auckland on Saturday 11 April.

19-20 April 1987 (Sunday 3pm, Monday 8pm)

Video recordings of Bolet performing were made by Frank Bell in the Georgia-Pacific Center Auditorium, Atlanta, Georgia

Liszt Benediction, Ballade No. 2, 5 Transcendental Etudes, Dante Sonata, Grand Galop, Chopin 4 Ballades, Fantasy in F minor, Barcarolle, Franck. {Baldwin SD-10}

It only attracted about 100 people on each of the two days.

23 April 1987

Metropolitan Museum of Art.NYC

26 April 1987 (Sunday, 3:30pm)

High School, Montclair (Chestnut & Park Streets), New Jersey

(as 20 January)

1 May 1987

Stamford Center for the Arts, Connecticut

10, 12 May 1987

Stevens Center, Winston-Salem, NC (last here in 1976)

Brahms 2

Winston-Salem Symphony/Peter Perret

Curiously - as he owned an apartment there for many years - Jorge tells the journalist that New York is one of the cities he would never ever come to unless he were playing there.

15, 16 May 1987

Circle Theater, Indianapolis

Grieg {+ Saint Saëns ,Organ Symphony [No.3] and José Pablo Moncayo, Huapango]

Indianapolis Symphony/John Nelson (Jorge Mester)

19, 20 May 1987

Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Montreal, Canada

Rachmaninoff 2

OSM/Charles Dutoit

21-22 May 1987 St.Eustache, Montreal (recording session for Decca)
Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Charles Dutoit
[a] TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor Op.23
[b] RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor Op.18

8-10 June 1987 St.Barnabas, Woodside Park, London: recording for Decca
CHOPIN Preludes Op.28; four Nocturnes Op.27, Op.55/1 & Op62/2

14 June 1987

Teatro alla Scala, Milan

Mendelssohn Prelude & Fugue in E minor, Chopin Preludes Op.28, Franck, Prelude, Chorale & Fugue, Liszt paraphrases on Donizetti & Verdi).

This is Jorge's only appearance in this legendary opera house. He chose to remove Bellini/Liszt, Réminiscences de Norma S394 from the initial programme. because he didn't feel he knew it well enough yet and was also painfully aware of how some of the greatest sopranos in the world of opera had sung Norma there.

18 June 1987

Mann Music Center, Philadelphia

Liszt 1 and 2

Philadelphia Orchestra/Charles Dutoit

24 June 1987

Kennedy Center, Washington DC

Mozart, Concerto No.15 in B flat K.450

1 July 1987

Waldbühne Berlin, in the Olympic Park, Glockenturmstraße

Peter Tschaikowsky: Klavierkonzert Nr. 1 b-moll op. 23
Berlin Philharmonic/Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos

23, 26 July 1987

Meadow Brook Summer series, Michigan

Rachmaninoff

30 July/2 August 1987

Meadow Brook Summer series, Oakland University, Michigan

Schumann concerto [+ his overture to Julius Caesar, or possibly Hermann u. Dorothea]

Detroit Symphony/ Jerzy Semkow

In a survey of the year December 1987, the Detroit Free Press recorded: "Bolet floundered his way through the Schumann, a work he has played to near-perfection in the past."

7/8 August 1987

Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles.

Tchaikovsky concerto

Montreal Symphony under Charles Dutoit.

21, 22 August 1987

Mostly Mozart, Avery Fisher Hall, NYC

Mozart, Piano Concerto No.15 in B flat K.450

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra/ Gerard Schwarz

23 August 1987

Planting Fields Arboretum, Oyster Bay, Long Island

Mozart, Piano Concerto No.15 in B flat K.450 [+ Symphony No.20 K133 and No. 41 in C, Jupiter K.551]

Mostly Mozart, Festival Orchestra/ Gerard Schwarz

30 August 1987

The Aberdeen Press & Journal (12.8.87) reports that JB will record a recital in Findhorn, Morayshire (Scotland) for future broadcast on the BBC. This is the Chopin-Godowsky recital (coupled with an interview by Michael Oliver) which in the end went out in January 1989. The Northern Scot and Moray & Nairn Express (28.8.1987) advertised free BBC tickets (at shops in Forres, Findhorn and Elgin) for the recital which starts at 3pm on Sunday.

The Forres Elgin and Nairn Gazette, 16 September 1987 observed that Bolet was 'dapper, diffident, sober-suited, with shoes as dazzling black as his own enormous ebony piano, had first to face questions from the BBC's Michael Oliver'.

12-14 September 1987

Liszt Totentanz, Hungarian Fantasy [+Mussorgsky/Ravel, Pictures at an Exhibition]

Houston Symphony/Sergiu Comissiona, who had fled the Communist regime in Romania in 1959.

"The celebrated Chilean pianist", according to The Houston Post. "The opening week had its backstage trauma. A brand-new Baldwin piano shipped direct from the factory for Bolt's. use was ruined Thursday evening (10th) when its rear leg came off after hitting a crack in the floor while being moved below the stage for some technical adjustment. Douglas Whitaker said the piano's cast iron frame was cracked, rendering it worthless. Financial responsibility for the accident has not been assigned, but Bolet use the Symphony's Baldwin piano Saturday (12th)."

25, 26 September 1987

El Paso, Texas

Beethoven 4

El Paso Symphony/Abraham Chávez Jr.

4 October 1987

Herkulessaal, Residenz, Munich, Germany

Mendelssohn, Prelude & Fugue in E minor Op.35/1, Rondo Capriccioso Op.14

Beethoven, Appassionata
C.Franck, Prélude, Choral et Fugue

Liszt, Réminiscences de Norma S394

Konzertdirektion Wolf Siegl

12, 13 October 1987

Opera House, Seattle

Rachmaninoff 2

Seattle Symphony/Herman Michael

17 October 1987

Performing Arts Center, SUNY, Purchase, NY

Mendelssohn, Prelude & Fugue in E minor Op.35/1, Rondo Capriccioso Op.14

Beethoven, Appassionata
C.Franck, Prélude, Choral et Fugue

Liszt, Réminiscences de Norma S394

22, 23, 24 and 27 October 1987

Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, New York CIty

Jorge's final appearance with the New York Philharmonic (Erich Leinsdorf).

Grieg / Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16

[Sibelius, Jean / Symphony No. 4 in A minor, Op. 63; Borodin, Alexander / Symphony No. 2 in B minor]

(Sibelius 4 - this basically enigmatic work fell apart, though Borodin 2 was better: Bill Zakariasen)

1 Nov 1987

Palermo, Sicily

Recital

4 November 1987

Αuditorium RAI « ARTURO TOSCANINI », Via Rossini/Piazza Rossaro, Turin

Mendelssohn (Preludio e fuga in mi minore e Rondò capriccioso in mi maggiore op. 14), Beethoven (Sonata in fa minore op. 54 «Appassionata»), Franck (Prelude, choral et tugue) e Liszt (Rémlniscences de Norma, tratte dal Bellini).

[7 November 1987]

Teatro della Pergola, Firenze/Florence, Italy

Recital

[8 November 1987]

Perugia, Umbria, Italy

Recital

[11 November 1987]

Milan, Italy

Recital

13 November 1987

Barbican Centre, London.

Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2

Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal/Charles Dutoit

"A slipshod but mesmerisingly introspective reading," Arthus Kaptainis, Gazette (Montreal)

"He has certainly played better than on this occasion and the moroseness was not wholly a result of the C minor tonality. Mr Bolet is known to have firm views on Rachmaninov's pacing. (Rachmaninov is said to have thought that, when he himself was giving concerts, he sometimes played too fast), but Mr Bolet went to the other extreme, not just in his disastrous slackening is of speed, and his studied, slow articulation, but also in view of his previously vigorous performances, the surprising slump in his ideas of keeping the music going at all." Geoffrey Norris, Daily Telegraph

Jorge had in fact taken various medications that morning in his hotel, but he had unfortunately got them mixed up, and this is what probably caused the performance.

'It was during his 1987 New York season that we noticed his weight loss and increasing instances of inconsistent and/or uninvolved playing. That gorgeous Bolet sound was still there, but the ecstasy, poetry, and seemingly inexhaustible reserves of strength and power often gave way to introspection and caution. Interrupting another hundred-plus concert season to have minor surgery performed by his lifelong friend, Dr. Richard Carlson, it fell to Dr. Carlson to tell Bolet on 7 December 1988, the results of the HIV test required by the State of California whenever an invasive surgery was performed. Jorge was silent for a long moment and then looked at his friend directly and asked one question: “What do I need to do to stay active for as long as possible?” Francis Crociata

[17 November 1987]

Teatro Comunale Piccinni, Bari (Apulia), Italy

Recital

20 November 1987

Sainte-Etienne, France

Recital

23 November

Theatre des Champs-Elysees , Paris

including Beethoven's Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op.75 Appassionata, Franck's Prélude, choral et fugue and Bellini/Liszt Réminiscences de Norma)

[25 November 1987]

Basel, Switzerland [?]

Basler Sinfonie-Orchester/Witold Rowicki

4 December 1987

Robert-Schumann Saal, Düsseldorf, Germany

Recital

[7 December 1987]

Hannover, Germany

Recital

[11 December 1987]

Münster, Germany

Recital

[17, 19/20 December 1987]

Hannover, Germany

Mendelssohn: Rondo Capriccioso, Op.14

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No.23 in F minor, Op.57 (Appassionata)
Franck: Prelude, Chorale & Fugue

Liszt: Réminiscences de Norma (Bellini), S.394

Northern_Scot_and_Moray__Nairn_28_August_1987_0025_Clip.jpg

Watch

1988

"I think that I may have been instrumental in convincing the world that Liszt wasn't a second- or third-rate 19th century composer..." San Francisco Chronicle, 5 October 1988

The Carmel Pine Cone (29 December ,1987) had announced that Jorge would play on Sunday 3 January 1988 in Sunset Theatre, Carmel, California.[?]

9, 10, 11 [or 8-10] January 1988

San Jose/ Flint Center, Cupertino, California

Tchaikovsky 1

San Jose Symphony/ George Cleve

The San Jose Mercury described Jorge as "invincible". Each note and phrase was placed just so, as if it were intended for some 19th century Fabergé minature. he savours Tchaikovsky like some rare sherry. His first appearance here was a coup for the Symphony.

Allan Ulrich in the San Francisco Examiner: "Bolet remembers the concerto differently from the rest of us. From the piano's first entr - those trios of rising stentorian chords - one knew this was not to be the Tchaikovsky of common lore, the heart-on-sleeve sentimentalist...

There was no dancing on the keyboard Friday evening. Disdaining surface allure, Bolet offered Tchaikovsky of uncommon sobriety, persuasive monumentality, and stony grandeur. He carved, chiselled, drilled, and sculpted a marble edifice to romanticism that, paradoxically, may have been one of the least overtly romantic and one of the more fascinating Tchaikovsky Firsts of anyone's concert going career. He still commands a ringing tone, a masterful deployment of pedal and flexibility in passage work, and it was his insights into the concerto which, understandably, coloured the performance of the orchestra. There were trade-offs, of course. A less than mercurial Andantino followed the massive opening movement and in the finale, Bolet preferred to isolate notes, rather than sewing them together in a seamless fabric."

14, 16, 17 January 1988

Boettcher Concert Hall, 13th & Curtis, Denver, Colorado

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30

Denver Symphony/ Gaetano Delogu

21, 22 January 1988

The Tennessee Theater, Knoxville, Tennessee

Chopin 1

Knoxville Symphony/Kirk Trevor

Jorge arrived in London on 24 January

28 January 1988

Royal Festival Hall, London

Rachmaninoff 3

Royal Philharmonic and Witold Rowicki

30 January 1988

The Congress Theatre, Eastbourne, England

Rachmaninoff 3 [+ Bruckner 7]

Royal Philharmonic and Witold Rowicki

1-4 February 1988

Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London

César Franck: Prélude, Aria et Final & Prélude, Choral et Fugue are recorded for Decca

He flew on TWA at 1:30pm from Heathrow to Philadelphia

7 February 1988

Curtis Institute, 18th & Locust streets, Philadelphia

(as 25 Feb. 1988, with an encore by Faure - assuming it is correctly identified!)

The programme lists Ronald A. Wilford (1927–2015) and Lawrence E. Tucker as "Personal Direction" for JB at Columbia Artists Management. Wilford was one of the most powerful figures in classical music in the second half of the 20th century, running Columbia Artists Management for decades. His 2015 New York Times obituary ran approximately 900 words.

9, 10 February 1988

The Forum Auditorium, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 [+Janaček, Sinfonietta]

Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, Larry Newland

20, 21 February 1988

Tarrant County Convention Center, Fort Worth, Texas

Grieg

Fort Worth Symphony/Enrique Garcia-Asensio

In an interview for Madrid music magazine Ritmo (1 April 1974), Spanish conductor Enrique Garcia Asensio (born Valencia, 1937) states that it is definite he will record the Liszt concertos with Bolet for the Ensayo label in September in London, with the New Philharmonia. [But I don't think this happened.]

On 5 February 1976, in City Hall, Cape Town/ Kaapstad Jorge had played Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major & Hungarian Fantasy with Enrique Garcia Asensio.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Wayne Lee Gay) noted a sensitive original approach to the Grieg, but "the big puzzle last night was why the pianist and conductor couldn't seem to put their sensitive approaches together. Bolet was, as usual, a wizard at pulling a wide range of colour and expression from the piano. He took an appealingly underplayed approach to a piece that's all too often milked for blood and thunder. But he also indulged and erratic and unpredictable tempos, slowing up at some odd points. Though it's difficult to know exactly what was happening between Garcia and Bolet, orchestra and pianist was simply not together much of the time."

25 February 1988

Meany Theater, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington State

Mendelssohn, Prelude & Fugue in E minor Op.35/1, Rondo Capriccioso Op.14

Beethoven, Appassionata
C.Franck, Prélude, Choral et Fugue

Liszt, Réminiscences de Norma S394

The near-capacity audience liked it all, confirming the well-known observation that typical American classical music audiences prefer over-familiar music to anything modern or innovative. Bolet is known, of course, for his robust and technically dazzling renditions of the big Liszt transcriptions, music that is almost devoid of substance but long on color and drama. His choice for this concert was of that ilk "Reminiscences of Bellini's 'Norma" The melodies are there, all right, but so overwhelmed by filigree and froufrou that they seem more the excuse than the reason for being. Lisztean excess is everywhere present in this 19th century dodo.

Polet played it with an apparent sense of conviction, though his facial and body expressions are now so masked by impassivity that it is hard to know how he feels about his art. His fingers are nimble and the chords often extremely forceful, though he tended to be heavy on the pedaling. so that many passages had a blurred quality.

His rendering of Mendelssohn's "Rondo capriccioso" was, to these ears, the most appealing piece on the program (perhaps because I played it so much in my youth). It has, at its best, a "Midsummer Night's Dream feeling, with its airy arpeggios and skittery scherzo rhythms. Bolet's touch there was light and wonderfully agile.

He presented the Beethoven "Appassionata sonata forthrightly and with suitable gravity or mock profundity. (The more one listens to Beethoven's more serious work, the less profound it seems.) And the same could be said for the "Prelude, Chorale and Fugue" by Cesar Franck, an often noisy work that seems as empty of content and true feeling as Liszt's big works.

Without doubt, Bolet is still a major artist, one whose career has spanned about half the 20th century. We should be grateful that he still performs with vigor and command, but we must look to other artists for a sense of what the 20th century musical impulses can mean. (Eugene Smith, The Daily Herald, Everett, Washington)

Seattle Gay News: "Is this the same Bolet who is lionized by the eastern press?"

29 February/Tuesday 1 March 1988

(the Tuesday at both 10.30am and in the evening)

Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Place des Arts, Montreal, Canada

Grieg's Piano Concerto

Jorge had been due to play with Mexican maestro Eduardo Mata and Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. But in the end, Mata was indisposed, and the Czech conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Libor Pesek (aged 55) took over. (He replaced the Sinfonia India by Chavez)

4 March 1988

Carnegie Hall NYC

included Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57, "Appassionata" (1804-1805) and Vincenzo Bellini (1801—1835) Réminiscences de Norma, S. 393 (1841 arr. Franz Liszt).

[6 March 1988]

Manhattan School of Music

Jorge was a participant (in conference?)

13 March 1988 (Sunday, 3:15pm)

Royal Festival Hall, London

inc. Franck, Prelude, Chorale & Fugue, Beethoven Sonata No.31 Op. 110 in A flat and Bellini/Liszt, Réminiscences de Norma. [Harrison/Parrott Ltd]

"The Norma was one of the great performances in the old, now largely vanished grand manner. The Lisztian cascades of notes (which the Russian poet Mandelstam once likened to wide staircases festooned with bells) were delivered with a lofty and scintillating bravura. In the ravishing central section...his playing was a kaleidoscopic miracle of subtly blended touch and colour. It preserved that air of instantly recreative spontaneity which, above all, separates the older romantic tradition from the modern style of piano playing in which everything seems to have been forever fixed, polished, and rigorously researched, down to the very last semiquaver. (...) The single but crucial blindspot in the programme was Beethoven Op.110. For Bolet has never been the most convincing of Beethoven pianists. Its closing fugue was shaped with an exemplary clarity but drained of any sense of what might be described as philosophical grit. His gently musing treatment of the opening moderato, almost in the manner of a Chopin nocturne, also sounded simply lethargic - all too tentative and unidiomatic." Robert Henderson, Daily Telegraph

[17 March 1988]

Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse/Hans Drewanz

24, 26 March 1988

Powell Symphony Hall, St Louis , Missouri

Tchaikovsky 1 [+ Albëniz El Corpus en Sevilla]

St Louis Symphony/Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos

"He played the daylights out of it Thursday evening, just as he did nine years ago on his previous Powell Hall engagement. His technique is impeccable and he lacks nothing in terms of finesse or elegance. At the same time, he gives the impression that everything he does, is governed by an immense strength, that is as much mental as physical.(...) Even in the concertos, softer more lyric sections, a feeling of intensity crackles through the air; in those sections, where the music really is intense, the results are likely to be explosive." James Wierzbicki

30, 31 March, 1, 2 April 1988

Englewood, Red Bank, Trenton, Newark, NJ

Chopin 2

New Jersey Symphony/Zdeněk Mácal

4 April 1988

Carolyn Blount Theater, Montgomery, Alabama USA (as part of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival)
MENDELSSOHN Prelude & Fugue in E minor Op.35/1, LISZT Réminiscences de Norma S394
FRANCK Prélude, Choral et Fugue (recorded)

Encores (which did not make their way onto the published disc included Weber/Godowsky: Invitation to the Dance, Op.65

7 April 1988

Barbican Hall, London

Liszt 1 [+R.Strauss, Till Eulenspiegel, Ravel, Rhapsodie Espagnole, Ma Mère L'Oye]

LSO/Michael Tilson Thomas

11 April 1988

Bern Casino Hall, Bern, Switzerland

Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Franck; Liszt

19 April 1988 [?]

Strasbourg, France

22 April 1988

Gothenburg/Göteborgs konserthuset, Sweden

Edvard Grieg, Piano Concerto

Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Riccardo Chailly

24 April 1988

Konserthuset, Stockholm.
Edvard Grieg, Piano Concerto

Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Riccardo Chailly

30 April/ 2 & 3 May 1988

Auditorio Pio, Rome

Rachmaninoff, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Op. 43

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under David Shallon

(the second of only two appearances with this orchestra, the first being in January 1973)

(The concert programme in the IPAM contains a business card from Gratton Mirko, Decca manager in Italy)

Jorge told a Belgian newspaper (De Standaard, 25 May 1988) that he had never performed in Belgium ['because I have never been invited"] but in the autumn he will embark upon an extensive European tour with the BBC Symphony, which will include a date in Brussels/ Bruxelles.

7[?] May 1988

Kulturraum [?], Bamberg, West Germany

One of the two Liszt concertos.

Bamberger Symphoniker/Rudolf Barshai (1924-2010), Russian conductor resident in Switzerland (he left the Soviet Union in 1977)

The former Dominikanerkirche (Dominican church) served as the orchestra's primary domicile from 1950 until 1993. The orchestra moved into the newly built Konzerthalle Bamberg in 1993; main arena was the Joseph-Keilberth-Hall. Jorge had been due to perform Liszt No.1 with Barshai on15 April 1986 in the Donizetti Theatre, Bergamo (Italy) but this was prevented by an orchestra strike/ industrial action.

*Barshai was born in the Cossack village of Labinskaya, now Labinsk, in the Krasnodar territory, to the north of Georgia. From 1967 he conducted other orchestras and, along with Kyrill Kondrashin, was responsible for popularising Mahler's music in the USSR. By the mid-1970s, fed up with being terrorised by Goskoncert jobsworths preventing his concert travel, he applied to work abroad for a year. Told that he could go for good or not at all, in 1976 he emigrated to Israel, where he worked with the Israel Chamber Orchestra until 1981. Suddenly, he became a man without a past. The country of his birth disowned him; his name was removed from history books and even from the sleeves of his records. His recording of the Shostakovich symphonies with WDR Chorus and Symphony Orchestra (recorded in Cologne, 1992-2000) is regarded as a monument to the most important friendship of Barshai’s life.

10 May 1988

deSingel, Antwerp, Belgium (début in Belgium)

Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Franck & Bellini-Liszt

12 May 1988

Salle Pleyel Paris

Debussy and Chopin Preludes.

14 May 1988

Schwetzinger Schloss, Rokokotheather; Baden-Württemberg, Germany

including Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57 'Appassionata'; and Bellini/Liszt, Réminiscences de Norma, S. 394.

16 May 1988

Main hall of the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

Mendelssohn, Prélude and fugue opus 35 no. 1, Rondo Capriccioso opus 14, Beethoven Sonata opus 57 Appassionata. Franck, Prelude, Choral et Fugue. Liszt, Réminiscences de Norma, S. 394.

[18 May 1988]

Catholic University Brabant

Tilburg University, formerly known as the Catholic University of Brabant (Katholieke Universiteit Brabant), Netherlands

Recital

20/ 21 May 1988

Dr Anton Philipszaal/Musiektheater, The Hague, Holland

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30

Residentie-Orkest and Bruno Weill

It was after this concert that Jorge was awarded the AVRO platen publieksprijs, a prize for a recording chosen by the general public. When Jorge's recording of the concertos by Schumann and Grieg with Riccardo Chailly came out, the Dutch public gave this prize to Jorge. Jorge received the award in front of a packed audience after his performance of Rachmaninoff 3 in The Hague. In his speech, Jorge told the public how proud he was to receive this award as it was awarded not by a jury but by the listeners.

'Listeners chose his performance of Schumann and Grieg piano concertos from eighteen CDs released in 1987. On May 20, Bolet was a guest soloist with the Residentie Orkest under the direction of Bruno Weill. During this concert in the Dr. Anton Philipszaal in The Hague, AVRO Chairman Wallis de Vries presented him with the statuette belonging to the prize.' (Other awards went to mezzo-soprano Jard van Nes and pianist Gérard van Blerk.) De Volkskrant, 15 June 1988

26 May 1988

The Dome, Brighton, England

Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Franck, Liszt

9 June 1988 (or 6 September?)

Ascona, on the northern shore of Lake Maggiore, in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland

Liszt, Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude; Wagner/Liszt, Tannhäuser Overture; Schubert/Liszt, 4 songs [Der Müller und der Bach, Auf dem Wasser zu singen, Lebe Wohl!, Die Forelle], and Schubert, Sonata in A major, D 959

In June 1988, Bolet gave two concerts in the great Turkish city, once Byzantium, famously Constantinople, and - since 1930 - Istanbul.

21 and 23 June 1988

Atatürk Cultural Center, Büyük Salonu (Large Hall), Istanbul, Turkey

incl. Mendelssohn, Beethoven's "Appassionata" Op.57, F Minor No: 23, Franck's Prelüd, Koral ve Füg and Bellini/Liszt, Reminiscences de Norma.

'It turned out that we were listening at the time to two of the last concerts of Jorge Bolet, who was discovered in Turkey in the autumn of his life by giving two piano recitals during the International Istanbul Festival on 21-23 June 1988 in our country.'(Cumhuriyet obituary 1990)

25 June 1988

Meslay [nr. Tours in the Loire Valley], France

Jorge replaced an ailing Claudio Arrau in recital

23 July 1988

Riverbend Music Center, Ohio

JB cancelled his performance with the Cincinnati SO due to scheduling conflict (announced 23 February). Eugene Istomin replaced him.

10 August 1988

Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles.

Replacing the ill Vladimir Ovchinnikov

incl. Beethoven’s “Appassionata” Sonata and Liszt’s “Reminiscences de ‘Norma’ “, Cesar Franck’s “Prelude, choral et fugue”

A single encore: Godowsky’s transcription of the Adagietto from Bizet’s “L’Arlesienne”

Daniel Cariaga, Los Angeles Times: "At 73, Jorge Bolet has come to that place of a distinguished career where he is more a keyboard aristocrat than a musical barnburner. Bolet still produces heat at the piano, but not always sparks. Not the kind of conflagration, a 30-year-old firebrand can set, but the steady smouldering glow made by a mature fire-lighter. It was not an evening spent in the rocking chair, however. At the keyboard, Bolet retains that virile presence and commanding address that always characterised his appearance on the stage.[In the Norma] he offered awesomely effortless, gorgeously spun-out playing..."

26 August 1988

Teatro Odeion, Pompeii, Italy

Liszt, Schubert recital

Publicity material for the 1988/89 season - Jorge's last as it turned out - includes Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (Charles Dutoit), Orchestre National de France, Monte Carlo Philharmonic (Riccardo Chailly), Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, San Francisco Symphony and the NHK Symphony (Tokyo), recitals at Carnegie Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Alte Oper Frankfurt and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall; appearances at the Bath and Roque d’Antheron Festivals, tours of the Far East and Australia and a tour of Belgium and Germany with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Sir Edward Downes and Bernhard Klee. Michael Edgley International Ltd. advertised the upcoming performances of Jorge Bolet - 75th Birthday Tour to Australasia in October 1989 - but this was of course cancelled when Jorge retired from the stage in June that year.

6 September 1988 (or 9 June)

Chiesa del Collegio Papio, Ascona, Switzerland

· Liszt: Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude, S.173 No.3 (from Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses)

· Schubert: Piano Sonata No.20 in A major, D.959

· Schubert/Liszt: Four Song Transcriptions

o Der Müller und der Bach, D.795 No.19 (S.565 No.2)

o Auf dem Wasser zu singen, D.774 (S.558 No.2)

o Lebe wohl! (S.563 No.1) [by Weyrauch, misattributed to Schubert]

o Die Forelle, D.550 (2nd version, S.564)

· Wagner/Liszt: Overture to Tannhäuser, S.442

10 [11?] September 1988

Royal Albert Hall, London: Proms

Weber, Konzertstück in F minor [+ Mahler, Das Klagende Lied]

LSO/Michael Tilson Thomas

"Veteran he may be, virtuoso he remains, but above all, he is a vernal musician, bringing a captivating freshness to such music." Christopher Grier, Evening Standard

13 September 1988

Alte Oper, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Recital

JB flew on Wednesday 14th from Frankfurt to London Heathrow, then travelled on the 16th to Liverpool.

17 September 1988

Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, England

Grieg, PIano Concerto [+Schumann, Manfred overture; R. Strauss, Ein Heldenleben]

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Polish conductor Grzegorz Nowak

"He chose to explore a decidedly anti-heroic line emphasising the concerto's introspective, lyrical aspects. However, this apparently entailed exaggerating the "molto" in Grieg's first movement Allegro molto moderato marking to the extent that both audience and orchestra were left bemused. The slow movement fared rather better, but with Bolet proving unexpectedly fallible on occasions, antiheroic, Greig was not all it might have been." Jeremy Moore, Guardian. Conversely, Neil Tierney in the Daily Telegraph: "It was thrilling to hear Jorge Bolet infusing much subtlety and imagination into this familiar music.His clear, glittering roulades, lordly, cadenzas, and brilliantkeyboard runs were impressive. What he sometimes failed to do, alas, was to integrate his playing meticulously with that of the orchestra."

17 September, 1988, French television broadcast a studio recording entitled Jorge Bolet: Prince du Piano, which features an interview hosted by Alain Duault and three works:

Chopin: Ballade No.3 in A-flat major, Op.47

Kreisler/Rachmaninoff: Liebesfreud

Liszt: Réminiscences de Norma (Bellini), S.394

JB flew from London to San Francisco on 18 September. A selection of Debussy's Préludes was recorded 21-23 September 1988, in Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco. Decca/London had all the equipment set up for the Nielsen symphonies with Herbert Blomsted. Thursday (22) was a particularly busy day with recording 9.30-noon, then 6-10pm. He then flew SFO to Miami on 24th.

25 September 1988

Gusman Center for the Performing Arts, Miami (an AIDS benefit concert)

A review dated 27/9 by James Roos in the Miami Herald mentions JB's contribution to a piano gala. "Liszt's Norma what is a serious letdown. I don't know what has happened to Bolet,once a lion of the pianist jungle, but his Sunday night performance of Liszt's bravura transcription was unaccountably tame and turgid. He seemed to be struggling, slowly and choppily, just to get through it."

2 October, 1988

Sunset Theatre, Carmel, California

Liszt: Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude, S.173 No.3 (from Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses)

Schubert: Piano Sonata No.20 in A major, D.959

Schubert/Liszt: Four Song Transcriptions

Wagner/Liszt: Overture to Tannhäuser, S.442

One of the two encores does not feature regularly in JB's recitals, a Schubert Impromptu

Bizet/Godowsky: Adagietto from L’Arlésienne

Schubert: Impromptu in G-flat major, D.899 No.3 (Op.90 No.3)

5, 6 (2pm), 7, 8 October 1988

Davies Hall, San Francisco

Chopin's Piano Concert No. 1 [+ Messiaen, Chronochromie]

San Francisco Symphony/ Andrew Massey.
Only JB's second appearance with the orchestra after 1964. "So, for the first time in 24 years, the Symphony invited back, Cuban-born, pianist Jorge Bolet for a very odd traversal of Chopin's first concerto. Bolet may have set a record for the longest Chopin E Minor concerto in the annals. The playing was assured, magisterial, pristine and spontaneous. Bolet caressed and cuddled the score, pausing at favourite passages, stretching a phrase almost to the breaking point. The tempo started slow and it grew even slower as the performance proceeded. It snapped, of course. Bolet deployed rubato liberally, smoothed out contrast, lingered over notes for an eternity and permitted the final rondo to dribble away. Passage work glowed with enormous conviction, and a few smudged notes. It was a performance of towering individuality, and you couldn't bribe me to sit through it again." (Allan Ulrich, San Francisco Examiner 6.10.1988) The SF Chronicle: "By the time the final Rondo rolled around, the languid tempos, and laconic phrasing, began to wear thin, and what had been a lack of showmanship started to sound like a lack of inflection or passion. The latter half of the concerto went by in a stream of innocuous sound. In the end, it turns out that Chopin doesn't play all that well in pastels" The Oakland Tribune mentions a serious memory lapse in the first movement which caused the orchestra to vamp for a few seconds, and ultimately records "a disastrous performance".

A number of the reviews clearly show - even if the writers did not know it at the time - that Jorge was very unwell. But see 11 October.

On Sunday 9 September, Jorge flew at 9.14am from San Francisco via London to Manchester, England, arriving on the 10th.

11 October 1988

Victoria Hall, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, England

Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini [+ Elgar 2]

BBC Philharmonic and Sir Edward Downes

The ringing vitality of his playing belied his years, and his touch was as taut and electric as ever, without ever being flamboyant. The 18th variation of the Rhapsody melts in the mind as a choc[olate] ice melts in the mouth, and many members of the audience must've enjoyed the sensation of both. Eric Snape (Evening Sentinel)

It was either at this concert (or the one in February 1986) that Jorge had to 'make do' with a Steinway, as his Bechstein was held up in Customs..

JB had rehearsals [Liszt 1] on 14 & 15 in Manchester with Bernhard Klee, then flew on 16th to Brussels.

17 October 1988

Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels, Belgium [Festival van Vlaanderen, Flanders Festival]

Liszt 1 [+Dvorak, Symphony No.7 in D minor Op.70 (1885)]

BBC Philharmonic/ Bernhard Klee

Jacques van Deun in De Standaard (19.10.1988) noted that JB 'believes in this type of music and succeeds in elevating the concerto to a higher artist level, thereby making the work musically compelling. The elderly pianist's, almost inevitable minor slips were of no consequence as he still commands a powerful clear touch. There were however, some minor issues with synchronisation between soloist and orchestra.

18-26 October 1988: various concerts in Germany with the BBC Philharmonic under Bernhard Klee and Sir Edward Downes, the latter one of Britain's most respected conductors, noted for his championing of British music, and especially for Prokofiev and Verdi. (He studied composition with Ralph Vaughan Williams.) "Ted" conducted the opening performance (Prokofiev, War and Peace) in the Sydney Opera House on 28 September 1973 (among his assistants was the young Mark Elder). He was knighted in 1991in The Queen's Birthday Honours.

Friedrichshafen is a modern resort city located on the northern shore of Lake Constance in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, famous for its aviation history and the invention of the Zeppelin airship.

18 October 1988

Rudolf-Oetker-Halle, Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Liszt 1

BBC Philharmonic/ Bernhard Klee

19 October 1988

Stadthalle, Braunschweig, Germany (city in Lower Saxony, north of the Harz Mountains0

Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini [+Berlioz, Corsair; Tchaikovsky Suite No.3 in G major]

BBC Philharmonic/ Sir Edward Downes

20 October 1988

Kassel, on the Fulda River, Hesse, Germany

(as 19 Oct.)

23 October 1988

Rosenheim, Upper Bavaria, Germany

(as 18 Oct.)

24 October 1988

Friedrichshafen (on the Bodensee), Germany, near borders of both Switzerland and Austria

(as 19 Oct.)

26 October 1988

Rosengarten, Mannheim, Germany

Liszt 1 [+Britten, Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes; Dvorak, Symphony No.7 in D minor Op.70 (1885)]

BBC Philharmonic/ Bernhard Klee

[Recorded for the BBC Radio for transmission 1on 7 November]

On 27 October Jorge flew from Mannheim via Frankfurt to San Francisco. On Sunday 30 he then flew to Tokyo (12 noon flight) arriving on Monday afternoon (31) at 3.35pm.

2 November, 1988

Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Liszt: Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude, S.173 No.3 (from Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses), Piano Sonata in B minor, S.178, Six Consolations, S.172 and Réminiscences

de Norma (Bellini), S.394

4 November 1988

Kobe International House (Kokusai Kaikan), Kobe, Japan

Liszt: Six Consolations, S.172, Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude, S.173 No.3 (from Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses), Funérailles; Chopin, 4 Ballades.

[Kobe is located in the Kansai region just 35 km west of Osaka]

Jorge rehearsed with conductor David Atherton on 7/8 November before...

9 and 10 November 1988 (Wed/Thurs)

NHK Hall, Shibuya Tokyo

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 (filmed on 9th)

The concert also included Berlioz's overture Les Francs-juges Op. 3 and Messiaen's Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum.

NHK Symphony under David Atherton

On Monday 14, Jorge flew at 6:15pm from Tokyo to Geneva, probably via Zürich, Frankfurt, or Paris. However, Swissair Flight SR167 was historically a long-haul route during the late 20th century, notably running from Tokyo through intermediate stops like Bombay (Mumbai) onward to Geneva. The Swiss flight frequently operated using McDonnell Douglas DC-10 equipment during the late 1980s.

17 November 1988

Théâtre de Beaulieu, Lausanne, Switzerland

(as 18 Nov.)

18 November 1988

Victoria Hall, Geneva, Switzerland

Liszt 1

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Erich Leinsdorf

The reviewer expressed an opinion that this might be JB's first appearance in Geneva (but this is not so, as he had certainly been there in 1974 and 1975.

En bis, Jorge Bolet parvient, dans les quelques mesures d'un Nocturne de Chopin, au sublime par l'intensité de la poésie la plus pure. Quelques secondes réellement bouleversantes.'

"As an encore, Jorge Bolet attained, in the few bars of a nocturne by Chopin, the sublime by the intensity of the purest poetry. A few truly heartbreaking seconds." (The Nocturne is presumably a favourite encore, Op.15/2 in F # major.)

On 19 November, he travelled (by van [?] with his Bechstein and his technician Denijs de Winter) from Geneva to Venice (and from there onwards).

20 November 1988

Teatro Goldoni, Venice, Italy

Recital

23 November 1988

Imola, 40km form Bologna, Itlay

Recital

25 November 1988

Monfalcone (Friuli-Venezia Giulia, northern Italy)

Schubert, Schubert/Liszt, Wagner/Liszt, Tannhäuser

JB's first recital in this region (as Il Piccolo di Trieste 5 October 1988 had announced)

27 November 1988

Ancona, Italy

Recital

30 November 1988

Teatro Comunale Piccinni, Bari (Apulia), Italy

Recital

On Thursday, 1 December, Jorge travelled with Denijs de Winter from Bari to Paris. The driving distance is around 1,765 km (approx. 1,095 miles) depending on the route.

6 December 1988

Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30

Orchestre Colonne/Philippe Entremont

8 December 1988

Lille, France

Recital (the travel itinerary mentions "with Dominique", Dominique Werner, Jorge's agent in France for part of the 1980s.)

[9 December 1988, not mentioned in the itinerary, so possibly not]

Münster, Germany

Recital

On 11 December 1988, Jorge flew Paris-San Francisco.

1989

5 January 1989?

Monte Carlo

Orchestre Phil. de Monte-Carlo under Gianluigi Gelmetti

5-7 January 1989

Atlanta, Georgia

Chopin 2

Atlanta Symphony/ George Robert Hanson

Bella Davidovich replaced an ailing Jorge Bolet at short notice; she had little rehearsal time. (He had received notice of being HIV Positive in late 1988. He had been scheduled to fly San Francisco-Atlanta on 3 January)

On Sunday afternoon, 22 January 1989, there was a television broadcast in Britain on BBC2 entitled MASTER CRAFTSMEN - JORGE BOLET AND LEOPOLD GODOWSKY. It was probably recorded in August 1988.

15 January 1989

Whitman Hall/Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, Brooklyn College, NYC

Schubert, Sonata in A major D959, Schubert/Liszt songs, Wagner/Liszt, Tannhäuser

18 January 1989

Carnegie Hall

Cancelled?

On Friday 20 January Jorge is scheduled to fly New York-Paris, then to travel on to Monaco via Nice on 21st (3 rooms at the Hotel de Paris).

Some of the following dates may have been cancelled through illness.

25 January 1989

Monaco

Beethoven 4

Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo/Riccardo Chailly

27 January 1989

Nantes, France

Debussy & Chopin Preludes

(Jorge traveled there with Denijs de Winter, and then he flew Nantes-London on 28th)

30 January -2 February 1989

St.Barnabas, Woodside Park, London: recording session - evening of 30 Jan, all day 31 Jan & 1 Feb, afternoon & evening 2 Feb.
SCHUBERT Piano Sonata in A minor Op.143 D784; Piano Sonata in A D959

In an interview earlier, Jorge said he planned to record more Schubert, Mendelssohn and Brahms. (Riccardo Chailly had wanted to do the Brahms concertos with him).

Sunday 5 February 1989, 3pm

Royal Festival Hall, London

Jorge gave what turned out to be his last solo London recital

incl. Schubert, A major Sonata D959, Liszt, Bénédiction de Dieu; Wagner/Liszt, Tannhäuser

I myself recall this recital as having some difficult moments, e.g. during the Schubert/Liszt Die Forelle. Jorge had practised alone in the hall 10am-1pm on 3 Feb.

On 6 February 1989 he flew to San Francisco

On 26 February, Jorge arrived in Paris, and travelled on 28th with Dominique Werner to Le Havre [a major port city in Normandy] where he gave a recital that evening.

On 1 March Jorge travelled with Denijs from Paris to Montpelier (800km).

2 March 1989

Salle Molière, Opera de Montpellier, France

Debussy & Chopin Preludes

6 March 1989, Leverkusen, Germany

Recital as 5 February

Leverkusen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the eastern bank of the River Rhine between Cologne and Düsseldorf. Jorge travelled with Denijs to Leverkusen from Montpellier.

8 March 1989

Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, Germany

Recital

14 March 1989

Royal Festival Hall, London

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto no. 2 in C minor Op. 18

Philharmonia/Vladimir Ashkenazy (Jorge's itinerary lists conductor as Paavo Berglund, as does The Musical Times)

17 March 1989

Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, France

Recital as 5 February

21 March 1989

Dijon, Burgundy, France

Recital

22 March: drives with Denijs to Amsterdam

23 March 1989

Grote Zaal, Vredenburg, Utrecht (Holland)

Liszt, Benediction; Schubert D959, Wagner/Liszt, Tannhäuser.

In Godowsky's Elegy for the Left Hand (encore)the Cuban stumbled over yet another memory lapse. "I'm terribly sorry" he mumbled in defeat, and then finished his job with the courage of despair.' (Bas van Putten in De Telegraf)

In Godowsky's Elegie voor de linkerhand struikelde de Cubaan definitief over de zoveelste geheugenstoornis. „I'm terribly sorry" mompelde hij verslagen, om vervolgens met de moed der wanhoop zijn karwei af te maken.

This was to be the final performance of Jorge in Holland [but see 29/30 May], the country where his European career under the direction of the great impresario Dr Géza de Koos had begun all those years ago, in May 1935.

On 24 March 1989, Jorge flew Amsterdam-San Francisco

29, 30 March 1989, rehearsal

Newark, NJ

Chopin 2

New Jersey Symphony/ Zdenek Macal (Jorge's schedule says conductor was Hugh Wolff)

30 March 1989

Englewood, Bergen County, NJ

Chopin 2

New Jersey Symphony/

31 March 1989

Red Bank, Monmouth County, NJ

(as 30 March)

1 April 1989

Trenton, NJ

(as 30 March)

2 April 1989

Newark, NJ

(as 30 March)

Ashbury Park Press (New Jersey, 4.6.1989); "It is sad to report that the once-great pianist Jorge Bolet was unable to perform at an acceptable level in Chopin's Concerto No.2. Now 75, he appeared unsteady and his playing was that of someone whose mind is far away.

4-12 April: vacation at home in California

[15 April 1989]

Southport, Connecticut

Beethoven 5

Fairfield Chamber Orchestra/Thomas Crawford

16 April 1989

Carnegie Hall, NYC, for the last time

Liszt's Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude (1848-1853), following this with Schubert's Piano Sonata in A Major, D. 959 (1828). Then some Schubert/Liszt songs and ending with Wagner's Overture to Tannhäuser, S. 442 (1848 arr. Franz Liszt).

Bolet's long-time producer for Decca, Peter Wadland said that while the London performance (5 February) was patchy (and Jorge apologised to Peter afterwards), the New York recital was one of his best.

22, 23 April 1989

Greenville, South Carolina

Rachmaninoff 3

Greenville Symphony/ Peter Rickett

25 April 1989 [changed to 26th?]

St Louis, Missouri

Music Conservatory's Great Artists series

29, 30 April 1989

Tarrytown, Westchester County, New York

Chopin 2

New Orchestra/Paul Dunkel

Francis Brancaleone found it 'a measured but wonderful performance'.

James Wierzbick in the St Louis Post-Dispatch (30 April 1989) had a footnote. On Friday, a number of readers called to find the whereabouts of a review of the recital pianist, Jorge Bolet presented in the Conservatory's Great Artists series earlier in the week. In fact, there was no review, nor will there be. A freelance reviewer indeed went to the Conservatory on Tuesday (25th) evening, when it was announced from the stage that Bolet was ill, and could not perform; a previous commitment prevented the same reviewer from attending the recital, when it actually took place on the following evening, and the substitute critic could not be found in time. This critic regrets the omission, and apologises to Bolet, to the Conservatory and to the Wednesday night audience.

10 May 1989 [?]

Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Via Flaminia, Rome, Italy

Debussy & Chopin Preludes

16/ 17 May 1989

Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Montréal (Canada)

Chopin, Piano Concerto Nos.1 in E minor and 2 in F minor (separate evenings)

Elgar, Cockaigne, Debussy's La Mer and Jacques Hétu's Images de la Révolution, Op.44.

Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and Charles Dutoit

On 18-19 May 1989, the two Chopin concertos were recorded in St. Eustache, Montreal with Charles Dutoit.

23 May 1989

Herford, Germany

Rachmaninoff 3

Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie/ Alun Francis

24 May 1989

Padderborn, Germany

Rachmaninoff 3

Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie/ Alun Francis

29 or 30 May 1989

Eindhoven, Holland

Debussy and Chopin Preludes

1 June 1989

Basel, Switzerland

(as 5 Feb.)

5 June 1989

Theatre Royal Bath, Somerset (England)

Schubert & Liszt

This was his final performance in Britain, and it took place in the famous city of honey-coloured stone, a spa named Aquae Sulis ("the waters of Sulis") in c.AD by the Romans, who built baths and a temple in the valley of the River Avon. (Bath became popular as a spa town in the Georgian era, 1714 to c. 1830. Jane Austen spent several years living and writing in Bath; two of her novels are set in the city - Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.)

6, 7, 12-15 May 1989 [?]

Recording for Decca in St Barnabas, North Finchley, London

8 June 1989

Philharmonie, Berlin

Liszt's Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude (1848-1853), following this with Schubert's Sonata in A Major, D. 959 (1828). Then some Schubert/Liszt songs and ending with Wagner's Overture to Tannhäuser, S. 442 (1848 arr. Franz Liszt).

With this, Jorge Bolet had given his last public recital. He now retired from the concert platform through illness.

Immediate cancellation of his next [?] recital:

[18 June 1989]

Hohenems, Vorarlberg, Austria

Schubertiade 11am

Recording for Decca is listed on his schedule as 19-21 June 1989, but did this take place? He was due also to record Lieder with Brigitte Fassbaender in Vienna on 7-12 September

Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Lübeck, Germany: 2 recitals cancelled

Der Nordschleswiger (10 August 1989): 'Two piano recitals at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, which were canceled due to the illness of pianist Jorge Bolet, will not be rescheduled. As the management in Lübeck announced, it has been definitively confirmed that two highly talented young Russian pianists will take over the recitals in Heide and Altenhof. At the Tivoli in Heide today, the up-and-coming artist Alexandre Korsantya, who comes from a family of musicians, will perform. The evening at the Kurhaus of Altenhof Castle near Eckernförde will be performed on Saturday by Alexej Sultanov.'

Further bookings had included 4, 6 August (San Francisco, Mozart No. 24 in C minor K491 - his favourite - and No.15 in B flat K450), 30 August (Lucerne, Switzerland), 4 September (Montreux, Switzerland), a tour of Australia - Sydney Opera House (1- 7 October) / Melbourne 25 & 28 October) - and a London recital in November to celebrate his 75th birthday. He was also booked - for example - for February 1990 in the Bass Concert Hall, Austin, Texas with the Austin Symphony: 'Gustavo Romero filled in for pianistic legend Jorge Bolet', wrote Jerry Young, 'who had been scheduled to play César Franck's Symphonic Variations and Liszt's Totentanz.' And as far ahead as September 1990, when he was due to play Liszt 1 with the Philharmonia and Giuseppe Sinopoli in London

"Jorge had in mind to play Godowsky's Johann Strauss Künstlerleben at his forthcoming 75th birthday tour as grande finale. Jorge played this piece on several occasions for me telling me: this is a work in progress, no! a lot of work in progress!

He had played a lot of Godowsky for me when I was staying with him in Bloomington. We went to Butler University where he kept his scores and could use his Baldwin SD 10 (in his apartment he had a small grand which he never touched). While I turned pages he played the Passacaglia, most parts of the Java suite, Künstlerleben, Fledermaus and parts from Triakontameron. All the time I was thinking why I am turning pages? He knows the music! Unfortunately, his 75th birthday tour never happened." [Mattheus Smits]

The Albuquerque Journal (8 September 1989) reported that JB had been hospitalised in August for complications of pneumonia.

Jorge Bolet's concerts 4 (1981-89)

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

Utrecht, Holland

1986

1987

1988

1989

Jorge Bolet's concerts 4
(1981-89)