"No light, but rather darkness visible"
"No light, but rather darkness visible"
John Milton, Paradise Lost 1.63
'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?”
For several months there was no question of resuming his tour, but in the spring he did return to his full schedule, recitals in the U.S. and Europe, solo recordings of two Chopin sonatas, a group of nocturnes, and the two concertos with his old friend Charles Dutoit in Montreal, this last a particular source of stress. He had performed the Chopin E Minor Concerto many times over two decades, but had never gotten around to learning the F Minor. Now he had committed not only to record it, but to play it in a half a dozen concerts. Given those circumstances, it is astonishing the Chopin F Minor Concerto recording came off surprisingly well, but the Chopin sonatas and nocturnes, and two Liszt concertos (with Georg Solti and the London Philharmonic) were not released. Bolet’s New York recital had been postponed once and there were rumors from Europe of embarrassing recitals, including one in which he retired with a halting apology, unable to return after intermission.'
Francis Crociata in the booklet for Marston CDs Volume 2
1988
In 1988, Elyse Mach’s book on pianists appeared. She had interviewed Jorge in the New York Men’s Athletic Club, Central Park and 7th Avenue [180 Central Park South, New York]; extracts from this interview have been included in the relevant section of Jorge's career on this website.
On 1-4 February, 1988 in Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London, César Franck: Prélude, Aria et Final & Prélude, Choral et Fugue are recorded for DECCA
Monday 29 February/Tuesday 1 March 1988, the later twice at 10.30am and in the evening: Montreal, Canada with Mexican maestro Eduardo Mata and L'OSM. Grieg's Piano Concerto, Chávez's Sinfonia India and Beethoven 7. (Mata had studied composition with Carlos Chávez Héctor, Quintanar and Julián Orbón during 1960-1963.). But in the end, Mata was indisposed and Czech conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Libor Pesek took over. He changed the Chávez for the suite from Janaček's opera From the House of the Dead (Z mrtvého domu)
On Friday, 4 March 1988 there was a Carnegie Hall recital which 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)
13 March (Sunday) Royal Festival Hall, London inc. Beethoven No.31 Op. 110 in A flat and Bellini/Liszt, Réminiscences de Norma. The programme says that Bolet plays Baldwin piano supplied by Pianomobil Antwerp. I think it was at this concert that popular British comedian Frankie Howerd was in the audience, sitting right behind me in fact (he came in at the last minute, perhaps to avoid any fuss or recognition).
For Bolet's performance of much of this recital a week earlier in Carnegie Hall, click the box below.
The Festival Hall was Jorge's least favourite hall, one where - because of its notoriously dry acoustic. - no matter how hard he tried, he could never engulf himself with the sound of the piano. The Hall was opened in 1951 by Her Majesty The Queen, the beginning of her association of 7 decades with the venue on the south bank of the River Thames. Opinions were divided from the start: critics bemoaned its 'dry and sterile' acoustics while protagonists celebrated its cutting-edge design and 'crystal clear' sound.
Cellist Julian Lloyd-Weber however, offered a spirited defence of the acoustics in 2016:
'Just because a concert hall doesn’t bathe its performers in a comforting wash of sound doesn’t mean it is not a good hall for the listener. It is no coincidence that some of the greatest performances I have ever heard have been at the Festival Hall. It has proved to be the exception to all known acoustical rules. In fact its acoustic distinguishes the men from the boys, and the finest musicians raise their games accordingly.
The slightest mistake is immediately heard - but then so is the beautiful playing of a phrase that would have been lost in a sea of reverberation in the Royal Albert Hall.'
Alabama recital filmed
4 April 1988: a live recording in the Carolyn Blount Theater, Montgomery, Alabama USA (this was produced by Frank Bell)
MENDELSSOHN Prelude & Fugue in E minor Op.35/1, LISZT Réminiscences de Norma S394
FRANCK Prélude, Choral et Fugue
Friday 22 April 1988 (Gothenburg/Göteborgs konserthuset, Sweden - see photos below)
Sunday 24 April: Konserthuset, Stockholm. Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Riccardo Chailly
Edvard Grieg, Piano Concerto & Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 5.
30 April/ 2 & 3 May 1988 Rachmaninoff's Paganini Variations Op.43 with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under David Shallon in the Auditorio Pio, Rome, the second of only two appearances with this orchestra, the first being in January 1973. [Bernstein's Candide overture and Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps]
7[?] May 1988 with the Bamberg Symphony under Rudolf Barshai in one of the two Liszt concertos.
14 May,1988 Schwetzinger Schloss, Rokokotheather; Baden-Württemberg, Germany: recital (available on CD, Hänssler Classic), including Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57 'Appassionata'; and Bellini/Liszt, Réminiscences de Norma, S. 394.
Jorge gave a recital in the Netherland on 16 May 1988, in the main hall of the Concertgebouw. (De Volkskrant 18.10.1990) This was 'intimate and poetic piano playing by Bolet,' as recalled by Katja Reichenfeld for NRC Handelsblad (17.5.88). The programme: Mendelssohn, Prélude and fugue opus 35 no. 1, Rondo Capriccioso opus 14, Beethoven Sonata opus 57 Appassionata. Franck, Prelude, Choral et Fugue. Liszt, Reminisences de Norma.
Ms. Reichenfeld writes: 'Yesterday there was no hint of dramatic acrobatics, but a modest presence that was immediately impressive. From the first note, Jorge Bolet managed to transform the hall into a 19th century salon in which making music became intimate human work again. Playing his own American Baldwin grand piano, tuned by his own piano tuner, he showed no trace of extravagance; his playing aimed at intimacy and fine poetry. Long melody lines sounded on this instrument as if sung by a human voice, with an unprecedented wealth of dynamic shades. There is a world of possibilities between pianissimo, piano, mezzoforte and forte.
'In Bolet's largely romantic programme, to my surprise, Liszt's Réminisences de Norma, announced in the program notes as the Grand Dessert, represented a high point of imagination and related mastery. An experience for the listener who still had disparaging views on the musical qualities of Liszt's music. Alfred Brendel explains why this is so in his essay The Misunderstood Liszt: “Liszt's music has the property of fatally reflecting the character of the performer. When Liszt's works give an empty and superficial impression, one can usually blame the interpreter, sometimes the biased listener, and only very rarely Liszt himself." Bolet has the rare ability to disappear invisibly behind the piano and draw all attention to the fantasy and nobility of Liszt's music. His playing is introverted and communicative at the same time. He gives the impression of someone who is trying to find his way into his memory while playing.'
9 June: a recital in Ascona, a beautiful Swiss town on the northern shore of Lake Maggiore, in the canton of Ticino. It consisted of Liszt, Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude; Wagner/Liszt, Tannhäuser Overture; Schubert/Liszt, 3 songs, and Schubert, Sonata in A, D 959. Although one might not think so, some Schubert had been very much in Bolet's repertoire from the start (the Rondo from the D major Sonata D.850 in his Town Hall New York début), though there was not much on offer at Curtis with regard to teaching when he was a student. He was clearly fond of the big A major sonata (see 29 October 1940 in Town Hall recital, NYC) one of a group of three late works by Franz Schubert (D958, 959 and 960).
They were written during the last months of his life, between the spring and autumn of 1828, but were not published until about ten years after his death, in 1838–39. Jorge will have appreciated such things as the lyrical rondo-finale movement, which has a seemingly endless resource of songful melody. What of the slow movement? 'Visions of terror take us to the very brink of madness... They remind me of the fact that the painter Goya died in the same year as Schubert.' (Alfred Brendel).
A date of 6 September, 1988 has also been given for this recital: Chiesa del Collegio Papio, Ascona, Switzerland
Photo: Salle Pleyel, Paris. May 1988
Friday, 22 April 1988 (Gothenburg/Göteborgs konserthuset, Sweden)
Istanbul, Turkey: June 1988
Bolet gave two concerts in the famous Turkish city, once Byzantium, famously Constantinople and since 1930, Istanbul. Cumhuriyet (the oldest daily Turkish newspaper) has reports on 28 June 1988, 3 August (same year), and carries an obituary 31 October 1990.
For 3 August 1988, it has the comment: 'His concert was naughty from start to finish. But still, this vigorous pianist in his 70s captivated Istanbulites, especially with his interpretations of Beethoven and Franck.
By the way, the name Bolet was not foreign to those who took the horse for so many years, at least to those who were sleazy...'
(I'm sure something's lost in Google translation from the Turkish, so this is work in progress)
The obituary muses wistfully that '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 (Istanbul) review 28 June 1988
21 and 23 June, Istanbul, Atatürk Cultural Center, Büyük Salonu (Large Hall) 9.30pm. The Atatürk Kültür Merkezi [Turkish; abbreviated to AKM], was a concert hall, theatre and cultural centre running along the eastern side of Taksim Square in Beyoğlu, Istanbul. Originally opened on 12 April, 1969, it was closed for renovation works in 2008, but was ultimately demolished in 2018 and rebuilt in 2021 as a state-of-the-art cultural complex. 'One of the most interesting surprises of the 16th international festival is that this year a distinguished pianist of Cuban origin, Jorge Bolet, is coming, but perhaps even more interesting is that Bolet is not coming alone but with his piano!' (Cumhuriyet, 17.6.88)
Jorge's recital included Mendelssohn, Beethoven's "Appassionata" Op.57, F Minor No: 23, Franck's Prelüd, Koral ve Füg and Bellini/Liszt, Reminiscences de Norma.
(From the Turkish via Google Translate - you get the gist!) 'The subtleties of style that have been forgotten in recent years due to the excessive speed, the "rubato" that is masterfully melted in measure without interrupting the rhythm...Contemporary pianists play this sonata with a thump, almost furiously, with energetic tempos, caught up in the concepts of "excitement and passion" that its name evokes. However, Bolet says that he believes that Beethoven's tempo markings and again the nuances added by the composer can be another interpretation of "excitement and passion".
"Although Bolet didn't play Liszt in the movie (Song Without End), he has the type of features that would make him convincing in any historical movie, just as if he played the Viceroy of India of the Great British Empire in a good film."
Gerçi Bolet filmde Liszt'i canlandırmamış, yalnızcafilminpiyano seslendirmesini yapmıştı, ama jrihı bir filmde pekala Buyuk Bntanya Imparatorluğu nun Hindistan Genel Valisi rolunde inandıncı olabilecek tip özelliklerine sahipti.
The artist said that he could not lift his head from his programming and recording records, and thus had to leave the piano class at the prestigious music school Curtis Institute in Philadelphia due to this boom, which occurred, albeit late in his career.
We learned that Bolet will go on a 15-day photo safari in Kenya and Tanzania when his tour in Europe ends.
Most of the American pianists were content with being well-known in America at that time, they did not believe in the importance of opening up to Europe. It was enough for them by being roasted with their own fat.
Further concerts in 1988
On 25 June - only two days after his two Turkish recitals - at Meslay [nr. Tours in the Loire Valley, France] Jorge replaced an ailing Claudio Arrau in recital. 'A kind gesture from one Latin-American brother to another, both of them heirs to the high Germanic musical tradition. (Arrau was born in Chillán, Chile in 1904 and had studied with a pupil of Liszt, Martin Krause, in Berlin) But Bolet, venerable diplomat with a penetratingly stern gaze...seems completely wrapped up in himself at the piano his body bent over the keyboard from which he never lifts his eyes." [Jacque Lonchampt, Le Monde, 28 June 1988]
Arrau was happily well enough to give his next recital at the Festival Internacional de Música de Granada in Ciudad de la Alhambra (Granada, Spain) on Friday 1 July.
The programme comprised Beethoven's Piano Sonatas No.7 in D major & 26 in E flat, "Los adioses" [Les Adieux], and Liszt's Les jeux d'eau à la Villa d'Este & Aprés une lecture du Dante. [El País, Madrid, 1 July 1988]
A selection of Debussy's Préludes was recorded 21-23 September 1988, in Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco. Jorge played 16 of the 24 of the Preludes; when the disc was issued in November 1989, Gramophone summed it up: "To judge from this issue, at any rate, this fine artist is not heard at anything like his best in this repertory." (Producer: Peter Wadland, Engineer: John Pellowe)
'Much of the playing is uninvolved, heavy-handed, occasionally inaccurate (not so much wrong notes as misread notes and rhythms), and just plain tired. To be frank, this noble artist either is not at his best or is plainly miscast in repertoire that he had no business recording so late in his career. Dance-oriented selections like La sérénade interrompue, La danse de Puck, and Minstrels plop more than fizz, although the pianist manages to wring enough character out of Général Lavine–eccentric’s lumbering gait. He begins La Puerta del Viño promisingly with heightened dynamic contrasts and slashing accents, but soon loses shape as the basic habañera underpinning fades into the background. In Danseuses de Delphes the phrases seem to wind down like an old clock in disrepair, due in part to the pianist’s slight tenutos and weighty articulation.
However, at his best, Bolet was a supreme colorist. Young pianists can learn from the multi-leveled textural differentiation Bolet so gorgeously achieves in Des pas sur la neige, or from La cathédrale engloutie’s long-lined elegance. And to be fair, Bolet summons up reserves of energy for Ce qu’a vu le vent d’Ouest.'
(Jed Distler, for Classics Today)
One has, of course, to remember that Bolet was by now seriously ill. 'Just for the record, Mr. Bolet was increasingly ill through much of his commitment to the English Decca recording company. The last recording, the Debussy Preludes, was produced at a point where he was critically ill and was withdrawn from the catalogue soon after his passing. The idea that he was trying to approach the music from a more studied and calculated position is outrageous. I knew him well, and passion was everything to him. The deliberate tempi were a symptom that all was not well with him. Please do not do this disservice to one of the last of the great "Romantic tradition" pianists by repeating the complaints of listeners who choose to assume the worst rather than to recognize that factors beyond his control were gnawing at his very fiber!'
(Morley Grossman, Edinburg, TX USA, in reply to a reviewer on Amazon)
5-8 October 1988: Chopin's Piano Concert No. 1 at Davies Hall, San Francisco. Marilyn Tucker (San Francisco Chronicle, 17.10.1990) comments that despite the fact Jorge Bolet has lived in Mountain View for the last ten years, the San Francisco Symphony has been a closed door to him.
'Andrew Massey took the podium for another ambitious bill that went off course. Massey’s problem was plainly in biting off more than he, or anyone else, could chew. An obscure Overture by Berlioz [Les Francs-Juges] preceded a low-key rendition of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 by the legendary Jorge Bolet. Even he is capable of a few botched notes and muddled runs, but at least he presents a cohesive interpretation, and the slow movement alone was well worth the price of admission.'
Philip Campbell, Bay Area Reporter, 13 October 1988
Tuesday 11 October 1988
'Pianist with a touch of class. Cuban pianist Jorge Bolet attracted a huge audience to the Victoria Hall, Hanley [Great Britain], last night to hear his performance of Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. He didn't let them down. The ringing vitality ...' This performance was with the BBC Philharmonic and Sir Edward Downes (with Elgar's 2nd symphony in the second half)
Staffordshire Sentinel 12 October 1988
Journal de Genève (19 November 1988) reviewed a concert in Victoria Hall, Geneva, with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Erich Leinsdorf in which JB played Liszt 1, which was followed by Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. 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).
'Son jeu léonin présente les qualités les plus hautes.' He played his own Baldwin piano and 'il sait en effet faire vibrer son instrument de façon inhabituelle, ample et intense, qui, dans le chant délicat, prolonge le son comme un long souffle. Et bien que cette conception soit, en quelque sorte, à l'opposé de ce que l'on attendrait d'un lisztien(électricité, brio, étincelles ...), on croit redécouvrir ce concerto en mi bémol sur lequel se sont échinés tant de lauréats du Concours ...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.'
'His leonine playing exhibits the highest qualities.' He played his own Baldwin piano and 'he indeed knows how to make his instrument vibrate in an unusual way, ample and intense. In the delicate melodic passages, he extends the sound as if in a long breath. And although this conception is, in a way, the opposite of what one would expect from a Lisztian (electricity, brilliance, sparks...), we believe we are rediscovering this Concerto in E flat on which so many winners of the Competition have worked... 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.)
César Franck
'The Symphonic Variations, Bolet and [Riccardo] Chailly seem to suggest, are a no less bold redefinition of the concerto, not the gallic sorbet laced with Lisztian liqueur that they sometimes appear. Theirs is an uncommonly thoughtful performance, generally not at all fast until the genuinely joyous conclusion (the preceding sobriety gives it a still greater ebullience by contrast). The overall control, again, is so firm that details and contrast of character between variations can be delicately pointed without any danger of diffuseness. A very distinguished trilogy of performances, in short, and most impressively recorded, the bigness of the sound according well with the bigness of the readings, but with a no less accordant fineness of detail. No, come to think of it, "distinguished" is a weasel word for such music-making: this is great piano playing.'
Michael Oliver, Gramophone [9/1989].
'Cud is expressively chewed while Franck ruminates; but the mercurial dash of the closing pages needs more élan. Jorge Bolet is a lyrical and sensitive soloist, underplaying the drama, but contributing many a happy concertante touch to the work. Acoustically the empty Concertgebouw hall aspires towards the resonance of Ste Clotilde.' Robert Anderson
Music by César Franck, a composer Jorge clearly loved, is also recorded this year in February
(and is combined with the Symphonic Variations which were set down in Amsterdam on 7 and 11 April 1986). There is a cherishable review of it by a much-missed Gramophone critic Michael Oliver (who incidentally interviewed Bolet about Godowsky for the BBC).