Part 2: 1988-90
"From his earliest performances, Bolet’s complete command of the instrument was unquestioned, and his attributes as an interpreter of a basically Romantic repertoire included superlative tonal opulence and colour, implacable strength and authority, a firm avoidance of flamboyance, exaggeration and mannerism, and a constant search for the poetic essence of every score."
(Donald Manildi)
The words of Joan Chissell's review of Liszt/Bellini, Réminiscences de Norma
Tokyo, 1988
Wednesday at 7pm, 2 November, 1988: Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Japan. The concert was arranged by Kanbara Music, Asakasa, Minato-ku, Tokyo, and was sponsored by Asahi Shimbun and Polydor.
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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
​A week later, Jorge performed Rachmaninoff 3 in Tokyo on 9 November with the NHK Symphony under David Atherton. It appears he was staying at the Imperial Hotel (founded 1890), overlooking the Imperial Palace, Moat and Hibiya Park. This was his third visit to the Land of the Rising Sun, the second being in May 1976, his first trip there since after the second world war. In an interview at this time, he mentions a former pupil, Makoto Ueno from Hokkaido (b.1966). He studied with JB at Curtis aged 16, and this was then followed by a period of study at the Salzburg Mozarteum. Ueno won 3rd prize at the Geneva International Competition in 1988 and since 1996 has been teaching as a professor of piano at Kyoto University of Arts. (Along with Kathryn Stott, he shared the masterclass study of the first movement of Rachmaninov 2 with JB in July 1984, first broadcast on Sunday 10 November 1985 on BBC2. Videos of this have never appeared online, though I have a VHS tape from the broadcast which I cannot now play! A video of the Tokyo concert appears and disappears online with surprising regularity.)
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Recorded 9 November 1988, NHK Hall, Tokyo. The concert also included Berlioz's overture Les Francs-juges Op. 3 and Messiaen's Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum.
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Messiaen's work commemorated the dead of the two World Wars. It was premiered in the Sainte-Chapelle, Paris at 11:00 in the morning on 7 May 1965, and was performed for the second time on 20 June of the same year following a Solemn Mass at Chartres Cathedral and in the presence of President Charles de Gaulle.
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The piece was intended to be performed in large spaces - churches, cathedrals and in the open air. The composer had been inspired by the countryside which surrounded him as he worked on the composition – the Hautes-Alpes with their great mountains – but also the imposing images of Gothic and Romanesque churches, and the ancient monuments of Mexico and Ancient Egypt.
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Marcel Grilli in The Japan Times (27 November) states very briefly indeed that the Rachmaninoff was 'sensitively shaped and phrased', which might be a generous way of saying Jorge was not on best form. He doesn't look well in the video. He looks exhausted as he approaches the conductor to take bows with him, and seems genuinely grateful that David Atherton was there for him.
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(The flyer for the Tokyo recital has an interesting photo. It seems that when Jorge became Head of Piano
at Curtis, his first decision was to rehang a fine portrait of Liszt in his studio which had been put in storage - he was not having that!)
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In other news, that same November in the Bunka Kaikan, Danish recorder virtuoso Michala Petri played Vivaldi (on the 1st), and on the 2nd, Alexis Weissenberg played Mussorgsky in the Chofu Green Hall. On 3rd in Suntory Hall, the Czech Philharmonic and Václav Neumann performed.
 Royal Festival HallÂ
And we have to end with London's Royal Festival Hall where - along with Barbican - I heard Jorge Bolet play in the second half of the 1980s. On Sunday 5 February 1989, Jorge gave what turned out to be his last solo London recital. I was in the audience.​
London's South Bank
1989-90, Chopin in Montréal
​Publicity material for the 1988/89 season includes Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal Symphony (Charles Dutoit), Orchestre National de France, Monte Carlo Philharmonic (Riccardo Chailly), Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, San Francisco Symphony and the NHK (Japan) Symphony, recitals at Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall, 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. Australasian Tour. October 1989 - but this was of course cancelled when Jorge retired from the stage in June.​
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There was an advertisement for a recital in the Mozart Saal of the Alte Oper Frankfurt on Sunday 2 December 1990. He had once before (in the 1980s) played there, on Friday 12 September 1986:
Schumann, Fantasie C-Dur op.17, Liszt, 6 Consolations, Venezia e Napoli, Haydn, Andante con Variazioni, Klaviersonate Es-Dur.
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Il Piccolo di Trieste 5 October 1988 announced a recital on 25 November in Monfalcone (Friuli-Venezia Giulia, northern Italy): the first recital in this region of pianista insigne, ma solo recentemente scoperto in tutta la sua grandezza artistica ("illustrious pianist, but only recently discovered in all his artistic greatness"). Schubert, Schubert/Liszt, Wagner/Liszt, Tannhäuser
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On Tuesday 6 December 1988 in the Theatre des Champs Elysées, Paris he played Rachmaninov 3 with Orchestre Colonne under Philippe Entremont (also: Lutoslawski's Funeral Music and Mozart's Symphony No. 38 in D, "Prague"). This orchestra, founded in 1873, had been giving Parisian concerts for 114 years. Jorge played on a Baldwin SD10.
On Sunday afternoon, 4.20pm, 22 January 1989, there was a television broadcast in the UK on BBC2 entitled MASTER CRAFTSMEN - JORGE BOLET AND LEOPOLD GODOWSKY. ‘The music of Chopin reworked by Godowsky and played by Bolet. The pianist talks to Michael Oliver about Godowsky's technical skills and how his transcriptions shed new light on the music. As part of a recital given at Findhorn in Morayshire (Scotland), Bolet performs a number of Chopin études in Godowsky's versions.’ (The producer was Hilary Boulding.)
There is a nice anecdote that when Bolet came to play in Dundee (Scotland), he asked specifically to be taken to the Angus Hotel (now demolished), because he claimed it provided 'the best cup of coffee outside the Americas'.
30 January -2 February, 1989 St.Barnabas, Woodside Park, London: recording session (disc issued October 1990)
SCHUBERT Piano Sonata in A minor Op.143 D784; Piano Sonata in A D959
​Pr: Peter Wadland Eng: John Dunkerley
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On Sunday 5 February, Jorge gave what turned out to be his last solo London recital in the Royal Festival Hall. I was there and recall some difficult moments. For the programme see 16 April.
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Tuesday 14 March 1989
Rachmaninoff 2 with the Philharmonia and Vladimir Ashkenazy in the Royal Festival Hall, London (also Sibelius 2 and Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune)​​​​​​
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Final Dutch recital
​​Thursday 23 March, 1989, Vredenburg, Utrecht (Holland): Liszt, Benediction; Schubert D959, Wagner/Liszt, Tannhäuser. Bas van Putten in De Telegraf: 'The recital of pianist Jorge Bolet in the Grote Zaal of the Utrecht Music Centre Vredenburg ended with an almost tragic incident. In Godowsky's Elegy for the Left Hand 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.
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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.
No sensible person would have lost any sleep over the numerous mistakes. For Bolet has, namely, what he claims is lacking in many younger colleagues: individualism. But the degree of personality in Bolet is strangely enough inversely proportional to the quality of the music, at least on this evening. In Liszt, he shows few scruples. In Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude sentiment melts the keys. But in a true masterpiece like Schubert's Grand Sonata in A major, D 959, the composer has the last word. And then Bolet marks time, his playing takes on a Serkin-like matter-of-factness. The Andantino, which could have served as an instrumental postlude to Winterreise, was performed competently but much too earthly. There was no emotional climax. [Hungarian pianist Zoltan] Kocsis is already here in purgatory, on his way to hell and damnation. In Liszt's arrangements of Schubert's songs, the emotions are fortunately written in black and white, so that the romantic Bolet does not have to search long for the right tone.'
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This was the last performance of Jorge in Holland, the country where his European career under the direction of the great impresario Dr de Koos had begun all those years ago, in May 1935.
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'For Jorge's last concert in Holland, Marco Riaskoff, the successor of concert agents Geza de Koos and Silvio Samama, organised a car to bring us from Amsterdam to Utrecht and then back. Our driver was the Dutch journalist Tonko Dop. His car was so small that Jorge could hardly fit into the front seat, and I was stuck in the back. The weather was extremely bad. Raining cats and dogs. After the concert, we went back to Amsterdam and on arriving at Jorge's hotel, he asked me to thank Tonko Dop for the drive. Jorge left the car and I had a few minutes’ chat with Tonko Dop. When I sought to catch up with Jorge, he was nowhere to be seen. Not in his room, nor in the hotel, nor in the streets! Even with the support of the people from the hotel, Jorge was nowhere to be found. He had simply vanished, afraid to say goodbye, knowing that there would be a chance we would never see each other again.'
(Mattheus Smits)
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On 24-27 March, Jorge attended (in the audience) the Salzburg Easter Festival with his dear friend Elisabeth Kittel (1925-2020), who was born in Augsburg, Germany. She helped arranged some of Jorge's concerts in Europe. 'Elisabeth made a name for herself in Ansbach when she organised the concerts together with her father. My husband and I were told that they were sensational and of a very special quality. Thanks to her training, her exceptional ear and her intuition for knowing who had a world-class career ahead of them, she brought precisely these young pianists to Ansbach. Thus, Ansbach had the great pleasure of listening to pianists such as Martha Argerich, Nelson Freire or Jorge Bolet. Here sit the students who had the pleasure of listening to them. I have only seen all these names immortalised in the Kittel family guest book.
'Elisabeth was a sponsor of the international summer academy at Count Schönborn's Weissenstein Castle in Pommersfelden from the very beginning. Young music students from all over the world meet there for four weeks. Some of them play in an orchestra for the first time, others have their first solo performance there. Today, Elisabeth's grand piano is at Weissenstein Castle for student practice.' (Martina Schulz, from a blog by Sergio Cardenas)​
A New York farewell
​​Sunday, 16 April, 1989 at 8pm Jorge gave - again as it turned out - his final recital in Carnegie Hall. He began with 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). See the link in the box below...
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​​​Reviews of the New York performance were very positive (and part of the recital can be heard on MARSTON cds.​ Bolet's long-time producer Peter Wadland said that while the London performance was patchy (and he apparently apologised to Peter afterwards), the New York recital was one of his best.​
On 25-26 May 1989, the two Chopin concertos were recorded in St. Eustache, Montreal with Charles Dutoit. Francis Crociata has informed me that Bolet had had to learn the second concerto (F minor) for this recording as he did not have it in his active repertoire. He would, probably, have been much happier adding the Rachmaninoff's Paganini Rhapsody to the 'second side' of this disc. (There is a stupendous recording of this latter work, live in Karlsruhe, Germany from March 1978.)
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Jorge had just performed the first Chopin concert with the OSM and Dutoit on Tuesday, 16 May in the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Montreal in a concert that included Wagner's Faust Overture, Debussy's La Mer and Jacques Hétu's Images de la Révolution, Op.44. Carol Bergeron in Le Devoir (18.5.1989): 'At 74, Bolet no longer seeks to impress and his Chopin has become a serene, poetic reflection. We are far from the jubilant feats, for which this youthful score is usually a pretext. But Bolet's performance bore the somewhat worrying traces of a certain fragility, which presumably the forthcoming recording will not reflect.' Of the new work, 'This homage to France is probably the most successful orchestral score by the Québec composer. From its first hearing, the work seduces the listener with the exceptional quality of its orchestral paste (pâte orchestrale). Complex without ever being dry, its harmonic writing delights the ear.'
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'Jacques Hétu died just too soon to enjoy the first performance of his Fifth Symphony, on 3 March, with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra under its chief conductor Peter Oundjian. But he did not want for public hearings: although his music is unfamiliar in Britain, he was one of the most frequently performed of all contemporary Canadian composers. His music has something of the angularity of Bartók and the astringent lyricism of Honegger; a keen sense of drama and colour gives it immediacy; and his readiness to invoke extra-musical images – as in the arresting and moving five-movement suite Images de la Révolution of 1989 – allowed audiences ready points of contact.' Jacques Joseph Robert Hétu, composer; born Trois-Rivières, Quebec 8 August 1938; died Saint-Hippolyte, Quebec 9 February 2010. (Martin Anderson, The Independent, May 2010)
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As it turned out, when the Chopin Concertos CD was issued in October 1990, I myself happened to be listening to the slow movement of the F Minor concerto when I turned the page in my copy of The Times, and came upon Jorge's obituary.
On pianos & piano technicians
​​​The Dutch newspaper NCR Handelsblad (16.6.1989) reports: 'Jorge Bolet sometimes travels for weeks in one of the piano vans [transporting his piano], in which an extra seat has been placed for him. Opinions differ on the desirability of continuous grand piano transport. Restorer Hans Duyf ( the owner of Christofori Pianos, Prinsengracht, Amsterdam) calls every movement bad, and states that the instruments from Antwerp have a shorter life than the four years that are the norm in large concert halls for top pianos. Kris Vinck and his colleague Denijs de Winter deny this. "If it is done properly, transport leads to less wear and tear than intensive use and lack of care. Because we feel personally responsible for the maintenance, the instruments last a long time here."'​
'Leszek Blach Siewierski - who had escaped from Communist Poland in 1975 - was a first class piano technician who worked for Jorge very often. He did the two recordings Jorge made with Riccardo Chailly (Franck, Schumann, Grieg), all Jorge's recitals in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam after 1976, and many of Jorge's performances in Paris. All this came to an end when Bechstein, for financial reasons, informed Jorge they could no longer provide him with their pianos. So Jorge and Mac [Finley] decided to have a Baldwin available for Europe to be transported and serviced by our friend Denijs de Winter who was running PianoMobil. This was also convenient for Jorge who could travel by car together with the instrument. The travelling within Europe for distances of several hours became more and more complicated for Jorge's tight schedule. Cancelled flights, trains not on time, missing connections and all that. So Jorge and Denijs travelled a lot. Jorge was very fond of Denijs because Denijs was always quiet and never talked much. Above all they both enjoyed smoking. So during travelling from Paris to Munich by car, Jorge could at least enjoy his cigarette!' (Mattheus Smits)
JB signing a programme after his last concert.
(Mattheus Smits, Krommenie The Netherlands)
Last recordings
Francis Crociata: "The Debussy Preludes disc was the last issued Bolet recording, made in August 1988, in the opera house in San Francisco. I find it to be full of interest and the signature Bolet sound—here as beautiful and well-formed as ever—is particularly well-suited to Debussy. Knowing this disc dates from so late in his life, the temptation is to dismiss it out-of-hand..., but I'll submit that would be a mistake. Sure, in his Decca Liszt, Chopin and Rachmaninoff recordings there are individual pieces which are disappointing recordings—but I can’t name a single issued recording where there is not enough vintage Bolet to make the purchase worthwhile. And, as I’ve probably observed before, I heard him a lot in his last five years (up to and including his last Carnegie recital on Apr 16, 1989) and only one of those recitals could be described as disappointing. That was the spring 1988 program built around the Norma Fantasy. In April ’89— six months after he’d received the AIDS diagnosis, he could still play the Tanhäuser Overture as impressively as he did in the 70s.
"Several discs from the last years were not successful. These included the Liszt Concertos with Solti & London Philharmonic. (The Schubert-Liszt Wanderer from the same sessions was issued--not bad, but not top-shelf Bolet.) The Second and Third Chopin Sonatas, and a disc of seven Nocturnes he had not previously recorded and the Berceuse. These Chopin discs were also made in California in spring 1990 (Davies Hall, San Francisco; 23 & 24 February)--after he had revived from a coma of several weeks' duration. I've not heard the sonatas, but I did hear the Nocturnes and found it to be one of the most moving and disturbing piano discs I've ever heard. The Bolet tone was mostly gone-- disconcertingly monochromatic--and technique putting one in mind of the concerts and recordings of Horzowski in his 90s. But, as with those Horzowski miracles, the playing contains perhaps Bolet’s most profound spiritual content--it's irresistible to project the impression that it was the last testament of a great artist thinking long about his own imminent passing."
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'The two Chopin Sonatas Jorge recorded were not issued, and were recorded in a digital format/medium for which playback machines are no longer available.'
'Going gently into the night...'
'It is unclear whether Bolet approved these performances for release. He was not in good health at the time (he underwent brain surgery a short time afterwards) and the playing throughout is leisurely in the extreme. This ruminative quality imparts an unmistakably valedictory air to the proceedings, and despite the abundant surface beauty we sense that Bolet was not fully engaged. Moreover, the disc is plagued with an assortment of sonic problems as the result of what is obviously a cassette source transferred with noise-reduction mis-tracking. There are recurring tiny dropouts and other anomalies in the piano image, which lacks the characteristic refinement of Bolet’s other solo recordings. In addition, the pitch is slightly flat throughout. It would have been preferable to search for the original source material and prepare a clean remastering. Instead we have a regrettable missed opportunity.
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'However, it would be wrong to conclude on a negative note. We would be much the poorer if Decca had not been strongly committed to capturing Bolet’s late years so comprehensively. When we survey the playing preserved in this new set, along with the best examples from Bolet’s concert and recital performances, we can obtain a just perspective of how he achieved his position among the greatest 20th-century pianists.'
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(Donald Manildi, reviewing the 26 boxed set of Jorge's Decca recordings issued in November 2024)
Envoi
Joan Chissell reviewing one of JB's last recordings, issued after his death
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The author (1919 – 2007) was a British writer and lecturer on music, and music reviewer for The Times 1948–79. She made a special study of the life and works of Schumann, winning the Robert Schumann Prize awarded by his birthplace, the city of Zwickau, in 1991.
'As applause and an occasional cough confirm, these are live concert performances, recorded in 1988 when Bolet was already 74. And never—on the admittedly all too few of his discs to have come my way—can I recall him playing with more personal warmth. This is at once apparent in Mendelssohn's E minor Prelude and Fugue, where without a moment's loss of contrapuntal clarity he responds with such immediacy to romantic undercurrents—and not least in the mounting urgency and might of the chorale-peaked Fugue. The final return of its searching, chromatically inflected E minor opening subject, in a tranquil E major, is benedictory.
'For the best of all you must wait to the end. Totally unrestrained by Liszt's virtuoso demands, Bolet plays the Reminiscences de Norma not only with a truly orchestral range of dynamics and colour but also with quite exceptional intensity—always knowing so well how to 'guard' secrets until the great moments of revelation arrive. In short, I felt I'd been taken just as close to the heart of the matter as when hearing the opera itself, with Callas in the title role, in the age-old, open-air theatre of Epidaurus on a never-to-be-forgotten night in August 1960. All thanks to Bolet—and Liszt too.'
Jorge Bolet died on 16 October, 1990
On Monday 5 June 1989, The Gloucestershire Echo announced 'Today. Jorge Bolet: a piano recital at the Theatre Royal Bath, Somerset; part of Bath International Festival.' This looks like 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 AD c.60 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.) See panel for review in the Bristol Evening News.
On 8 June 1989 in Berlin, Jorge gave his last public recital. Obviously many subsequent concerts had to be cancelled. The Oakland Tribune, 4 August 1989 notes that 'Jorge Bolet has cancelled his appearance in what was to be the finale of the Midsummer Mozart Festival at Herbst Theatre (San Francisco) last Wednesday. The ever-reliable Garrick Ohlsson stepped In for the pneumonia-stricken Bolet for this last concert of the festival’s 15th season.
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On 5 November 1989, his sister Hortensia Adelina Bolet Tremoleda died in Hialeah, Miami-Dade, Florida, USA.
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A year later the pianist passed away at his home in Mountain View (25 Toro Court, Portola Valley), California on Tuesday afternoon, 16 October 1990, at the age of 75. The cause of death was heart failure, said his personal manager, Mac T. Finley. 'But Mr. Bolet had been in declining health since late 1988 and had a brain operation in the summer of 1989 from which he never fully recovered.'
'A copy of Mr. Bolet's death certificate is in the Jorge Bolet Collection at the International Piano Archives-University of Maryland. Cause of death is given, simply, as AIDS. The pianist learned he was HIV positive in December 1988--
a little under 2 years before his passing.' [Francis Crociata]
Portola Valley was named for Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola, who led the first party of Europeans to explore the San Francisco Peninsula, in 1769.
In Jorge's last months, pianist and devoted friend Teresa Escandon was once by his bedside as he listened to his Carnegie Hall recital of 1974. (He used to spend holidays in Mantanzas, Cuba, with relatives who were friends of her mother. Nuevo Herald, Miami 23 January 2008)
Teresa cried, but Jorge said, 'No llores. No te acuerdas del Salmo?'
("Don't cry. Don't you remember the Psalm?") And she remembered:
"Ponme como sello sobre tu corazon,
porque el amor es fuerte como la muerte."
"Set me as a seal upon thine heart, <as a seal upon thine arm>
for love is strong as death... "
[Song of Solomon 8, v.6 in the King James Bible of 1611]
Jorge playing the piano on the day of his last birthday celebration, 15 November 1989.
(Mattheus Smits, Krommenie, The Netherlands)