Favourite recordings

Here is a list of some of my favourite performances, in addition to the Spotify playlist.   Many believe that it is only in the 'live' material, recorded 'on the wing' so to speak, that the real Jorge Bolet can be heard.  (I seem to be in the minority now in still - greatly -  enjoying his 1980s DECCA recordings.)  Here is a selection of highly-regarded performances; remember that many of these are not professional recordings and the sound is variable.  Sometimes the microphone is actually in the lap of the audience member.   

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A survey of the DECCA recordings (many may be out of print but still available second-hand).   Most are definitely available on streaming services.  Many individual reviews can be found on the 1980s & Final Years pages.  I love them.

 

Jed Distler in CLASSICS TODAY sums up the recordings:  "Whoever said 'an aristocrat never hurries' might well have referred to Jorge Bolet’s Liszt recordings for Decca.  Bolet was in his mid-60s when he embarked on this series, and he harbored no inclination to outdazzle his younger Lisztian cohorts. His noble, full-bodied sound and elegant reserve largely bypass the showmanship and outward panache we associate with Liszt. Instead, Bolet stresses the composer’s lyric breadth and luminescent textures.  (...) Climaxes are coaxed from the key beds rather than pounded out. His suave and caressing scales and runs contrast to the fire-and-brimstone pianists such as Lazar Berman and Gyorgy Cziffra serve up in Liszt’s more fierce Transcendental Etudes and the Tarantella from 'Venezia e Napoli'."

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*This last statement reminds us of Alfred Brendel's answer in an interview when asked to reveal a secret: "The piano can sing".

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Jorge Bolet, Vol. 2
Ambassador from the Golden Age:
A Connoisseur's Selection for the Bolet Centennial

56003-2 (6 CDs)  | Marston Records

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 100th anniversary of Bolet's birth was marked in December 2014 by the issue of 6 CDs by Marston Records (Pennsylvania). The recordings consist of much rare material, including material not in Bolet's discography. 

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Gramophone July 2015 describes the set thus: 'Bolet emerges in performances which are like the blaze of Valhalla'. Jed Distler says on his website that we have here 'the pianist at his unfettered peak...[mesmerising] 'audiences with his poetic, imaginative and vividly communicative virtuosity'.

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Audite's survey of Bolet's Berlin recordings, 1961-1974, reached its conclusion in January 2019 with volume 3 (Sender Freies Rundfunk) which includes on its three discs mostly material which has never been released before.  The three volumes represent a significant addition to Bolet's legacy. 

An absolutely stunning, no-holds-barred performance of a Godowsky etude live in 1979.   This has got to be the “ne plus ultra” recording of this piece. Admittedly not many pianists will play it but I cannot imagine it played with more volcanic passion than here, in a live recital in Hamburg.   

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I cannot resist the Rachmaninov/Paganini variations from 1978.  One can only hope the master tape will one day be put on a CD.  The famous 18th variation.   The A minor Paganini theme is literally played "upside down" in D♭ major, with a few other changes. Rachmaninov himself recognised the appeal of this variation, saying "This one is for my agent."  Other performances: 1976 and 1967

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More recordings from the internet

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The relevant year page of this site can place these performances in context.

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A new YouTube channel devoted to JB's live and broadcast performances

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César Franck, Variations Symphoniques (Boston SO/ Charles Munch, 1959)

 

A chance to compare & contrast two of the finest exponents of the Chopin-Godowsky études, JB and Marc-André Hamelin.

 

A rare chance to hear JB play music from Cuba (1955): Ernesto Lecuona

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Verdi-Liszt, Rigoletto paraphrase (October 1970, Hunter College).   This occasion is often regarded as the beginning of a wider, more permanent recognition for Bolet.

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19 July 1972 recital at Bloomington, Indiana, including

Brahms' Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op.5,

not commercially available.

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Johann Strauss/Godowsky 'Fledermaus' (1973)

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*The same, played by his teacher (Part 1) & Part 2

David Saperton (1952)

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Etude Op. 1 No. 2 by Paul de Schlözer or Paweł Schlözer

(1841/42 – 1898). This was one of two encores in his famous

Carnegie Hall recital of 1974 which never made it onto LP

at the time or the later CD. 

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Liszt 'Dante' Sonata (live Hamburg 1979)  'The playing reveals

Bolet's incredible tonal palette, mastery of the pedal and

blending of tones, clear articulation, subtle nuancing amidst

volcanic impassioned outbursts, and natural rubato.'

(ThePianoFiles)

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Josef Marx Romantic Piano Concerto (live 1982 New York

with Zubin Mehta)

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Four Chopin/Godowsky études (Milan, November 1983)

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London (St John's, Smith Square) 1987 Fritz Kreisler/Rachmaninoff

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Video of recital in Ripponlea House, Melbourne, Australia

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Video of JB talking about and playing Chopin/Godowsky (Scotland,1988)

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And the unusually exotic  Chopin E flat waltz in Godowsky's arrangement (dedicated to Otto Pfefferkorn!) can be heard with the score to admire, too.   It is described as going 'perversely Spanish' at some points!  There is also a recording of this weird and wonderful waltz from 1965: Haus des Rundfunks, West Berlin, West Germany (SFB Studio Radio Broadcast ), though I haven't heard it (I used to wonder when on earth he actually had included this in his programmes).

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