A gem of a review from Switzerland

Monday 11 April, 1988, Bern Casino Hall, Bern, Switzerland.  'When you heard him play, this guest from overseas, you got the impression that something of old European musical culture had been preserved in him even more strongly than we are used to in our often hectic, sensation-hungry and originality-obsessed concert business.  Jorge Bolet is not a man of facade, not a poseur; he does not put on airs, he is neither nonchalantly superior nor brilliantly eccentric, nor arrogant or flattering towards the audience. He sits at the piano, concentrates for a moment and then never takes his eyes off the keys while playing; his movements avoid anything spectacular, are rational, calm, often striking, carefully controlled and considered. This behaviour does not show the listener what the performer is feeling; Passion, rapture and cheerfulness cannot be read from the facial expressions but can be heard in the tones. [...] . Finally, Jorge Bolet takes Franz Liszt's "Reminiscences de Norma" seriously, not as an effective bravura piece but as a kind of concentration of the drama, and in doing so saves what can still be saved from this time-bound work. One almost felt removed from time that evening. Perhaps Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Franck Liszt would have played their work in the same way. It was like music from another world, but not from a new one.' Der Bund (13.4.88)