Jeremy Nicholas recalls Jorge Bolet

I'm a bit late to this as the article was published in November/December 2014 in International Piano. However... Jeremy Nicholas, who wrote a biography of Godowsky, recalls Jorge Bolet. Here's an extract.

Though it would be presumptuous of me to describe him as a friend, I got to know him quite well in the late 1970s. Thereafter, he would invariably phone to tell me when he was in the country and I made sure I saw him after all his UK recitals. One memorable evening, I think it was after a Q&A session at the Wigmore Hall [1982], Jorge, his producer Peter Wadland and a few other mutual friends came back to my flat for dinner - and an impromptu recital. We were all hoping Jorge would play, of course, and one should never ever press an artist to do so on a social occasion. Nevertheless... I slyly asked if he knew Godowsky’s recording of Grieg’s Ballade. No, he didn’t. We began to talk about the work. Innocently, I said that actually I had a score. We gathered round my piano - and off he went. Having talked and played his way through most of the Ballade, he embarked on a whole string of pieces, from Cuban Dances (‘I haven’t played these since I was a student’) to Liszt’s Reminiscences de Don Juan (‘What do you think of my ending? I’ve rewritten it slightly to be more effective.’). The poor little Chappell boudoir grand I had at the time took a pounding that night. The recital only stopped after Harry and Ross, the couple in the flat beneath me, yelled up the stairs, ‘Stop that bloody racket! We want to get some sleep!’, to be answered by me shouting back, ‘Are you crazy? ... It was two o’clock in the morning.

I first met Bolet in 1977. I’d had the idea of putting together a book of conversations with great pianists and was also gathering material for my biography on Leopold Godowsky. When I heard that Bolet was coming to London to give a recital and to make a recording of Godowsky’s music [4-5 October 1977, Kingsway Hall], I was determined to meet the man. He had, after all, known Godowsky himself, and studied with his son-in-law David Saperton and his close friend Josef Hofmann. Decca (in the form of the much-missed Peter Wadland) was kind enough to let me attend the Godowsky sessions in London’s Kingsway Hall, where Bolet recorded nine of the Chopin-Godowsky Studies and six Chopin-Godowsky Waltzes - all without the score. Bolet agreed to an interview the following day.

We met at the Westbury Hotel, New Bond Street, where he was staying. My notes say it was 5 October 1977. This, with apologies for my then inexperienced interviewing technique, is a transcript of our conversation. Have you recovered from the recording session? Godowsky certainly makes you work hard, doesn’t he? You know, the Chopin-Godowsky Studies are so difficult to play. It’s not just the notes, though you have to be 100 per cent accurate in recording - one sour note and the whole piece goes. It’s capturing the spirit behind them. They must be light and fluffy. Two days was not really enough time. I should have preferred seven. The Chopin Ballades I can play in two days. These pieces need longer so I can go away at the end of the day and practise the next one!