Jorge Bolet. Timeline
Updated: Aug 22
1914
Born Havana, Cuba on 15 November to Antonio Bolet Valdés and Adelina Tremoleda de la Paz.
c.1925/1926
Aged about nine or ten, Jorge played in the old-fashioned salon in Havana of Mrs Amelia Solberg de Hoskinson.
1926
13 August: first of two benefit concerts for the young Jorge in the Teatro Principal de la Comedia (organised by Maria Jones de Castro)
1927
4 September: second of two benefit concerts for the young Jorge in the Gran Teatro Nacional, Havana. Organised by Amelia Solberg de Hoskinson.
16 September: Jorge sails with his sister Maria Josefa (aged 23) on the SS Governor Cobb to the U.S.A.
27 September/ 6 October 1927: two auditions for the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia.
1927-1934
Jorge is taught at Curtis by David Saperton (1889-1970), son-in-law of the pianist-composer Leopold Godowsky
1928
28 February. Moriz Rosenthal (a pupil of Liszt) gives a recital at Curtis which Jorge probably heard.
1932
29 January. Seventeen-year-old Jorge performs the first movement of Tchaikovsky's B-flat minor concerto with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra under Fritz Reiner at Carnegie Hall, New York City.
1932/33
A few sessions in New York with Leopold Godowsky; Jorge played the composer’s music which he had worked on with Saperton (Java Suite, Fledermaus, Künstlerleben, arrangements of Chopin études, Passacaglia…)
1933-34
Attends The Stony Brook School, Long Island (while still at Curtis).
1934
16 April. Graduation recital in Casimir Hall, Curtis.
9 June 1934. Graduation from The Stony Brook School,
August/September: concerts in Havana, often with brother Alberto
1935
March. JB stays in Paris, France. He has a stipend from the Cuban government. His eldest brother Joaquín (Nico) finances a European tour.
European début (aged 20)
8 May, Kleine Zaal ('Small Hall') of the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
Followed by Den Haag/The Hague, Berlin, Milan, Vienna, London and Paris
(Late 1935)
5 lessons with Moriz Rosenthal (legendary pianist, pupil of Franz Liszt) in Vienna
Late 1935/ early 1936
Concerts in Spain (Pamplona, Gijón, Oviedo, Madrid etc.)
May. Returns to the USA. Resides (?) with the family of Reverend Donald Barnhouse in Philadelphia.
9 December. First known recording of JB (radio broadcast from the Curtis Institute)
1936-39
There were concerts in the USA, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala, Dominican Republic. Bolet’s concerts in Havana were for Pro-Arte Musical, for the Lyceum, the Anfiteatro, Teatro La Comedia and the Auditorio, with Havana's Filarmónica and Sinfónica.
1937
27 October. Naumburg Prize recital; Town Hall, New York City
1938
February. Academy of Music, Philadelphia. JB’s début with Philadelphia Orchestra/ Eugene Ormandy. (Rachmaninoff, Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op.30)
1939
22 December. CMZ and COX radio stations (Havana, Cuba) broadcast Liszt's first concerto with Alberto Bolet / Orquesta Sinfónica de la CMZ. Billed as JB’s"debut radiofónica" (but see December 1936)
Early 1940s
Raymond Fayette Stover (1894-1979) is a friend and manager. JB’s connection with him may run from the late 1930s to mid-1940s
At some stage in these years, JB meets Houston Larimore 'Tex' Compton (1910-1980), who was to be his life-partner until the latter’s death in December 1980.
1940
Assistant to Rudolf Serkin, Head of the Piano Department at Curtis
29 October. Hofmann Award recital, Town Hall, NYC. (Aged 25 yrs 11 months)
1941
31 December. Recital at the Presidential Palace, Havana, 'after which he is to be decorated, we hear, by President Colonel Batista, no less'.
1942
12 January. Auditorio, Havana (Manuel de Falla, Noches en los jardines de España) with Havana Philharmonic/ Massimo Freccia (for this long-lived Italian conductor see also January 1950)
1943
12 April. Havana. Rachmaninoff 3 with Erich Kleiber
October (?) JB is awarded the Order of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, a high Cuban distinction.
November. During the early stages of World War II, Jorge Bolet is seconded to the Cuban Embassy in Washington as Assistant Military Attaché .
16 December. Constitution Hall, Washington DC. Impromptu recital début in the capital, as Sigmund Romberg's train hadn't arrived.
1944
A Washington DC diplomatic list for May 1944 notes that while he was at the Cuba Embassy, Jorge lived at Dorchester House - a giant apartment building, 2480, 16th Street, N.W., at 16th and Kalorama.
April. Andre Mertens and Horace J. Parmelee, heads of the Haensel & Jones division of Columbia Concerts, announce the addition of three new artists, including Lt. Jorge Bolet, Cuban pianist.
14 April. Pan American Day, Hall of the Americas, Washington DC. JB plays Schubert and Latin-American music
8 May. Tilghman High School, Paducah, Kentucky. JB has a chance to fill in for his pianistic idol Josef Hofmann, who cancelled.
4 November. Teatro Nacional, Havana. Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No. 1 in B♭ minor, Op. 23 with Erich Leinsdorf in aid of victims of a cyclone.
December. Political change in Cuba finally rendered Jorge Bolet’s military commission at the Washington embassy void.
The President, Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar’s (1940-44) handpicked successor, Carlos Saladrigas Zayas had been defeated in the election of 1 June 1944 and Batista was succeeded by Ramón Grau San Martín (‘his bitter, bitter enemy’, as JB described him in 1984), who secured a massive popular victory. Dr Grau San Martín, a physician, took office on 10 October.
1945
January/February. Inducted into the U.S. Army. Training at Camp Croft (Spartanburg, South Carolina) and Fort Benning (Columbus, Georgia)
The date of enlistment is given as 31 January, 1945 in Baltimore Maryland.
17 March. Spartanburg, South Carolina: Jorge Bolet becomes a US citizen.
1946
Early months. Sent to Tokyo, Japan as part of the U.S. Occupation.
24 May. Ernie Pyle Theatre, Tokyo (*now the Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre, Yurakucho, Chiyoda ward). Recital by Hungarian violinist Fery Lorant and Jorge Bolet.
31 July. Hibiya Hall, Tokyo. Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18. Nippon [later NHK] Philharmonic/ Józef Rosenstock
August. Ernie Pyle Theatre. JB conducted performances of The Mikado
September. JB is discharged from the Army. He is flown back from Japan at the request of Columbia Concerts.
22 September-December. Tour of Mexico, Central America, the West Indies and South America.
1947
29 January. Recital in the Teatro Capitolio, Ciudad Trujillo (present day Santo Domingo), Dominican Republic
April/May (?). Latin American tour ‘which took him as far south as Guatemala and included a ten-week radio engagement in Mexico City.’
1948
April. JB touring in Cuba (Havana, Cienfuegos, Santa Clara, Camagüey [?]).
JB seems to have been engaged to give concerts in Bogotá, Colombia during an Inter-American conference in April 1948 but these had to be cancelled due to the political situation.
July. Mexico (?)
1949
c.25 March. Syria Mosque, Pittsburgh. JB replaces Vladimir Horowitz ["a slight indisposition"], for two of three performances of Rachmaninoff's third concerto.
Pittsburgh Symphony/ Lorin Maazel or Vladimir Bakaleinikoff.
Late 1940s.
JB credits work with pianist Abram Chasins for helping his artistic development.
JB has described tough times in the late 1940s/50s, years when he was grateful for the many friends who supported him in these ‘ghastly lean years… These were ‘terrible years... great struggle...half-starvation’.
1950
10 January. Municipal Auditorium, New Orleans, Louisiana. Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16. New Orleans Symphony & Massimo Freccia. JB's first public performance of the concerto.
1951/52
'This year Mr Bolet is playing the greatest number of concerts of any pianist with Columbia Artists - 75 in one season.' The Star-News, Wilmington, North Carolina (20 February, 1952). In August 1953, a newspaper announced: JB has travelled 45,000 miles, giving 67 concerts in 38 states during the last 12 months.
1952
10 March. Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar seizes power in Cuba in a military coup. Declaring himself president, Batista cancels the planned presidential elections.
1953
February. Teatro Municipal, Caracas, Venezuela. Concerts in honour of José Martí (b.1853), who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the liberation of his country from Spain. The famous Cuban author Alejo Carpentier (1904-1980) wrote a review in El Nacional.
April. JB records Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor Op. 16 with the Cincinnati SO under Thor Johnson.
26 July. Fidel Castro initiates an attack on the Moncada Barracks, a military garrison outside Santiago de Cuba, Oriente. Castro's plan emulated those of the 19th-century Cuban independence fighters who had raided Spanish barracks; Castro saw himself as the heir to independence leader José Martí. In the end Castro ordered a retreat. Batista's government proclaims martial law,
1954
April. JB was one of five American musicians invited for a four-week visit to West Germany as guests of the Federal Republic. While in Germany, Bolet appeared as soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic. Europe for the next 6 weeks, according to newspapers. First return to Europe since his 1935 début?
1955
May/June. A tour of Brazil and Argentina, 18 concerts being mentioned. Confirmed: Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Buenos Aires.
In Buenos Aires in May 1955 there were massive riots. Roman Catholicism was being disestablished. A massacre took place on 16 June 1955. Thirty aircraft from the Argentine Navy and Air Force strafed Plaza de Mayo in the largest aerial bombing ever on the Argentine mainland. The attack targeted the adjacent Casa Rosada ("The Pink House"), the official seat of government, while a large crowd of protestors gathered to demonstrate support for President Juan Perón. The action was to be the first step in an eventually aborted coup d'état.
In Cuba (1955), bombings and violent demonstrations led to a crackdown on dissent, with Castro and brother Raúl fleeing the country to evade arrest.
1955
November/December. European tour (cf. 1935, 1954) incl. Denmark, Sweden Holland, Britain.
*18 December (aged 41). Royal Festival Hall, London: recital
1956
2 December. Fidel Castro and the 26th of July Movement rebels land on Cuban soil with the intention of starting a revolution. Met by heavy Batista defences, nearly everyone in the Movement is killed, with merely a handful escaping, including Castro, his brother Raúl, and Che Guevara. For the next two years, Castro continues guerrilla attacks and succeeds in gaining large numbers of volunteers.
1957
Random bombings and other sabotage are commonplace across the island of Cuba, and the régime becomes more ruthless in its attempts to retain political control.
1958
25, 26 November. Constitution Hall, Washington DC. John LaMontaine, Piano Concerto (première). National Symphony/Howard Mitchell
2 December. Auditorium, Havana: recital for Pro-Arte. Schubert's B flat major sonata D960 makes a rare appearance on JB’s programmes. His last concert in Cuba?
By 1958, perceiving that Batista was absolutely discredited among Cubans of every political affiliation and class, the United States finally imposed an arms embargo against him. In May 1958, his army failed in a final offensive against the guerrillas and began losing territory.
On 31 December, New Year’s Eve, Fulgencio Batista flees Cuba with a few of his closest supporters, leaving revolutionary forces free to take control of the capital.
1959
9 January. A victorious Fidel Castro reached Havana. JB never returned to Cuba.
Promotional material states that JB has an annual European tour (England, Germany, Holland) in January/February 1959 and in America during March/May.
January/February. London, Amsterdam, Delft, The Hague, Berlin, Hamburg…
May. First appearance in Norway.
1960
11 August. USA premiere of Song without End in New York City, for which JB had performed music by Liszt for the soundtrack.
1961
3 February. JB's television debut, on the Bell Telephone Hour, playing Rhapsody in Blue
26 May -19 June. Poland (Kraków, Katowice, Bielsko-Biała, Szczecin, Gdańsk, Jelenia Góra and Warsaw)
1962
29 May. Recital in the Royal Festival Hall, London
14 & 16 October. Honolulu, Hawaii. Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op.58. JB’s first appearance on the island.
31 October. JB celebrates his 25th Anniversary on North American concert stage in Carnegie Hall.
The Cuban Missile Crisis took place from 16 -28 October. This 13-day period was sparked on October 16 when U.S. reconnaissance planes photographed Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. The crisis officially concluded on October 28 when Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to dismantle and remove the weapons
1963
From early spring 1963, Jorge Bolet and Tex Compton are living in Fuenterrabia, northern Spain.
24 June. Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, Scotland. Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23. Scottish National Orchestra, [later Sir] Alexander Gibson. JB’s first appearance in Scotland.
1964
Jorge Bolet and Tex Compton are still living in Fuenterrabia, northern Spain. JB performs a lot more abroad than in the USA this year.
August. Following reported attacks on U.S. destroyers, the U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, officially pulling the U.S. into open military conflict in Vietnam..
7-11 April. Grosser Saal, Musikverein, Vienna (Austria). Liszt 1. Vienna Symphony (Wiener Symphoniker) under Paul Klecki. Only his second appearance in the Austrian capital (since 1935).
12 September - 8 October. JB tours New Zealand, with recitals and concertos: Auckland, Hamilton, Gisborne, Wellington, Timaru, Christchurch, Wanganui, Nelson, Palmerston North, Christchurch and Dunedin.
October and November. JB makes a tour of South Africa (in their summer) and Windhoek, South-West Africa (now Namibia).
1965
8 March 1965, 3,500 U.S. Marines were landed near Da Nang, South Vietnam. This marked the beginning of America's ground war.
March-June. Australia tour
6 July. City Hall, Hong Kong recital.
1966
Jorge seems hardly at all to have performed in the USA this year.
c.13 January. Helsinki, Finland? Rachmaninoff 3 with Paavo Beglund. Also May 1966; August & December 1968?
December 1966: Haus des Rundfunks (Saal 3), West Berlin, West Germany (SFB Studio Radio Broadcast ). Also in 1965
1967
January. Major USA tour with Detroit Symphony Orchestra/ Sixten Ehrling
16 April. Recital in [the new] Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. JB seems not to have been back in London until the 1970s.
1968
January. The Tet Offensive was a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. It was launched on 30 January, by forces of the Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) against the forces of the South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), the United States Armed Forces and their allies.
September. Jorge now takes up a teaching post at University of Indiana, at Bloomington. Divides his time between there at Fuenterrabia, Spain.
1970
Jorge is still living in Spain (presumably at least this is his main residence, while at Bloomington, Indiana).
3 October. Hunter College, NYC. Benefit concert for International Piano Library (which had been vandalised and robbed). A big break for JB.
1971
On 18 February, Jorge arrived in Fuenterrabia, northern Spain, where he and Tex still rent a home.
19 May. Clowes Hall, Butler University, Indianapolis. US premiere of Sgambati’s Concerto in G minor (as part of the Romantic Festival IV). Louisville Orchestra and Jorge Mester
1972
This new season 1972-73 marked JB's 35th on the concert platform (he would be 59 years old in November)
March. JB records the Sgambati Concerto in G minor in Nuremberg - Colosseum Musikstudios with Ainslee Cox and the Nürnberg Symphoniker.
June. JB signs a long-term contract with RCA (which would not last...)
1973
May/June. South Africa tour (Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town)
July. Records "Great Rachmaninoff Transcriptions" n RCA Studio A, New York City
October. Concerto appearances in Bournemouth, Bristol, Exeter in England
1974
23 January. Victoria Hall, Geneva (Switzerland): Jorge's first appearance in this Alpine land?
25 February (aged 59). Carnegie Hall, New York City. A recital that would acquire legendary status, not least because it was recorded by RCA.
"The power source that heated up a close-to-capacity audience in Carnegie Hall on a cold and snowy night was Jorge Bolet.”
1975
JB’s days as an exclusive RCA Victor artist ended when his contract there was abruptly terminated in 1975, as Thomas Z. Shepard became director of classics at RCA and replaced Bolet with Belgian-born, American pianist Tedd Joselson.
September. Brazil and Argentina (Teatro Coliseo, Buenos Aires).
1976
January./ February. South Africa (3rd visit): concerts in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Windhoek (Namibia since March 1990), Pietermaritzburg, Durban, Salisbury (Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe).
May. Tokyo, Japan (first return to the country since The Mikado performances in 1946)
14 May. Bunka Kaikan Hall (Ueno Koen, Tokyo), recital
19/20, 21/22 May. NHK Hall, Shibuya Tokyo
Brahms, Piano Concerto No.2 in B flat op.83; Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor op.37. Wolfgang Sawallisch and the NHK Symphony Orchestra
1977
It is usually said that Bolet finally made a return to Britain in 1977 for regular concerts, but he had visited periodically in the early 1970s. *See: March, October 1973, October, December 1974, October 1975.
17 February 1977 (aged 62). Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. JB meets Peter Wadland who would enable him - finally - to get a lasting recording contract (with Decca).
July. Mexico
July/August/September. Australia.
JB’s 8 August recital in Sydney Opera House would have been rather special as it was the first time he had seen the famous new Opera House (1973). 'The sun did not know how beautiful its rays were, until it saw them reflected upon the roof of Sydney Opera House.'
September. He takes up his post as Head of the Piano Department at the Curtis Institute, Philadelphia.. This required around 30 days of teaching a year.
3 & 4 October (aged 62). Kingsway Hall, London. Records a selection of Chopin/Godowsky Études and Waltzes for Decca/L'Oiseau-lyre.
1978
July. South America (Brazil - incl. Campos do Jordão, Argentina, Peru) and Mexico.
11/12 August. Blossom Music Centre, an outdoor amphitheatre at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat, Op.83. The Cleveland Orchestra under Jerzy Semkow
16 August. Schloss Esterházy, Eisenstadt, Austria (Haydn Festival)
Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Concerto No.5 in A flat major op. 113
7-9 December. Kingsway Hall, London. JB records Liszt for Decca/L'Oiseau-lyre.
1979
For some reason, the glamour of an international concert career has never surrounded this 'Cuban pianist. One has the feeling that he surely deserves more special treatment than he has sometimes received.'
[Vianne Webb, Daily Press Newport News (25 January 1979)]
June/July. Argentina and Uruguay.
1980
29 February - 2 March 1980, Kingsway Hall, London. Jorge records Reger’s Telemann variations Op.134 & Brahms-Handel for Decca
July/August. South Africa tour
25 August. A recital in the Freemasons Hall for the Edinburgh International Festival, recorded by the BBC.
Tex Compton, manager & partner since the early 1940s, dies on 9 December, aged 70
1981
July/August. Australian tour
24-27 November. Kingsway Hall, London. Schubert/Liszt recorded for Decca
1982
4 May. Revival of Joseph Marx’s Romantic Piano Concerto in E major (1916-19) in Avery Fisher Hall, New York City.
June. In Central & South America (Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Chile?, Uruguay)
1983
February. Masterclasses in Edinburgh recorded for BBC. Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3, Usher Hall, with the BBC Scottish SO and Bryden Thomson,
March. First Decca Liszt recording.
June/July. South America
August. Television broadcast for the Rachmaninoff masterclasses in the UK. 'Four television appearances can do for an artist what music critics fail to achieve in twice as many years‘
28 November. Milan, Italy (Sala Puccini of the Conservatorio di Milano). This concert was advertised as being in honour of Godowsky's appearance in Milan in 1913.
Comments