Jorge Bolet/Cleveland Orchestra

A summary of JB's four appearances with The Cleveland Orchestra.

14 November 1944, Civic Auditorium, Grand Rapids, Michigan.  This was Jorge's first appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra which was on tour (under French-American Vladimir Golschmann).   Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Opus 18.  In Paris, Golschmann had conducted performances at the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev.  He also premiered various workd: Le bœuf sur le toit, a ballet by Darius Milhaud, at the Comédie des Champs-Élysées, 1920; Pastorale d'été by Arthur Honegger, Salle Gaveau, 1921; and El retablo de Maese Pedro by Manuel de Falla, at the palace of the Princesse de Polignac, 1923.

25 July 1951, Summer Prom, Public Auditorium [500, Lakeside Ave], Cleveland, Ohio, with the Cleveland Orchestra and Rudolph Ringwall: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major (Jorge also played Camargo Mozart Guarnieri, Toada Triste and Lecuona's Afro-Cuban Dances)

April 1959, Akron Armory, Akron, Ohio: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major with Hungarian maestro George Szell and The Cleveland Orchestra.  Francis Crociata has said: '[Jorge] had only himself to blame when, engaged as a substitute for Claudio Arrau in Cleveland, his customary diplomatic tact deserted him at the worst possible moment by calling attention to a wrong note in George Szell’s score of the Liszt Second [actually No. 1] Concerto, this in front of his Cleveland Orchestra players. It pretty much assured any re-engagement for Bolet there would be secured only after the notoriously thin-skinned maestro’s demise.'  (This was in August 1978). Andria Hoy, archivist, has informed me:  'It appears that Jorge Bolet performed with the Orchestra several times, including on tour to Michigan and including the Liszt with Szell you mentioned. Strangely, he never performed in our concert hall, only downtown or at our summer home, Blossom Music Center.' 

The concert was reviewed in the Akron Beacon Journal, 8.4.59 with heading: 'Pianist, Orchestra, delight Audience'.  'Jorge Bolet, a tall, dark and handsome pianist from Cuba, stole the show from the orchestra in the season's final concert.  Looking at Bolet's powerful build', write Oscar Smith, 'one could imagine he would be as effective with the Cleveland Browns, reeling off 10 or 15 yards at a crack through the line as he was with the Cleveland Orchestra.   The amazing thing was not that he achieved tremendous power at the keyboard, but that he could suddenly turn off the thunder and play with a feather-like touch. How could those arms and shoulder be gentle?  At the end cheers and shrill whistles were part of the applause.'  'It is obvious that Szell has deep affection for this symphony by a fellow Czech...'  Oops!

Friday 11 (and also Saturday 12 at 8:30pm) August 1978, Jorge with The Cleveland Orchestra under Jerzy Semkow performed Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat, Op.83 in the Blossom Music Centre, an outdoor amphitheatre at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio - the summer home of The Cleveland Orchestra.  Jorge had not played with this orchestra in 19 [?] years. Fortunately, there is a recording, especially welcome as this major concerto of his repertoire was never recorded commercially.  The Chronicle-Telegram Elyria proclaimed this as Bolet's début with the orchestra.

Andria Hoy, archivist of The Cleveland Orchestra has told me: 'Strangely, he never performed in our concert hall, only downtown or at our summer home, Blossom Music Center.'