Jorge Bolet in Denmark 1955

9 December 1955, Copenhagen, small hall of the Odd Fellow Palace. Berlingske Tidende, a Danish newspaper, first published on 3 January, reported: 'The Great Cuban. Jorge Bolet, who played Beethoven at the last Royal Chapel concert, is a piano virtuoso. This can be said without any hidden disdain, let alone indignation. The joy of effortless mastery of an instrument is an essential feature of all healthy musicality. And how could one reproach a musician for having created the means to express himself through the medium that is his own? Virtuosity is, to be sure, only form, but life does not exist without form.

Nor is Bolet merely a stunning master of the piano. If he is an autocrat, he is also an enlightened autocrat. (Er han enevældig, er han tillige en oplyst Enevoldshersker.) His playing is extremely deliberate/thoughtful. One has the sense that he has subjected every little phrase to thorough consideration to arrive at the most pianistically effective interpretation.  Not that there is anything superficial about this Cuban's approach to music—on the contrary, one is at all times convinced of his absolute honesty. But his phrasing was, on the other hand, often executed—last night, for instance, in some Haydn variations and in Chopin’s B minor scherzo—with such delicate precision that one might have wished for a greater degree of spontaneity.

Nevertheless, one listened with recognition and admiration to Jorge Bolet. He could play Haydn with intelligence and gentleness. But he could also—and especially—unfold in an always sonorous fortissimo, which made one regret that the palace's small hall was not the palace's grand hall. And even in the many thunderous passages, the music retained its transparency. You great Cuban, what a pianist you are!'