Jorge Bolet in the Southern Cone 1979

10 July 1979

Teatro Solís, Montevideo, Uruguay

30th anniversary of SODRE (Servicio Oficial de Difusión, Representaciones y Espectáculos; Official Service for Broadcasting, Performances and Entertainment) in con junction with the Embassy of the USA

Liszt's Sonata, Funerailles and his Transcendental Études 7, 6, 12, 9 and 8.

(JB's first appearance in the country)

​El País (Montevideo): Inimitable style. He is a gigantic man, and possesses a musical and pianistic talent that is in perfect harmony with his physique. He has the almost mythical grandeur of the Romantic tradition, inherited directly from Liszt, complemented by the rigour and control of a contemporary instrumentalist. He possesses a mechanism of infinite possibilities, but what matters in him is the flight, the imagination, and the brilliant musical intuition with which he uses those means (lo que importa en él es el vuelo, la imaginación, la genial intuición musical…) The presence of this artist is an event and for Montevideo a revelation. Unfortunately, this revelation was enjoyed by a group of pianists and a small core of discerning, aficionados. Those that stayed home missed what might be considered one of the culminating recitals of the last decade. What Jorge Bolet does with list music surely has few parallels in our time.

“I am an old-fashioned pianist (pianista anticuado) to many,” he comments with a smile. “Of course," he adds, "I received the Lisztian style directly from his disciple Rosenthal, and now I am trying to transmit my own interpretations, and I hope they too will remain 'old-fashioned' in this vein." 

It is like rediscovering Liszt; it is like suddenly encountering an authentic poetic world in which virtuosity is not an external means to dazzle but a fundamental reason that conditions all artistic creation of a period.

A few years ago, another talented American, Earl Wild, had already given us a glimpse of what can be achieved with musical virtuosity. But Earl Wild focused on Liszt's gentler, more volatile side;in contrast, Bolet delved more deeply into his dramatic interior without losing the exquisite formal craftsmanship. Funerailles had a totally unusual, reflective repose. It wasn't the ostentatious display of spectacular power that is usually the case, but rather the reflection of a painful experience being recalled.

In the Transcendental Studies (several of which have hardly ever been heard here), Bolet's pianistic richness was transfigured into true musical magic. His dynamic range allows him a variety of planes that never settle for the ordinary chiaroscuro. He reaches the most resonant and overwhelming fortissimo without straining the instrument. One senses that behind that fortissimo there is still room for an even more resonant accentuation, and when this occurs it has a shaking power. But in the pianissimo zone, his possibilities for colouration (aided by an wise, infallible use of pedal) achieve prodigious effects of atmosphere and nuance.

Everything in his playing is so lucid and so clear that in the most profound (dense?) moments of the Sonata, these passages seemed to be revealing areas that, until that moment, had remained nebulous. But this clarity is not the stark and objective attempt to X-ray a score (as happens with many current analytical pianists) but rather the result of an infallible musicality served by a technique that can do anything.

Regarding Bolet's open and elastic rhythm, there, the old Romantic tradition is most evident in all its splendour. It had been many years since we felt the eloquence of the "rubato" applied with such tact, naturalness, and good taste. This cannot be learned; it is in the very essence of the work and is the natural pulse of all 19th-century writing. Anyone who doesn't grasp it instinctively and recognize it as an essential part of the structure will always give an impression of contrivance. In Jorge Bolet's work, Liszt's music grows into a work of art and not as a mere will-o'-the-wisp, because the performer has redefined its authenticity through a performance style that is completely inimitable. 

W. Roldán

Washington Roldán (1921–2001) was a highly respected Uruguayan music and dance critic. Based in Montevideo, he was a prominent figure in the country's cultural landscape, serving as a lead arts and music writer for the major newspaper El País and the Centro Cultural de Música.

He was born in Paysandú on January 23, 1921. He came to Montevideo in 1941 to study law, but music proved more compelling. In Montevideo, he met Lauro Ayestarán, who helped him find his way in journalism and musicology. His friendship with the composer Héctor Tosar began at the Faculty of Law. In 1947, he began writing for the newspaper El País, where he continued until 2000.

Simultaneously, he wrote dance reviews under the pseudonym Fígaro en Marcha, and was also a correspondent for Buenos Aires Musical and the magazine Clave. In 1962, he left for the United States, where he worked for eight years as a diplomat in Washington, D.C., while also enjoying his extensive musical output. Upon his return to Argentina in 1970, he resumed his role as a critic.

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El País a few days later, on 15 July 

Jorge Bolet's hatreds are as strong as his loves. One of them, curiously, is Berlioz, whose "Symphonie Fantastique" he detests and considers "totally artificial." Bolet knows that in his antipathy for Berlioz he "is a minority of one," but he feels more supported in his criticisms of modern music, but he admits to liking Penderecki and Ginastera.

He considers himself fortunate with the critics, with the exception of the Dutch ones. "In Amsterdam, the critics don't accept music that isn't intellectual

Bolet is a great admirer of the Philadelphia Orchestra, which (agreeing with this columnist) he considers the best in the world. "Their esprit de corps is admirable, and it's the only orchestra in the whole world that can play splendidly even with a very bad conductor."

Despite his physical robustness, he does not belong to the breed of tireless workers: "Mentally, I study a lot, but I dedicate relatively little time to piano practice. I’ve always had a great facility for the habit of being able to keep works under my fingers. From a young age, I imposed a rule on myself: I am not going to be a slave to the piano. It is the piano that is going to be my slave." 

(Notes by E. F.)