Jorge Bolet, Tchaikovsky Madrid 1968

25/26 (?) January 1968, Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto in the Teatro Real, Madrid with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and the Orquesta Nacional de España. "Pines of Rome" by Respighi and a work by Óscar Esplá (1886-1976). 

'The Cuban pianist Jorge Bolet possesses the technique of a great virtuoso, demonstrated time and again in both the mechanical capacity and the possibilities of power (demostrada una y otra veztanto en la capacidad mecánica como en las posibilidades de potencia). A work like Tchaikovsky's Concerto offers opportunities for the best display of an instrumentalist of such a high calibre as Bolet. However, his expressive manner and even his virtuosity seem out of step with the times (su manera expresiva y hasta su virtuosismo se me antojan fuera de tiempo). As in other illustrious cases—pianists or singers—Jorge Bolet seems like a reappearance of the old "divos" with their virtues and, to the modern sensibility, their flaws. Among them, I believe the most damaging—accentuated yesterday by Frühbeck's work—is the vulgarization of music in the name of virtuosity. It's like some fine jewels, which, being made of gold, are crafted in such a way that they don't appear to be. (Sucede como en algunas joyas buenas, que siendo de oro están trabajadas de manera que no lo parecen.) The task of the performers, then, must be to "save" the work from the very enemies it contains. These observations are made precisely because of the undeniable stature of Bolet's personality, capable of triumphing in the great Romantic repertoire without falling into interpretive demagoguery.' ( E.Franco, Arriba, 27 January 1968)