A.I. technology is moving on at a rapid pace - I'm amazed at what I'm seeing - and this is the first in a series of new videos (some individual parts appear on the relevant page) with what I think are more realistic characters telling the story of Jorge Bolet. Part 1, covering the years 1914-1961, is now available. Keep checking back to the VIDEO page - or use this YouTube link *Please remember that the people you see in these videos are not real!

All Jorge Bolet's recordings for the company from 1977-1990, including Chopin Nocturnes and Berceuse, never before issued, have appeared in a boxed set this November 2024.

This is very much work-in-progress, but I thought I'd try to gather together all that I know so far about Jorge's performances in South and Central America (excluding Cuba). Mostly brief entries, for which you must consult the relevant web page. This list is probably only of interest to me. )As ever, I'd be delighted to hear from anyone who can add to this list.) To be updated...

On 19 October 1984, in the Filharmonia Narodowa, Warsaw, Jorge Bolet played Liszt. That very evening, Catholic priest and chaplain of Solidarity/Solidarność Jerzy Popiełuszko was murdered by officers of the Security Service. The archives of the Warsaw Philharmonic have this concert down for 19/20 October 1985, but this may an error as Stolica: warszawski tygodnik ilustrowan y, R. 39, 1984 nr 42 [14 X] advertised it on that week of 1984. Although the communists lifted martial law in 1983, the repressions against the opposition continued. Public opinion was in uproar at the death of the Catholic priest and chaplain of “Solidarity,” Jerzy Popiełuszko. His murderers were officers of the Security Service, the instrument of conspiracy in the Polish People's Republic [Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa]. Jorge Bolet may well have been unnerved by his visit at this time (see note under 1961): Popiełuszko was assassinated on 19th October, the very day of Jorge's concert. The priest had arrived in Bydgoszcz on 19 October 1984. At 6pm, he celebrated Holy Mass at the Church of the Holy Polish Brothers Martyrs. Later that evening, the priest was beaten to death by three Security Police officers: Captain Grzegorz Piotrowski, Leszek Pękala, and Waldemar Chmielewski. They pretended to have problems with their car and flagged down Popiełuszko's car for help. Popiełuszko was severely beaten, tied up and put in the trunk of the car. The officers bound a stone to his feet and dropped him into the Vistula Water Reservoir near Włocławek from where his body was recovered on 30 October 1984. News of the political murder caused an uproar throughout Poland, and the murderers and one of their superiors, Colonel Adam Pietruszka, were convicted of the crime. A huge crowd estimated to be between 600,000 to 1 million, including Lech Wałęsa, attended his funeral on 3 November 1984. Popiełuszko has been recognised as a martyr by the Catholic Church and was beatified on 6 June 2010 by Cardinal Angelo Amato on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. ​

Online Polish newspapers have revealed a few more of their secrets about Bolet's tour in May/June 1961. New cities and dates have been added (Szczecin and Bielsko, for example) and there's a review of his Krakow concerts. Echo Krakowa (27/28 May) commented on the novelty of not one but two concertos in one evening.  Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale was also heard for the first time in Krakow. 'There was no exaggeration in the praise already heaped on Bolet in the Western hemisphere.  A distinct tendency towards lyricism; he played the two concertos in a somewhat Romantic way.  More lyricism than inner fervour and dynamics.  The insatiable and ruthless/demanding music lovers of Krakow required that the American played encores, though not all of yesterday's listeners had enough artistic and listening energy left to stay until the end of a very long evening.'

Jorge Bolet's recital in Windhoek, South West Africa was actually on 2 February, not 6th, so there is some mixup in his datebook.  The Windhoek Advertiser (16.1.76) reported that there was a strong possibility theatre-goes would boycott the recital of the 'Cuban pianist' as they felt strongly about Cuban involvement in Angola 'and seem to resent the fact that a Cuban pianist is going to appear in the Windhoek Theatre.  In an interview this morning Dr E Grobbelaar, Director of SWAPAC, stressed the fact that Mr Bolet left Cuba before the regime of Fidel Castro and is now an American citizen. 'A New York journalist reports as follows: "[When asked, Mr Bolet replied:] I am a hero to the Cubans in exile and I am a hero to my former good friends who are still living in Cuba.  Now the name of Bolet is very, very much on the black list in Cuba.  I always felt that if I ever got on a plane that was highjacked,  I would be separated at once and would probably be grilled and put through the third degree."'  The edition of 28 January, however, predicts a full house. The Windhoek programme was all-Chopin (as in Salisbury).  This was the rainy season and there was soaking rain for 20 hours.  A Boeing of South African Airways had some difficulty getting in at Strijdom [now Hosea Kutako International] Airport on the morning of 3 February.  Jorge's recital was more favourably - though briefly - reviewed, in contrast to Salisbury.  'No music is more fitting to be played these days than Chopin's, for he possessed civil courage, chivalry, modesty, dignity and grace, and all these attributes are expressed in his music.'  Etudes 3,4, 7 and 11 Op. 25 and Ballade No. 2 were declared 'a revelation' and his pianissimi and 'delicacy of touch' were generally noted.  (Travel permitting, Jorge may have enjoyed dining at the first Wienerwald restaurant to open in Africa - at the Hotel Continental on the 3rd.)

In Clarín , 25 July, 1979, Jorge D'Urbano - who had reviewed Jorge's first appearance in Argentina in June 1955 - wrote: 'Jorge Bolet is a virtuoso pianist.  This does not mean, in any way, that he lacks musicality.  But his specific definition is that of a virtuoso, that is, capable of mastering the piano so completely that everything else fades into the background.   He is capable of true pianistic feats, and has to his credit that these seem not to be a process  at all, as if they were nothing more than the work of a good mechanism. ​ 'The compositions he performed do not seem to be too profound, but at no time do they border on vulgarity or triteness ( lo trillado ).   He approaches them seriously and extracts from them everything he is capable of obtaining.'   The writer is unimpressed by Busoni's work: 'Everything that means Bach has been discarded...We have already protested every time a pianist resorts to this transcription.   But the result [ in Jorge's hands ] was impressive.   The B minor Sonata was approached by Bolet with a curious lack of exhibitionism and with a certain intimacy, if this can be said of that Sonata.   In general, the line was maintained (and everyone knows how desperately difficult it is to maintain the line of this Sonata) and Bolet moved through it with good stylistic judgement, because if there is anything this pianist knows, it is the music of Liszt.   Each of the Études had character, with a strong dose of temperament and vitality. ​ 'It seems that Harold Schonberg, the critic for The New York Times,  said that "Jorge Bolet's recitals were the highlight of the 1977-78 season". We do not doubt that the quote is correct. We are a little perplexed, however, that Schonberg, who sees the world's greatest piano players perform in New York, has clearly exaggerated his rating this time.  Because Bolet is a good player, but we do not believe that he is by far the best.'

Jorge Bolet's only appearance in the fabled opera house in Buenos Aires was on Saturday, 21 July 1979. The programme consisted of Bach/Busoni  Ciaccona, Liszt's Sonata in B minor and his Transcendental Études 7, 6, 12, 9 and 8. The Colón was performing an early opera by Verdi,  I due Foscari (premièred on Tuesday 17th - it had first been performed there in 1850).  The Argentinian paper of record La Nación seems not to have carried a review of JB's recital (so far as I can see, but I'm working on it...) The Thirty Nine Steps,  a British 1978 thriller based on the novel   by John Buchan, was playing in cinemas.  On 19 July, British Minister of Affairs at the Foreign Office Nicholas Ridley arrived at Ezeiza airport, Buenos Aires, to be met by Carlos Cavándoli and Hugh Carless (chargé d'affaires at the British Embassy, where he monitored the disputed sovereignty of islands in the Beagle Channel, and the Falklands), before flying on the next day to the Falkland Islands (*1977-79 page for more details).

The Piano Files on Patreon has posted a little challenge. Jorge Bolet plays 'In Autumn' in recordings from 1952 and 1987. "To celebrate the change of seasons to Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, two recordings by the great Cuban-born pianist Jorge Bolet playing Moszkowski's 'En Automne' Op.36 No.4." Which do you prefer? My view of the arguments regarding earlier and later recordings is well rehearsed throughout this website, so I will only comment on the following detail, that the earlier reading "has less reverberation in the overall acoustic - something far too common with more modern recordings". I, on the other hand, prefer a more generous, "giving" acoustic in a piano recording, such as Decca offered Bolet. It amuses me to see people at a piano recital who are perched right in front of the piano. The piano is a mechanical instrument, so needs "air" around it - which is why I will always sit further back in the hall. On-and-off in earlier years, I practised one of my favourite of the Chopin études, Op.10/5 in G flat major. Though I worked at it for years, it never sounded right until someone made a recording on a small cassette player in a hall. I then realised that with air around the notes, my playing sounded much more as I had hoped.

I've been looking at The Rhodesia Herald in the British Library. Quite a hard-hitting, critical review. Having now to get used to reading microfilm, which I've only used a few times before.   The Rhodesia Herald (13 February) had a short article expressing surprise that TWO visiting pianists should be giving recitals within 7 days of each other.   'Most promoters would try to avoid such near-clashes if possible.'  (Israeli pianist Joseph Kalichstein was the other.)  This is actually advertised as Jorge’s second visit to Rhodesia, the first presumably being in 1964. There was ‘no violent rush for tickets’ for Jorge’s concert (which had been arranged by the Salisbury Arts Council) and the author wondered: ‘Surely Salisbury is not being so churlish as to hold Mr Bolet’s birth against him?’   This is in reference to Cuban intervention in Angola, which began on 5 November 1975, when Cuba sent combat troops (apparently one-tenth of its army) in support of the communist-aligned People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). Jorge's recital was on Saturday 14 February, Valentine’s Day, in the Harry Margolis Hall; it was an all-Chopin programme (Etudes Op.25 and the four Ballades).  The newspaper wondered whether Kalichstein’s programme, being more varied (Brahms, Schubert, Chopin and Bartok), was the more tempting ​ Monday's  Herald  (16th) carried a trenchant review by Rhys Lewis, one of the more hard-hitting Jorge has received. ‘It was, I think, Cortot who observed that Chopin’s Studies are as inaccessible to the musician without virtuosity as they are to the virtuoso without musicianship.  The key lies in a fine balance between that exultation in the new-found resources of the piano that Chopin so clearly felt, and their depth of poetic expression. 'To these decibel-assaulted ears, Jorge Bolet did not find that balance. There was plenty of evidence of a big technique, but where soft, light and even playing was called for, we were treated to lumpy phrasing, rhythmic squareness, tonal monotony and a bravera splashiness that, to those of us whose delight in the music's wonders is still undulled, were a travesty. The four Ballades fared rather better.  But in responding too generously to every passing change of mood and every minute inner textural detail which he held up for our inspection, Mr Bolet lost the work’s larger design. It was an instructive evening if only that it proved that the accretions of tradition in performing Chopin are far from dead.  But in the event, one couldn't help regretting that those who sit in power over whom and what we are to hear…had not chosen the programme Bolet had given in Carnegie Hall two years ago. Far from suffering as I fear Chopin did, Liszt, Busoni and Tausig transcriptions gloriously find their raison d’etre in this particular type of playing.’

Jorge Bolet recalled by a Spanish friend from a meeting in 1981; I believe the friend to be Ramón Rodamiláns Vellido (Spanish, with English subtitles)

Delighted confirm Jorge Bolet DID play in Chile (I had thought he hadn’t) June, 1983 in Chile, with Juan Pablo Izquierdo (born Santiago de Chile, 1935) and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Santiago in the capital's Teatro Municipal.  Again in 1984 (date to be confirmed).  Full details added to the relevant page.