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12 April 1962 Recital in the hall of the Rijnhotel, Mauritsweg, Rotterdam, incl. Chopin's Sonata No. 3 in B minor Op.58, Beethoven's Appassionata and Liszt's Mephisto Waltz. ​[The recital by American pianist Jorge Bolet for the Rotterdamsche Kunstkring has been moved from April 3 to April 12. Jorge Bolet will then perform in the AMVJ Hall of the Rijnhotel.]​ Pianist with Fabulous Technique, Audience in Utter Ecstasy. See full review It is extremely rare for a recital to be awaited with such high expectations as was the case with the performance by Cuban pianist Jorge Bolet last night in the fully booked Grand Hall of the Rijnhotel . Even less often does an audience become so enraptured that they do not cease applauding until the soloist has played four encores. Jorge Bolet was not restrained in this regard, choosing them from the most difficult works by Liszt and Chopin. Now that the almost superhuman task he had set himself had been accomplished, it seemed as if all he knew was to possess fingers capable of ruling in absolute dominion over the recalcitrant material of keys and note complexes. Fingers that know no fatigue, no uncertainty, no fear, and not even problems. ​But Jorge Bolet is more than the virtuoso whose performances are heard and watched with astonishment. He is also the responsible man who, in all his greatness, feels small in the face of the enormous task he finds himself faced with at the beginning of his concert. It is not the technical grandmaster Bolet , who does not yet fully reach his full potential in the first movement of Chopin's Sonata in B-flat (mistake for B minor?), who possesses his playing in essence. It is the man, aware of his artistic calling, who reacts in this way. But then comes the Scherzo, and Bolet 's *molto vivace* storms forth like a whirlwind. Here it is the wondrously powerful fingers that take possession of the situation. It is also to whom Jorge Bolet can entrust the apotheosis at the end of the finale. Who is capable of such a grandiose climax? Sviatoslaw Richter perhaps, or Shura Cherkassky. A very rare individual from the small circle of the world's most imposing keyboard virtuosos. One of the few who can imbue such a page with the breathtaking magical sound that the author must have heard in his dreams. The touchstone for Bolet 's artistic merits, however, even more than Chopin, has been Beethoven's Sonata in F minor, Op. 57 (the "Appassionata"). In assessing this, one must proceed from the premise that an instrumentalist, who is given the ability to evoke the most intense sonic contrasts imaginable, thinks in smaller proportions than one whose dynamic curve shows a more gradual progression. In both Allegros, Bolet 's attention to detail represented an asset solely regarding the structure of the work. Beethoven must have envisioned his composition with such charged and abrupt dynamic contrasts. He may possibly have intended the Andante with wider arcs, tighter lines, and less poetic tone-to-tone progression. But let us not forget, viewed on a larger scale, that such extreme vehemence must necessarily be counterbalanced by a more intensified resting point for the sake of the proper balance. ​Jorge Bolet ended his recital with a group of Liszt, the style in which he is greatest of all. Just as during his recent performance with the R.Ph.O., he plumbed depths within Liszt's tinsel, to which hardly anyone seems to have yet arrived. It is understandable, when an artist is so superior to piano technique, that pieces such as the Rigoletto paraphrase and the Mephisto waltz appear on the programme. The Kunstkring audience allowed themselves to be swept along and overwhelmed by it, and all the more so because the serious, highly concentrated man at the piano showed not a trace of pride for a single moment. Elly Salom(é), Het Rotterdamsch Parool

Written on Verso: Alberto and Jorge Bolet with Mr. Brusilow, leader of the Philadelphia Orchestra at a rehearsal in Robin Hood Dell, Philadelphia. Schima Kaufman, 2101 Walnut St., Philadelphia.. 1960s?

The Times, 3 July 1992 Obituary of Peter Wadland, one of the significant helpers of Jorge Bolet's career. The Independent (2 July 1992, James Jolly) Peter Wadland, record producer, born Exmouth 28 May 1946, died London 30 June 1992. WHEN the history of the gramophone comes to be written, one name high on the list of major influences will be Peter Wadland, who at his death was Chief Producer of Decca's early music L'Oiseau-Lyre label. He was a man of great taste and style, qualities that are evident from every disc issued on 'his' label. His early years were spent in Antwerp and Brussels where, with the benefit of a German mother, he received a trilingual upbringing, something which set him up for life. The most important lesson he took with him from his years at King's College, Taunton, were the hours spent learning the classical repertoire in the school's record library: his love and knowledge of records was deep and extraordinarily informed. After working for Schott & Son and for the Hansom book organisation, Wadland joined Decca as label manager of L'Oiseau-Lyre and Vox Records in 1968. In 1971, when Decca took over the label, Wadland put forward his first suggestion for a recording - renaissance duets with Anthony Rooley and James Tyler. This was followed by a disc by the remarkable Japanese percussion player Stomu Yamash'ta, a disc that not only featured specially commissioned music but also multi-tracking effects, rare in the classical record world of the day. In 1973 Wadland dreamed up the Florilegium series, to a large extent the British equivalent of the German Archiv label. A chance meeting with Christopher Hogwood led to the foundation of the Academy of Ancient Music, and one of the most successful recording partnerships of the post- war years. The complete cycle of the Mozart symphonies launched in the late 1970s broke new ground in performance practice and in developing a new audience for baroque and classical music. Since then, the same performers have recorded all the Beethoven symphonies and concertos (with Steven Lubin) as well as embarking on a cycle of the complete Haydn symphonies (a project Wadland launched but sadly had to pass to colleagues). Other artists received the care and attention Wadland devoted to the L'Oiseau-Lyre label: Malcolm Binns recorded all the Beethoven piano sonatas on a variety of period instruments; Simon Preston and the Choir of Christ Church, Oxford, made a number of discs; Hogwood with many celebrated early music performers recorded a huge set of Purcell's theatre music and The Consort of Musicke and Anthony Rooley made countless discs for the label. L'Oiseau-Lyre played host to many of today's leading artists: Emma Kirkby, Philip Pickett and the New London Consort, Catherine Bott, Christophe Coin, James Bowman, Simon Standage, Christophe Rousset, Joshua Rifkin, John Mark Ainsley, David Thomas and the Amadeus Winds. Wadland was a perfectionist, involving himself in every aspect of the recordings he made, from chosing the cover illustration to proof-reading the notes. (He worked with 'mainstream' Decca artists, too, overseeing the Fitzwilliam Quartet's award-winning Shostakovich quartet series as well as assisting on a number of productions with Sutherland and Pavarotti.) But early music was not the music you would hear at Wadland's house. Pianists of the old school - Lhevinne, Moriz Rosenthal, Josef Hofmann, Horowitz, Bolet and Cherkassky (the last two artists he worked with at Decca, coaxing some memorable interpretations on to disc) - were his greatest enthusiasm. As were the singers of generations past: he adored Luisa Tetrazzini but above all it was Jussi Bjorling who appealed to his sense of style and ease of technique. Peter Wadland was a great host - his house in Camden was always home to musicians passing through London - and an inspired cook (his repertoire as questing as the programmes he assembled on record), a fine photographer and an inveterate traveller. He will be missed for his dynamism, humour and, above all, for his remarkable natural musicianship. Another source has written that Peter, an impish character who was more extrovertly gay, tried to bring Jorge out and encourage him. But Jorge, of a different generation and indeed era, was always reticent and private.

The Rocky Mountain News (Daily), Volume 85, Number 332, November 27, 1944 Cuban Airs to Sound On Colorado Range? The plaintive if slightly monotonous tempos of the West Indian calypso may leave their mark on the lustier folk music of western North America as an indirect outgrowth of the war. That opinion was voiced in Denver yesterday by Lt. Jorge Bolet, noted Cuban pianist and assistant military attache to the Cuban Embassy in Washington. Lieutenant Bolet is in Denver for an appearance with the Denver Symphony Orchestra next Friday under the baton of Franz Allers. Tall, handsome and with a rich voice in which there is not even a shadowy trace of accent, Lieutenant Bolet expressed the belief the current importation of Cuban, West Indian and Mexican agrarian workers will have a definite influence on Western music of the future. Cuban Music Waning “But turn about is fair play,” he added. “Hollywood writes a lot of primitive African stuff, puts it to Spanish tempo and calls it Cuban. It catches the fancy in Cuba. The result is that real Cuban music, the bolero, for instance, is on the wane in its own country. “A Cuban peasant sings about anything — a political uprising, a strike or abdication of a ruler. He puts his story to verses, usually 10 lines, called decimas. Like the calypso songs, they don’t have much tune, but they have a sort of plaintive appeal. These are the kinds of songs that are invading particularly the Western United States.” To illustrate his point, Lieutenant Bolet sat down at a piano in one of the KOA reception rooms and played a Cuhan folk song. There was a striking similarity to some popular American songs of the range. Father Also a Soldier Son of an army captain in Cuba’s war for independence, Lieutenant Bolet has achieved international fame as a pianist. A brother is an accomplished conductor and composer and a sister is a gifted pianist. He will play Schumann’s Concerto and a group of Latin American compositions with the Denver ‘Symphony Orchestra at its third winter concert in City Auditorium Friday evening.

In the Decca vaults are both Liszt concertos recorded with Sir Georg Solti and the London Philharmonic-- unedited. 7-10 July 1986 Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London Jorge Bolet (piano), London Philharmonic Orchestra, Georg Solti [a] LISZT Piano Concerto No.1 in E flat G124 [b] LISZT Piano Concerto No.2 in A G125 [c] SCHUBERT-LISZT Wanderer Fantasie G366 ​Unpublished; these recordings were considered unsatisfactory, but a planned re-make in October 1987 was cancelled and it was not possible to arrange another date before Bolet’s death. [c] was issued in November 1989. ​​'Shortly after Jorge recorded the Liszt with Solti, I asked him about their cooperation. Jorge told me everything went well, and that he and Solti had a nice dinner together in order to discus all artistic issues connected with the project. 'Jorge believed the recording would be a success. Sometime later he mentioned to me that the both Liszt concertos would not be released because Solti was not happy with the balance between the piano and orchestra. I joked that it showed that the pianist did a better job then the conductor. I felt that Jorge was extremely unhappy with the decision from Decca not to bring the Liszt concertos onto the market. 'However they did issue the recorded Schubert/Liszt Wanderer Fantasy for piano and orchestra which was reviewed by Joan Chissell in 1990 where she writes: "I was a little disappointed with the actual sound:the orchestra lacks its true warmth".' Mattheus Smits, Netherlands Sir Georg Solti - born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian and British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt, and London, and as a long-serving music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Born in Budapest, he studied there with Béla Bartók, Leó Weiner, and Ernő Dohnányi. In 1969, Solti became music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a post he held for 22 years. During his time as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's eighth music director, he also served as music director of the Orchestre de Paris from 1972 until 1975 and principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1979 until 1983. As I have battled to learn Hungarian on and off for many years, I give a little snippet of Solti's Magyar background. Solti was born György Stern on Maros utca, in the Hegyvidék district of the Buda side of Budapest. He was the younger of the two children of Teréz (née Rosenbaum) and Móricz "Mór" Stern, both of whom were Jewish. In the aftermath of the First World War it became the accepted practice in Hungary for citizens with Germanic surnames to adopt Hungarian ones. The territorial revisionist regime of Admiral Horthy enacted a series of Hungarianisation laws, including a requirement that state employees with foreign-sounding names must change them Mór Stern, a self-employed merchant, felt no need to change his surname, but thought it prudent to change that of his children. He renamed them after Solt, a small town in central Hungary. His son's given name, György, was acceptably Hungarian and was not changed. [Sue Fox, "Georg Solti – A Childhood", The Times, 1 July 1995] Solti enrolled at the Ernő Fodor School of Music in Budapest at the age of 10, transferring to the more prestigious Franz Liszt Academy two years later. When he was 12, he heard a performance of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony conducted by Erich Kleiber, which gave him the ambition to become a conductor. The faculty of the Franz Liszt Academy included some of the most eminent Hungarian musicians, including Béla Bartók, Leó Weiner, Ernő Dohnányi, and Zoltán Kodály. Solti studied under the first three, for piano, chamber music, and composition, respectively. Some sources state that he also studied with Kodály, but in his memoirs, Solti recalled that Kodály, whom he would have preferred, turned him down, leaving him to study composition first with Albert Siklós and then with Dohnányi. After graduating from the academy in 1930, Solti was appointed to the staff of the Hungarian State Opera...

This list does not include Cuba. See also 1974-84 In El Caribe (12.11.1981), Lamela Geler stated that Jorge visited Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) in the early 1950s and played in the Teatro Olimpia, under the auspices of Sociedad Pro Arte. Now he gives a second recital in Santo Domingo. She goes on to state: 'Conocido mayormente en Europa y los Estados Unidos, ya que sus incursiones en América Latina han sido escasas, su repertorio está constituido por el total del material importante y difícil escrito para el piano.' (Known mostly in Europe and the United States, since his forays into Latin America have been few, his repertoire is made up of all the important and difficult material written for the piano.) 1936-39 We are told of recitals/concerts in the Caribbean and in Mexico, Guatemala and the Dominican Republica Dominicana during 1936-39 1946-47 After his discharge in September 1946, Bolet began to tour Mexico, Central America, the West Indies and South America. The tour began on 22 September 1946 and would keep him busy until mid-December. He had been flown back from Japan (where he had conducted The Mikado, August 1946) at the request of Columbia Concerts. He also gave frequent performances in Havana - solo recitals and concertos with the Havana Philharmonic. ​ Musical America noted that Bolet was again on tour in Mexico and Cuba in February 1947. ​The Gazette and Daily (York, Pennsylvania, 2 June 1947) reported that Jorge had 'recently returned from a Latin American tour which took him as far south as Guatemala and included a 10-week radio engagement in Mexico City.' 29 January 1947 Teatro Capitolio [1925; on Calle Arzobispo Meriño], Ciudad Trujillo (present day Santo Domingo) Dominican Republic Mozart's Fantasy & Fugue in C major, Beethoven's Les Adieux, Franck's Prelude Choral and Fugue, a suite (1940) by Norman dello Joio and his Prelude For A Young Musician (1944); Liszt's Mephisto Waltz. Columbia Concerts and Sociedad Musical Daniel announce a season [March 1947- February 1948 ] including Jorge Bolet, Tito Schipa etc. (La Nacion, Costa Rica, 7 January 1947) ​ [El Imparcial was a major daily newspaper active during the 1940s in Guatemala: British Library MFM.MF1384] April 1948 JB seems to have been engaged to give concerts in Bogotá, Colombia during an Inter-American conference in April 1948 but these had to be cancelled due to the political situation. July 1948 Mexico? The Sioux City Journal 26 September 1948 announces JB is back in the USA after tours of Canada and Latin America ​ 11 March 1949 Teatro Degollado, Guadalajara, Mexico Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with Leslie Hodge and the Guadalajara SO. 27 April 1949 Havana incl. Piano Sonata in A minor, D 784 (Schubert) and Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 8 in B♭ major, Op. 84. We are told in a newspaper report of this concert that Jorge will make his first appearance in the Teatro de Bellas Artes, Mexico City. On 4 December 1949, the San Angelo Standard (Texas) states that 'Bolet comes to San Angelo from a seven-month tour of Latin America and Canada. He performed with Erich Kleiber and the Havana Philharmonic and presented 12 half-hour radio programs from Mexico City with the symphony under Jose Sabre Marroquin.' 1950 Fresh from an engagement (3 concerts) in Caracas, Venezuela - mostly likely in the Teatro Municipal, arranged by the Asociación Venezolana de Conciertos; he had flown back on February 14. Jorge performed Rachmaninoff 3 with Howard Mitchell in Constitution Hall, Washington DC on Wednesday 15 February 1950. October 1950 Teatro San Jorge/Teatro de Colón (?), Bogotá, Colombia (Sociedad de los Amigos de la Música) *Advertised, but it looks as if he didn't appear, to judge by a handwritten note beside his name in one of the programmes. Could be due to the political situation at that time: Bogotá was gripped by La Violencia, a brutal decade-long civil war. 7 November 1950 Cine Victoria/ Victoria Theater, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua (Mexico) Recital 1953 Early in the new year, Bolet had been on tour in Central America/Caribbean. A passenger manifest shows that he arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico on 7 February 1953 on Pan Am World Airways flight 204 from Caracas, Venezuela (Maiquetia, the airport south-east of the city); his ultimate destination was San Francisco. 3 February 1953 Teatro Municipal, Caracas, Venezuela Concerts in honour of José Martí (b.1853), who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the liberation of his country from Spain. Beethoven [Andante favori ?], Brahms [Intermezzo Op.119 No. 3 in C , Rhapsody Op.118 No. 4 in E flat] , Liszt's Sonata & Mephisto Waltz, Chopin [7 Preludes & Ballade No. 3 in. A flat] and Rachmaninoff 6 February 1953 Teatro Municipal, Caracas, Venezuela Schumann, Concerto Rachmaninoff, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Orquesta Sinfónica Venezuela/ Ángel Sauce 1955 A report in The New York Times, 26 May, 1955 informs us that ‘Jorge Bolet, pianist, leaves today by air to play a series of eighteen concerts in Brazil and Argentina'. 30 May 1955: Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro Recitals were then given in the Teatro Cultura Artistica, São Paulo on 31 May/1 June. ​ Other destinations in Brazil included Porto Alegre. In Argentina, Jorge appeared first in Buenos Aires. The Asociación Wagneriana had organised his recital at 9:45pm on Monday 6 June at the Teatro Broadway, 31 May/1 June 1955 Teatro Cultura Artistica, São Paulo (Brazil) Other destinations in Brazil may have included Porto Alegre 6, 7 June 1955 Teatro Broadway, Avenida Corrientes, Buenos Aires (Argentina) Jorge added "Gato" (1940), a lively, syncopated dance by an Argentinian composer Carlos Guastavino (1912-2000) to his programme, for a bit of local colour. The Latrobe Bulletin (3.10.1955) said that he played both orchestral and recital engagements. Jorge may have performed in Córdoba and Rosario (El Círculo), the next two most populous cities in Argentina. Other cities may have included: ​ San Miguel de Tucumán (Teatro General San Martín), Bahía Blanca (Teatro Municipal), Asociación Cultural de Bahía Blanca, Mendoza (Teatro Avenida [1926-1988]), La Plata (Teatro Argentino), Mar del Plata (Teatro Auditorio). Diario de Noticias (Rio de Janeiro), 23 March 1956 has a notice that the Associação Riograndense de Música, in their upcoming season [March - December] would feature Jorge Bolet, violinist Henryk Szeryng and Japanese soprano Tomiko Kanazawa in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The Key West Citizen, 20 March 1957 noted that after this present season finished in May, there would be concerts in South America during the summer. 7 October 1958 Theatre of the University of Puerto Rico, San Juan PR. Haydn (Sonata No.62 in E-flat major, Hob.XVI:52), Franck (Prélude, choral et fugue [1884]), Chopin (4 Scherzos). [22 November 1959] Mexico? Or mention of the Liszt film? El Porvenir

Jorge sometimes played Le Tombeau de Couperin by Ravel in his recitals, but he never played it with the fugue. Jorge did not like the fugue and even believed it did not fit in to the cycle. About Ravel I can share with you this story. At one of the masterclasses in Edinburgh, a student was struggling with Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit. As always when a student was struggling with the music, Jorge would sit down at the piano and play it himself to show his intentions.I Almost unbelievably, he played great parts of Ondine and Le Gibet, and concluded with an almost complete Scarbo. His Scarbo was so frighteningly thunderous at times that the Bechstein was shaking on its legs. I remember everybody in the room, including myself, being in shock when he finished and then there was a long silence. Jorge had taken everybody's breath away. After the long silence the struggling student took his score from the piano and walked to his seat. Jorge broke the silence by telling he never played the work in his recitals and then enjoyed his cigarette. Mattheus Smits There are also - intriguingly - a couple of performances of Ravel'‘s piano Concerto in G major by Jorge. He probably - even if intermittently - played as much music by the two Impressionists Ravel & Debussy as Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli! 27 February 1975 Braunschweig, West Germany (Radio Broadcast ) Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major Norddeutsche Rundfunks Sinfonieorchester / Heinz Wallberg 13 April 1975 Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major Liszt: Hungarian Fantasy Reading Symph. Orch. (Berks County, Pennsylvania) under Louis Vyner (1907-1981), who had conducted Jorge in the early 1930s Sylvan Levin (1903-1996), a friend of Jorge, appeared several times as a pianist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, notably playing the American premiere of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G with the orchestra in 1932 under the baton of Stokowski.

We might have had performances of concertos by these composers by Jorge Bolet. 'Only in the 1970s did record companies became interested in unknown composers and unknown piano concertos. 'At that time, I talked with Jorge about him playing the Moszkowski piano concerto in E major, which I believe would be wonderful. Jorge knew the work, told me it was great, but did not want to take it into his repertoire fearing the conductors and orchestras who would not understand it. 'I also mentioned the Henselt Concerto in F minor Op. 16 which I believe is the greatest ,most extravagant piano concerto coming out of the Romantic period. (Listen to Raymond Lewenthal - in my opinion he displays too much drive and too little sonority but is never the less my best choice for the work. Here Jorge also feared the conductor and the orchestra. Here I have to admit that Jorge had a point, as I often witnessed myself how bad Jorge was treated when playing Sgambati and Hummel and even Liszt's concertos. 'All this changed, of course, when Jorge at long last became known as a world class pianist but even then he had to deal with conductors like Solti.' Mattheus Smits, Netherlands Adolph von Henselt (1814-1889) Of the myriad contributions to the genre written during the first part of the nineteenth century, Henselt’s Piano Concerto in F minor, Op 16, is the one whose neglect is the hardest to explain. It has the composer’s individual stamp on every bar, it is original in its writing (if not its structure), its orchestration is more than adequate and at times masterly, its themes are varied and memorable, the musical and technical challenges for the soloist are equalled only by their effect on the listener, and the whole work has the feel of white-hot inspiration. Henselt never reached the same height again. Is it a good piece of music? Yes. The piece may not offer revolutionary concepts (indeed, much of it is firmly rooted in the past), but that does not alter its intrinsic merit. It should be part of the core repertoire. Where did it come from? What was the genesis of this most demanding of Romantic concertos? Its composer was born on 9 May 1814 at Schwabach, a small town in Bavaria, close to Nuremberg. His father Philipp Eduard Henselt is described variously as a cotton manufacturer or cotton weaver, whose marriage to Caroline Geigenmüller produced six children. When Adolf was three the family moved to Munich. It was not a musical family but he had his first piano lessons at the age of five, gave his first public recital when he was fifteen and, in 1831, under the auspices of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, was granted a stipend to study piano in Weimar with Hummel and composition in Vienna with the master theorist and pedagogue Simon Sechter. His early success touring Germany and Russia was underlined by the reception of his sets of studies (Opp 2 & 5) published in 1837 and 1838. The Douze études caractéristiques de concert (Op 2). These were followed by the Douze études de salon (dedicated to HRH Marie the Queen of Saxony) which, with the previous set of twelve, alternate through all the major and minor keys. These studies attracted a lot of attention for the young virtuoso, many of them presenting technical problems different from those in Chopin’s two sets (published a few years previously) but still maintaining the new concept of exercises wrapped in poetry. They were Henselt’s ‘calling card’ and to the present day remain beyond the capabilities of many pianists. Given the paucity of his creativity, the extent of his influence on piano playing is remarkable for two reasons. First by way of the prodigious technical invention of the études (and, for that matter, the Concerto). The second influence Henselt had on piano playing was a result of his position in the cultural life of Russia. His triumph as a visiting concert pianist in St Petersburg in 1838 led immediately to him being named Court Pianist. From then until his death Henselt spent all but the summer months each year in the Russian city where he enjoyed a princely lifestyle and was on intimate terms with three successive tsars. And this does not take into account the influence of Henselt’s own private pupils. Among them were Rachmaninov’s grandfather and Nicolai Zverev. Zverev taught Rachmaninov himself, Lhevinne, Siloti and Scriabin. Here we have the foundations of the present Russian school of piano-playing with its emphasis on singing melody and freedom of hand movement. Henselt’s contribution to the piano was at least as significant as that of Liszt and Leschetizky. Henselt played his F minor Concerto in public only rarely. Liszt, it is said, sight-read the whole work from the manuscript. Other pianists who included it in their repertoire were Liszt’s pupils Hans von Bülow, Arthur Friedheim and Emil Sauer, the latter playing it at his New York debut in 1899. Busoni played it, and so did his pupil Egon Petri (who said it was one of the hardest pieces he had ever played). Louis Moreau Gottschalk is said to have performed it, and also Vladimir de Pachmann, who knew Henselt and edited his works. So it comes as something of a surprise after this list of barnstormers to learn that it was Clara Schumann who gave its first performance. This was in 1844 (though the work was not published until two years later). The finale has been likened by Raymond Lewenthal to ‘a prophecy of the doom of the Tzarist regime as it frantically, furiously, frivolously dances its way to perdition’. Not such a fanciful picture, for there is a strong Russian flavour to this movement; its second subject could be a waltz by someone like Arensky, and can we not hear Tchaikovsky somewhere just round the corner? Although its spine may be in the well-worked European tradition, its character is distinctly un-French and -German. Jeremy Nicholas (shortened version) Moszkowski, Moritz (1854-1925) ‘After Chopin,’ wrote Paderewski, ‘Moritz Moszkowski best understands how to write for the piano, and his writing embraces the whole gamut of piano technique.’ The two pianist-composers had more than their art in common. Both were Poles (though Moszkowski was born in Breslau, then the capital of Silesia in Germany). Born in 1854 into a wealthy family, Moritz Moszkowski began music studies at an early age in Dresden, continued at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin and then went on to Theodor Kullak, a pupil of Czerny, at the Neue Akademie der Tonkunst. (Among his fellow students there were the brothers Philip and Xaver Scharwenka who remained friends throughout his life.) He made his debut as a concert pianist in Berlin when he was nineteen and for the next 24 years gave recitals all over Europe, taught at Kullak’s Academy, conducted and composed. When he settled in Paris at the age of 43 he was a famous and well-respected musician. But of all the melodious and elegant works of Moritz Moszkowski it is his Piano Concerto in E, Op 59, that most strongly begs for revival. It is not a short work and it is not an easy work for the soloist, but its grateful pianistic writing, its memorable themes and its sunny optimism make its present neglect quite incomprehensible. No one could pretend that it is deep music, but if, as one writer put it, ‘it fails to stir the intellect, it sets the pulses tingling’. The Concerto is dedicated ‘à Monsieur Josef Casimir Hofmann’—a singular tribute to a 22-year-old—who had studied briefly with Moszkowski in his teens. It is one of the very few written in the key of E major. It was also virtually the last large-scale work that Moszkowski attempted. Ten years after its composition he was, at the age of 54, already a recluse, constantly ill. He had lost his wife and daughter, his son had been summoned to serve in the French army, and he was, as one friend described him, ‘no longer buoyed by ambition’. He sold all the copyrights of his music and invested the enormous capital in German, Polish and Russian bonds. With the advent of the First World War he lost everything and lingered on till 1925, too sick in body and mind to do anything, dying of stomach cancer in Paris, a pauper. Jeremy Nicholas (shortened version)

Variety, 16 January 1946

From Ian Hominick's recent biography of Earl Wild, p.285 I don't want this post to descend into the Querelle des Bouffons ("Quarrel of the Comic Actors"), a controversy of in Paris the 1750s concerning the relative merits of French and Italian opera, with those favouring French opera in the King's corner, and those favouring Italian opera in the Queen's corner. Nor do I wish to stir up the Querelle des Lullystes et des Ramistes - a famous musical controversy in Paris following the 1733 premiere of Jean-Philippe Rameau's opera Hippolyte et Aricie. The Lullistes defended the traditional, elegant French operatic style of Jean-Baptiste Lully and criticised Rameau's harmonies as overly complex, while the Ramistes championed Rameau's rich innovations and expressive orchestration. (I am most definitely a Ramiste, by the way!) But there is another side to this story... 'Jorge told me about this plan in the second half of the 1970s. He could not understand why RCA would like to bring two different pianists of greatly differing nature to perform together on the RCA label. The only profitable party could be the recording company itself. Jorge mentioned to me that the meeting he had with Earl Wild and RCA was rather strange. He told me that Wild showed up in funny clothes that looked like a Japanese kimono. Jorge also mentioned that the talking between the involved parties turned rather strange, such that nobody involved believed from the beginning that it would be a success. 'Later in the 1990s I had some meetings with Earl Wild when he came to Holland for the Liszt competition in Utrecht. I also attended a masterclass in Utrecht. He was always kind and pleasant towards me, but I never told him that I had been good friend of Jorge. During my conversations with Wild it became clear to me that he and Jorge were different pianists separated by a huge cultural background and personality. So I understood why the RCA project would not have worked out for the pianists. 'Much later I was told by somebody - I can not remember who - that Earl Wild was in the audience when Jorge played the Marx concert in New York (1982).' Mattheus Smits

Lookee here! Just arrived. Antonio Armella's chronology of pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (December 2025). 491 pages (independently printed by Amazon), on good paper with clear printing. I had wondered what the quality would be like, but this looks excellent. The minus point is that I don't read Italian; the plus point is that it's a resource, not a book to read from cover to cover and with my knowledge of Latin and romance languages + Google Translate, it should be okay! I've added this post with photos here because the more modest site I have on ABM is a free one and I'm at my limit, data-wise. Link to ABM site

New website (link): Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995)