Recorded in 2019. I've added an audio file (it's too large to upload to a blog post) where a former student speaks about JB and orchestra, and about "retouching" music. LINK (then scroll down to "Liszt Totentanz") Conductor Gary Thor Wedow has led performances with opera companies, orchestras, festivals, and choral organisations throughout North America. Although he has conducted music from many different eras and styles, Wedow specialises in historically-informed performances of operas from the 17 th and 18th centuries. Wedow has been a frequent guest of Boston Lyric Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Portland Opera, and the Amherst Early Music Festival among others. He was for many years associated with New York City Opera, leading the New York premiere of Telemann's Orpheus in 2012. Born in LaPorte, Indiana and now a resident of New York City, he has been a member of the Juilliard School faculty since 1994 where he has led performances of L'incoronazione di Poppea, La finta giardiniera, Ariodante and Don Giovanni. His continued championship of young musicians and singers is exemplified by projects at The Teatro Colón, Wolf Trap Opera, the San Francisco Opera's Merola Program, and the IU Jacobs School of Music, where he studied piano with virtuoso Jorge Bolet before earning his Master of Music degree at the New England Conservatory. Recently, Gary Thor Wedow was on campus to conduct the IU Opera production of Giulio Cesare for the American Handel Society's Festival and Conference. While he was here, he joined Aaron Cain for a conversation in the WFIU studios. (biography correct to 2019)

My trawl through Jorge Bolet's concerts has clarified a number of issues. It looks as if it was in the mid-1970s that he introduced two new and substantial works to his repertoire. I could have missed earlier mentions but it may be that someone can explain how he came to these two works, especially the Reger which has high rarity value. 29 September 1975 Teatro Coliseo, Buenos Aires (Argentina) incl.Chopin's Sonata No. 3 in B minor Op.58 and the Mozart/Liszt Don Juan Fantasy [According to what I have recorded thus far (24.4.2026), it is only now in 1975 that the Mozart/Liszt Don Juan Fantasy begins to appear on programmes.  He was to record it in 1978 for L'oiseau-lyre/Decca] ​​​ 13 October 1975 Jefferson Civic Center, Birmingham, Alabama incl.Chopin, Polonaises in C sharp minor, E flat minor and F sharp minor, Reger/Telemann; Liszt, 3 Concert Etudes & Don Juan Fantasy ​First mention of Reger/Telemann...?

The Mail & Globe, Toronto (April 1975) 17 April 1975; Eaton Auditorium, Toronto, Canada.  [JB's Toronto recital début] Mendelssohn, Chopin, Sonata No.3, Liszt Petrarch + Tannhäuser   'When you consider, he's been playing professionally for more than 40 years, he seems to have taken his time getting up here. But then, as he says "I've been a long time arriving everywhere."'

Michael Steinberg wrote a long and considered review in The Boston Globe (4.8.1974) of Jorge Bolet's Carnegie Hall recording whoch RCA issued in August 1974 Carl Michael Alfred Steinberg (4 October 1928 – 26 July 2009) was an American music critic and author who specialised in classical music. He was best known, according to San Francisco Chronicle music critic Joshua Kosman, for "the illuminating, witty and often deeply personal notes he wrote for the San Francisco Symphony's program booklets, beginning in 1979." He contributed several entries to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, wrote articles for music journals and magazine, notes for CDs, and published a number of books on music, both collected published annotations and new writings. Born in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland). In 1939, Steinberg was among the 10,000 child refugees transported out of Germany via the Kindertransport; he and his mother settled in England.

In noting down that Jorge Bolet gave summer masterclasses at Indiana during 17-21 June, 1974, I recalled a witty remark from the transcript of one masterclass -  not necessarily at Indiana  - where he emphasised that the melody must always be brought out (something he always demonstrated in his own playing). He said something like: "I have given hundreds of concerts, and I've never known anyone to pay the price of admission to hear an Alberti bass."

Jorge never was a man for reading many books but, for sure, he knew which books to read. Mark Twain's 'Letters from earth' (which JB once recommended to a journalist) is certainly one of them. Jorge usualy read many magazines when on tour. These were mostly about cars, photography and cameras. He went crazy when in the USA the Canon A1 came out. As he knew that I also loved photography, he bought one for me as in Europe the A1 was not yet on the market. Mattheus Smits The Canon A-1 was released in April 1978, with marketing and availability in the USA and worldwide following shortly after. It was introduced as a high-end, advanced 35mm SLR, notable for being the first camera to offer a fully programmed automatic exposure mode. Production ran from 1978 to 1985 It is occasionally stated in articles on Jorge Bolet that he exhibited photographs in Central and South America, but I've never come across any details. Does anyone know?

There's a bit of drudgery leafing through masses of newspaper reviews, but it's worth it when you come across a jewel like this. 31 January 1971 (Sunday, 3pm) Fair Lawn High School, Fair Lawn, New Jersey, USA Beethoven: Piano Sonata No.31 in A-flat major, Op.110 Liszt: 12 Études d’exécution transcendante, S.139: 7. Eroica, 5. Feux Follets, 9. Ricordanza, 8. Wilde Jagd Chopin: 24 Preludes, Op.28 Encores: Schumann/Liszt: Widmung, Op.25 No.1 (S.566), Chopin: Waltz in D-flat major, Op.64 No.1 (Minute Waltz) ​​​ For The Record  (Hackensack, NJ) 1.2.1071 David Spengler wrote: 'These gems [Chopin's Preludes] are usually programmed in clusters of three or four, only as part of a pianists, romantic group. It was stumbling on treasure to find them gathered in the concert hall... Bolet achieves a rippling configuration in scale-work and arpeggios that I don't recall from any other pianists, particularly effective in his playing of the F sharp minor Prelude. 'And his presentation of the D minor prelude which closes the book (do you recall it from the old movie, The picture of Dorian Gray? ) was a massive gate of hell clanging shut.' The 1945 film adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray , directed by Albert Lewin, prominently features Frédéric Chopin's Prelude No. 24 in D Minor ("The Storm"), often played by the character of Dorian Gray to reflect his dark, deteriorating psyche. (I don't know it) In this MGM film, Dorian Gray (played by Hurd Hatfield) introduces the haunting Chopin piece to Sibyl Vane (Angela Lansbury).

Speaking in 1974 to Russell Harty

Jorge Bolet in the Syndey Morning Herald and The Age

A couple of clippings from Cincinnati newspapers October 1963

Jorge Bolet on Latin American music, as reported in the Oregon Daily Journal , 17 November 1962

Redwood City Tribune, 31 December 1960