A portrait once said to be by Leopold Kupelwieser (not authenticated) and said to be of Franz Schubert aged 16, probably drawn before Kupelwieser met Schubert. Modern research suggests it is Karl Joseph Maria von Hartmann or Moritz von Schwind. Jorge Bolet & Franz Schubert. On 30 January - 2 February 1989, Bolet recorded for Decca two sonatas by Schubert, Sonata in A minor D784 and the one in this recital D959. He had in fact played Schubert throughout his career, reasonably often at times. In an interview he gave in 1989, he tantalisingly said that he planned to record more Schubert, Mendelssohn and Brahms. (Riccardo Chailly had wanted to do the Brahms concertos with him, though probably only No. 2 - I don't think JB played No. 1) In his student days and notably in his Naumburg recital in Town Hall New York City 1937, JB often played the rondo from the Sonata in D major, D850. Some Impromptus also appear from time to time, from both sets. The earliest reference to D959 I've come across is 29 October 1940 (Hofmann Award recital) in Town Hall, New York City , when Jorge was 25. As early as November 1950 (in San Jacinto High School, Houston, Texas), he was performing Schubert 's great Sonata in B flat D960, and it featured in his recitals throughout the 1950s, but that seems to have been dropped from his repertoire. And of course, he most often played the Fantasy in C Op.15/D760 (Wanderer) - that seems to have been his Schubert calling-card,. The "Trout" Quintet ( Forellenquintett ), the Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667, also pops up (e.g. with the Juilliard, 1978) - he might even have recorded that with the quartet but for the recording company Sony wanting their "big" pianist of the time to do it (this never happened). In July 1983, in Gramado (Rio Grande do Sul), Brazil, Jorge may even have taken part in a "Trout "with violinist Viktoria Mullova, who had just recently sought asylum in the West, but I'm not sure about this. Rachmaninoff had been unaware of the late sonatas at the time of Schubert's centenary in 1928. Bolet in Ancona, June 1988 playing the A major D959 Ascona is a picturesque, Mediterranean-style town on the shore of Lake Maggiore in Ticino, southern Switzerland.

15, 16 May 1987 Circle Theater, Indianapolis Grieg {+ Saint Saens Organ Symphony [No.3] and José Pablo Moncayo, Huapango } Indianapolis Symphony/John Nelson (Jorge Mester)

The Age (Melbourne, Australia), 28 February 1987

Sergei Rachmaninoff’s tribute to Josef Hofmann, in dedicating his third piano concerto to him. Who was the first British pianist to play this notoriously difficult concerto? Clue? He was a pupil of Leopold Godowsky in Berlin and was from Liverpool. He also taught Simon Rattle.

Two reviews of the first Jorge Bolet concert I ever heard. At that time, I travelled up from Oxford for the evening and went backstage (of course) afterwards. I remembered being surprised to see him smoking (!) and he had a huge black overcoat/cape lying on a table, every inch the dapper gentleman from a past age.

A recording which is often forgotten is one Jorge went into the studio to set down on 29 February - 2 March,1980 in Kingsway Hall, London: BRAHMS Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel Op.24 REGER Variations & Fugue on a Theme of Telemann Op.134 (It was issued on LP in November 1981) ​ 'The circumstances of the recording of the Reger and Brahms were a different cup of tea [from the 2 previous recordings Chopin & Godowsky (1977) & Liszt (1978). As it was clear that all future recordings from Jorge would now be released on the Decca label [rather than on L'Oiseau-lyre], a lot of important Decca people passed by during the session. Also important journalists and critics showed up to get information. This made the Reger a hell of a job for Jorge who did not like variations put together by fixing takes. According to Jorge, there was also music in the silence as one variation moved into the next. Some of the variations took a lot of time e.g. the one with broken octaves in both hands (Variation 21]. Jorge told me - actually whispering, rather - that he had got bored with hearing the key of B flat all the time. Everybody in the crew feared the recording could not be finished within the reserved time, but everyone was completely flabbergasted that the recording of the Brahms was all done in the remaining last afternoon! As we all know by now, the Reger is landmark in recorded pianism!' [Mattheus Smits] LINK (at 21'56") The Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Telemann, Op.134 Reger wrote the set in just eight days, between August 8 and 15, 1914. The variations are dedicated to the Dutch-German pianist and pedagogue James Kwast. The premiere was given about half a year later, on March 14, 1915, in Berlin by Frieda Kwast-Hodapp. The work was published by Simrock in 1914. Reger used the minuet from the “Minuet and Trio” in Telemann’s Tafelmusik in B-flat Major as the theme, which he found in Riemann’s Anleitung zum Generalbaβ-Spielen. The resemblance to Brahms’s Händel Variations is immediately apparent considering the choice of a Baroque dance as theme, the identical key (B-flat major), the similar number of variations (23 and 25), and the concluding fugues. There is a footnote in later editions, starting with the 1942 edition of Peters, which indicates the origin of the theme as the “Menuett aus der Tafelmusik in B dur (Denkmäler Deutscher Tonkunst Bd. 61/62).” This footnote does not appear in the first edition and the 1928 edition of Peters. However, Reger used the minuet as it is given as an exercise in Riemann’s Anleitung zum Generalbaβ-Spielen. Riemann provides just the melody and a figured bass. There are several differences between Telemann’s original version and Riemann’s which indicate that Reger used the theme from Riemann’s treatise. (Christian Peter Bohnenstengel, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2007)

Syracuse Herald-Journal, 1 February 1980

I hadn't realised Jorge Bolet had performed in Finland and while looking into it, I came across a film from Finnish television. Here he is in the Royal Albert Hall, London, 1 June 1978, before a performance of Liszt - speaking about Finnish conductor Paavo Berglund, whom he first met during his first tour of Australia in 1965. (YLE, Finnish Broadcasting Company, 1979) So this is Jorge one year after he was appointed Head of Curtis and after he recorded his first disc with Decca/L'Oiseau-lyre (Chopin-Godowsky), and two years after he returned to Japan.

On 30 June 1969, Jorge Bolet gave a performance at Bloomington, Indiana, where he had just started teaching. He played Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30. Ralph Vaughan William's glorious Symphony No. 5 in D major was the other item on the programme. On the Palexa CD that came out, Charles Webb is assumed to be the conductor. Several discographies list him as being on the podium. However, The Indianapolis Star  (25.6.1969) mentions that the conductor will be Wolfgang Vacano, and the review by The Herald-Times critic Zola P. Levitt (1.7.1969) lists him as the conductor of the evening, with "one of the largest audiences ever assembled in the IU Auditorium".  Wolfgang Vacano (1906, Köln/Cologne -1985): in 1939, he had gone to South America and worked as a conductor at the opera houses of Santiago, Montevideo, La Plata, and finally at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. From 1951 until his retirement in 1977, Vacano was a professor at Indiana University Bloomington, where he taught conducting and led opera workshops.

Santa Fe New Mexican, 6 March 1959. The paintings in his Washington Square New York address.

"Jorge had in mind to play Godowsky's Johann Strauss Künstlerleben  at his forthcoming 75th birthday tour as grande finale.  Jorge played this piece on several occasions for me telling me: this is a work in progress, no! a lot of work in progress! He had played a lot of Godowsky for me when I was staying with him in Bloomington. We went to Butler University where he kept his scores and could use his Baldwin SD 10 (in his apartment he had a small grand which he never touched). While I turned pages he played the Passacaglia , most parts of the Java suite, Künstlerleben , Fledermaus  and parts from Triakontameron . All the time I was thinking  why I am turning pages ? He knows the music!  Unfortunately, his 75th birthday tour never happened." [Mattheus Smits] Jorge learned this piece and played it to Leopold Godowsky in New York City in the early 1930s, while still at Curtis. The performance record is sparse. On Thursday, 3 August 1939 in the Anfiteatro, Havana, in a concert the initiative for which came from the municipal mayor Dr Antonio Beruff Mendieta (1901-1952), who devoted much time to cultural and educational matters, he programmed it - this being one of only two references I've found thus far (the other being 26 March 1940 at Curtis). Jorge also mentions the piece in an interview with David Dubal, when he says that David Saperton was probably quite pleased that he [Bolet] - perhaps unlike other students - could handle Godowsky's music.

Mattheus Smits has sent me this memory of the recording sessions on 3/4 October 1977. Jorge and Tex had serious doubts about signing this contract due to bad experiences with recording companies in the past (RCA and VOX). We owe it to Peter Wadland that the contract was signed. For the scores of the music, Peter could find the Études in a library, but for the Waltzes Jorge had to send him his copies. Also Jorge's choice of the Bechstein was not an easy task for Peter Wadland and his crew. I remember arriving very early in Kingsway Hall (Jorge and Tex where not there yet) and finding them playing on the Bechstein, loud and soft and banging, and constantly moving microphones. As always, Jorge and Tex showed up on time.The crew were completely surprised to see Jorge and Tex properly dressed in three-piece suits and ties! (They themselves were dressed in jeans and sneakers.) After the normal welcome protocol, Jorge was asked to play something so that adjustments could be made for recording settings. In a split second Jorge dashed into an overwhelming Chopin/Godowsky No.1! A moment I will never forget. To set all the recording levels and microphones took much time. The crew really had difficulties with the Bechstein which was of course different from the Steinway which they regularly used, and for which they knew the sound parameters. Jorge was asked to play at all kinds of volumes and tempi. For lunch we went to an nearby Dutch pancake restaurant (this has nothing to do with my nationality). Only after lunch were the first 'takes' made. As it became clear that Peter Wadland was sometimes getting lost in some scores of the études (he was used to a different kind of music), Jorge asked me to stay with him in the recording room to help him out. The recording was interrupted many times by important people coming in. The photographer, Bryce Morrison, Alastair Londonderry [9th Marquess of Londonderry], Jeremy Nicolas, colleagues of the crew etc. When the recording days were over, Jorge and Tex presented to all crew members an exclusive pen set and Peter Wadland presented me with a copy of the Chopin/Godowsky waltzes, which were the copies he got from Jorge, but now filled with all his markings for takes and take numbers. A treasure in my library!