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Jorge Bolet Ambassador Auditorium Recitals The 3 CD set is now available for purchase from First Hand Records or your usual source. Exciting times!

In February 1960, Jorge, in response to a question during an interview with Ruth Lafranz in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA - "What does it take to be a concert pianist?" - replied: 'It takes talent - you must have that. But it also takes the patience of Job, the strength of an elephant, the cunning of a fox and the tenacity of an ant.' Well, his patience and tenacity paid off, and he finally made his début in Belgium in 1988. He told a newspaper (De Standaard, 25 May 1988) that he had never performed in Belgium ['because I have never been invited'] but in the autumn 'he will embark upon an extensive European tour with the BBC Symphony, which will include a date in Brussels/ Bruxelles.'​ In fact he had just played in Antwerp, Belgium’s stylish second city. ​​ 10 May 1988 deSingel, Antwerp, Belgium ​Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Franck & Bellini-Liszt 17 October 1988 Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels, Belgium [Festival van Vlaanderen] Liszt 1 [+Dvořak, Symphony No.7 in D minor Op.70 (1885)] BBC Philharmonic/ Bernhard Klee Jacques van Deun in De Standaard (19.10.1988) noted that JB 'believes in this type of music and succeeds in elevating the concerto to a higher artist level, thereby making the work musically compelling. The elderly pianist's almost inevitable minor slips were of no consequence, as he still commands a powerful clear touch on his Baldwin piano, from which he is inseparable. There were, however, some minor issues with synchronisation between soloist and orchestra.' Antwerp connections? 13 March 1988 (Sunday), Royal Festival Hall, London inc. Beethoven Sonata No.31 Op. 110 in A flat and Bellini/Liszt, Réminiscences de Norma. The programme says that Bolet plays a Baldwin piano supplied by Pianomobil Antwerp. (I attended this recital.)

"I've been a long time arriving everywhere" Gaël is generated by A.I. The more I research his life, the more I am now convinced that there was no one big moment for Jorge Bolet, but a series of building blocks (as he himself said, if not in those actual words). Near the end of his life, he told someone that he felt as if he'd finally 'done it'. One of the most poignant things he said was in 1975 when asked why he was so late getting up to Toronto for the first time (he had already played in other Canadian cities), he replied: "I've been a long time arriving everywhere". Yes, I know I'm British, but I would actually say the biggest moment was those 1983 Rachmaninoff masterclasses for the BBC: the 'coping stone' on his career.

On 8 June 1989, JB gave his last public recital (in Berlin, Germany) Mattheus Smits has sent me a photo of the last page of the schedule with a note: "As you can see on this itinerary the last performance of Jorge with an orchestra was Rachmaninoff's third concerto in Herford and Paderborn. The conductor was Alun Francis. The performance was recorded and broadcasted by WDR. "I was not able to attend but my good friend Hans did. Jorge told him that he had just come from Canada where he recorded the Chopin concertos. That means that the recording dates on the recording (25 +26 May ) are not correct. It was funny to Jorge and Alun Francis (Wales, UK, b.1943, currently Principal Conductor of the Orquesta Filarmonica de la UNAM, Mexico City) when they found out that they had worked together before, and that both of them did not remember that indeed they did. If I am not mistaken, they performed Brahms 2. "When my friend Hans found out that the performance would be recorded (not digitally - which is rather strange, given the period) the recording team provided him with a copy immediately after the performance. After these two performances, Jorge made his way to Berlin for what was going to be his final public performance. "I have always felt happy to know that Jorge was able to finish his "orchestral" career with a piece most dear to him."

19 May 1944 Presidential Room of the Statler Hotel, Washington, D.C. 'Jorge Bolet of the Cuban Army and Pfc. [Private First Class] Erno Valasek [24 year old violinist from Cleveland] of the United States Army Air Forces Band this evening.' Fior the benefit of the American Red Cross. Featured will be Raymond Gram Swing's Fantasia quasi una sonata (in only its third performance). Present will be Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt, Mrs Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, the Cuban Ambassador Aurelio F. Concheso and Señora de Concheso, Count and Countess Stefan Adam Zamoyski. (Count Zamoyski served as an aide-de-camp to Polish Prime Minister-in-exile Wladislaw Sikorski in London during WW2.) Raymond Gram Swing (March 25, 1887 – December 22, 1968) was an American print and broadcast journalist. He was one of the most influential news commentators of his era, heard by people worldwide as a leading American voice from Britain during World War II. He attended Oberlin College in Ohio, where his father was a professor of theology. As a youth, Swing was the proverbial "minister's son" and felt unable to live up to his parents' high expectations. Describing himself during his student days as "a prankster who found freshman math 'totally incomprehensible,'" Swing only lasted for a year at Oberlin. He later expressed gratitude for "how much Oberlin had given me—in music, in the first interest I had in the other arts, and in the basic liberalism of racial and sexual equality." He wrote his violin sonata in 1932 (?) in England, originally composed in part for his musically-precocious 8 year old son Peter, a cellist. The extract below is from his 1964 memoir (the hotel name is incorrect [unless a different performance]. as is the Czech origin of the violinist - Valasek was born in Hungary and brought to Cleveland, Ohio at the age of 6.

Lipscomb University is a private Christian university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Photo at reception after Jorge Bolet's recital 20 November, 1961.

While looking Jorge's tour of Spain and Portugal in May 1962, I came across this: "Recently, the Murcian painter Ignacio López welcomed the American collectors Tex Compton and Jorge Bolet to his studio in Alcantarilla. Their purpose was to acquire some of his most recent works, several commissioned by the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Mr Robert McNamara, and to simultaneously arrange an exhibition of the artist's work in California." Linea (Murcia, Spain), 23 May 1962 Ignacio López Gómez, known by the artist signature NACHO (born 1936), was a Spanish painter recognised for his symbolic, figurative oil paintings. His distinctive works often feature bright colour palettes, such as his notable painting Buho colorista [Owl] (1980–1990), and narrative subjects like La chica del tocado rubio. ​ Jorge was then to go to London. 29 May 1962 (aged 47) Royal Festival Hall, London Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 57, Appassionata, Liszt’s B minor sonata and Chopin’s Third Sonata (His London solo début was on 18 December 1955, also in the Festival Hall.)

Cidade de Santos (São Paulo), 21 June 1981 An interview with pianist João Carlos Martins Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 28 by the Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera. The work was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation and was completed in 1961. It was first performed by the pianist João Carlos Martins and the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Howard Mitchell in Washington, D.C., on April 22, 1961. "Foi em 60, quando a esposa do professor Kliass - o grande mestre de João Carlos - me levou à casa de Alberto Ginastera, em Buenos Aires. E aconteceu que o pianista cubano Jorge Bolet foi obrigado a cancelar a estréia mundial de um concerto para piano de Ginastera em Washington. Ai ele me disse: "Em um mês você aprende o meu concerto e toca de cor?" Claro, respondi. E assim fiz minha estréia nos Estados Unidos." "It was in 1960, when the wife of Professor Kliass – João Carlos’s great mentor – took me to Alberto Ginastera’s house in Buenos Aires. It so happened that the Cuban pianist Jorge Bolet had been forced to cancel the world premiere of a piano concerto by Ginastera in Washington. So he said to me: ‘Can you learn my concerto and play it from memory in a month?’ ‘Of course,’ I replied. And that’s how I made my debut in the United States.”

2 February 1978 "It was in the second half of the seventies that I asked Jorge to give a recital in my home town Bilthoven [a village in the Dutch province of Utrecht], part of the municipality De Bilt (Netherlands). Jorge agreed and the concert was arranged by the cultural department of the Town Hall. "The concert was part of a tour, including Amsterdam, of Jorge playing the new Bechstein EN. So the tour was joined by Ulrich Adam, artist representative for Bechstein. (Later Mr Adam moved to Steinway where he did a great job for the cooperation between Steinway and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.) "The recital was great and all of us, including Tex, had great fun. Later I was told that the local record shop Radio Sound sold hundreds of copies of Jorge's Ensayo recording of Liszt's transcriptions, even years after the recital. (The RCA Carnegie Hall recital of 1974 was not available in Holland). "If I am not mistaken some encores of this recital can be found on Marston CDs." Mattheus Smits [The recital took place in the hall of the R.I.V., Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Avenue. This was the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (Dutch: Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu). Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek (Delft, 1632 – 1723) was a Dutch microbiologist and microscopist in the Golden Age of Dutch art, science and technology. A largely self-taught man in science, he is commonly known as "the Father of Microbiology".] Marston CDs Vol. 1: Waltz No. 6 in D-flat, op. 64, no. 1, “Minute” [Waltz No. 14 in E minor, op. posth. This is marked with the location "De Bilt 1978" in the CD booklet, but Mattheus informs me it was not played at this recital.] De Bilt, The Netherlands; 1978

Diário do Pará, the largest newspaper in the northern region of Brazil, based in Belém, Pará. Its Sunday edition of 24 November 1985 carried a review of Liszt volume 5 (Années de Pèlerinage: Suisse S.160) for Decca. Quando certa vez perguntei a Hélio Gaspar, o excelente pianista paraense, qual o pianista da atualidade que lhe causava mais admiração, ele respondeu sem pestanejar: o cu- bano Jorge Bolet. E arrematou: gostaria de tocar como ele. Quem sou eu para contradizer o Helinho... ? 'When I once asked Hélio Gaspar, the excellent pianist from Pará, which contemporary pianist he admired most, he answered without hesitation: the Cuban Jorge Bolet. And he concluded: I would like to play like him. 'Who am I to contradict Helinho...?' (JOSÉ OTÁVIO FIGUEIREDO)

Thomas Sauer, a professional musician who is also on the music faculty of Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, New York) and of the Mannes School of Music (NYC), has generously offered some memories of his time with JB at Curtis. Thomas Sauer's personal website link The first thing to note is that I arrived at Curtis at age 16 with a limited repertoire, having played the piano for seven years. In other words, very green. In no way was I deserving of a place in Mr. Bolet's studio. I unquestionably needed a different sort of guidance than he was inclined to provide. All the same, I did my best to internalize his sound and approach to the instrument, storing information for later in my development, so to speak. In my first couple of years (1982-84), he demonstrated quite often, sometimes passages from the work I had brought to the lesson, other times playing an altogether different work. Needless to say, I had never heard playing like that at close range, nor have I heard it much during the past forty years (he resigned his position in 1986, at the end of what was my fourth year at Curtis). His primary concern with me was balancing the pianistic texture. I am quite sure that I frustrated him to no end in this respect, as I simply did not possess the pianistic tools to voice textures in the manner that he desired (though I understood clearly what he was after). His overarching concern with repertoire was that we study an enormous amount of it. He took a dim view of the competition scene in which a young pianist learned a couple of recital programs and concerti, then entered competition after competition with the same repertoire. He typically heard pieces only once in lessons, expecting us to move on to different repertoire for each cycle of lessons. This was very challenging for most of us, and resulted in a couple of students being asked to leave the studio during my time there. I can say, however, that he had a tremendous ear and memory, and was able to play pieces that he hadn't touched for decades after hearing them once or twice. Undoubtedly there are other pianists capable of this, but I have not met them. He often spoke of pianists from the past, Rachmaninov, Hofmann and Moiseiwitsch above all. He was not a lover of the Urtext tradition, which of course represented a significant departure from the Curtis of his predecessor, Rudolf Serkin. He spoke of the freedom and imagination of the older tradition, and encouraged us to encounter it via recordings and emulate it. He rarely discussed his touring with me. He did make clear that he had had many lean years, and seemed to enjoy the recognition that came to him post-1975, but I know next to nothing about any one concert. Re contacts in South America, I know that he was acquainted with Alberto Ginastera. One spring he encouraged my classmate Makoto Ueno and me to learn his first concerto over that summer. I found the prospect utterly overwhelming at that time, and failed to act (which was of course a mistake). He was quite formal with his students, learning what by today's standards would be a minimal amount about each individual, and in turn divulging little of his own personal life. He was never harsh with me, only rarely losing his patience (despite the abundant opportunities my playing offered him to do so). My sense is that he was a private person, dignified in bearing, and probably difficult to get to know. But again, we were students, and he observed boundaries. I would not be at all surprised to learn that he was a warm and loyal friend to many.

Jorge Bolet's agent at Columbia Artists from the 1960s onwards Nelly Walters died in October 2001 aged 100, after 70 years in the business; flowers and cards arrived in from celebrities across the world for her birthday in January. She was an integral part of the history of CAMI, retiring only in 1997. Born in Germany, she grew up in Dresden; in Berlin she worked for the Otto Mertens agency - his son André would later become her boss at CAMI in New York. She had begun already to develop her own network of clients in Europe and South America. Leading American managers came to Europe to engage clients from her. The political upheaval beginning in 1930, change to life. The Mertens agency was closed after Otto died of a heart attack. By 1933, Nelly and her mother had to leave Germany for their safety because they were Jewish. Nelly went to Prague where her friend, famed conductor, George Szell was music director of the Opera. She was soon in danger again as the Nazi tide swept towards Czechoslovakia. So she joined her mother, who had gone to her family in Vienna and continued her work there until Hitler invaded Austria in March 1938. Mother and daughter managed to get to Paris where she met Francis Poulenc and Virgil Thomson. She attended the Paris Opéra whenever she could, and even arrange the Scandinavian tour for the production of Debussy's Pelléas et Melisande. When the Germans marched into Paris in June 1940, she and her mother escaped and went into hiding in Marseille; picked up by soldiers, Nelly was thrown into a French concentration camp in the Pyrenees. Eventually, after the war mother and daughter arrived in New York on June 11, 1946, and she started at Columbia artist a few days later. Arthur Johnson, founder of the conglomerate, was president and Nelly became invaluable. André Martens came to CAMI to head a division and Nelly became his right-hand woman. After his death in 1963, she was promoted to a vice-presidency. Two snippets from the website: 4/5 December 1961 South Campus Auditorium, Waukesha, Wisconsin Rachmaninoff 3 [+ Samuel Barber's Die Natale, Debussy La Mer etc.] Waukesha Symphony Orchestra/Milton Weber Tex Compton seems to have written a letter to Nelly Walters, TLS (=typed signed letter) about reviews of this concert. (*I don't know why) There is among the Bolet papers at IPAM a letter from the United Nations, dated 27 July 1967 regarding the invitation from U Thant, the Burmese diplomat and the third secretary-general of the UN from 1961 to 1971 (the first non-Scandinavian to hold the position). During his second term (2 December, 1966), Thant was well known for publicly criticising American conduct in the Vietnam War. Dear Miss Walters (Vice President of Columbia Artists Management), We understand that Mr Bolet will travel from Midland, Texas on 21 October to NYC and will wish after the concert to fly to Edmonton, Alberta. We shall take responsibility for these travel costs and also for Mr Bolet's living expenses during his two days or so in NYC. George Moushon.