I wanted to come face to face with a master: I recognised him as such.
(Hélène Grimaud)
The Final Years
'The least well-known world famous pianist in the Bay area.'
This heading is from an interview in the San Francisco Chronicle ,11 September 1985.
Bolet offers a small insight into his routine. 'When on tour, I have the music very well in my fingers. On the day of performance I try out the piano for an hour, maximum two – to make friends with the instrument. That’s all the finger wiggling I need.’
1986 The Liszt Anniversary Year
This year marked the 175th anniversary of the birth and the 100th anniversary of
the death of Franz Liszt (1811-1886). The great Austrian pianist Alfred Brendel defended Liszt's music in several centennial tributes. The most important of these, The Noble Liszt, maintains that Liszt and Haydn are two of the most frequently misunderstood major composers. 'In old age, Haydn reigned over the musical world as its undisputed leading light. For this, the nineteenth century punished him - as it punished Liszt for his undisputed supremacy as a performer.' Two publications celebrated a famous Hungarian poet's tribute to Liszt: Patrick Rucker, 'Vörösmarty's Ode to Liszt', in Journal of the American Liszt Society vol. 20 and 'Mihály Vörösmarty, To Franz Liszt', in New Hungarian Quarterly 27/103 (1986).
Among awards to prominent Lisztians, those presented on behalf of the Hungarian People's Republic during 1986 deserve special mention. At a reception in Washington, D. C., Franz Liszt Commemorative Medals were awarded to fifteen performers, scholars, and editors - among them Jorge Bolet, André Watts, Fernando Laires, Frank Cooper, Maurice Hinson, and the British scholar Alan Walker, who had written a probably definitive biography in 3 volumes.
Liszt was once asked why he had never written his autobiography. 'It is enough to have lived such a life as mine,' was his reply. 'C'était bien assez de la vivre, ma vie, répondit-il en devenant grave.'
Janka Wohl, François Liszt. Souvenirs d'une compatriote (Paris: Paul Ollendorf, 1887)
'The mysterious reasons which determine the fate of fame'
In January 1986 JB recorded Schumann's Fantasy in C & Carnaval Op. 9 for DECCA.
Concert tours in January 1986 included Turin, Italy. La Stampa, 10.1.86 proclaimed:
'Preceded by the hype from the record company for which he has recorded much of Liszt's piano music, the Cuban Jorge Bolet, seventy-two, American by adoption, came to the Auditorium for a concert organised by the Unione Musicale. Very well known in America, Bolet is much less so here, for the mysterious reasons which determine the fate of fame. Now also in Italy we are beginning to notice his greatness as an interpreter; he shone in the concert the other night, which included two pieces by Liszt (Ballade no.2 and Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude), Carnaval by Schumann and Sonata No. 3 Op. 58 by Chopin: a true tour-de-force - all played on the high peaks of transcendental virtuosity. Bolet is the antithesis of the brilliant pianist. In every page he gave the impression of reaching the heart of the piece, with infallible security.'
On Friday 17 January in the Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, Utrecht and repeated on Sunday 19, in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, JB gave a Liszt recital.
Great Britain, February 1986
Thursday 24 January 1986, a recital in St David's Hall Cardiff, Wales
Monday 3 February 1986: recital in Hanley Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, UK. This is the home of the pottery industry in England. Famous companies such as Royal Doulton, Spode and Wedgwood (founded by Josiah Wedgwood) were established and based there. Schumann’s Carnaval was on the programme, but 'we are also promised Chopin and Liszt, and the Liszt, especially, could set the notes ricocheting'.
Staffordshire Sentinel, 30.1.1986
'Playing his own piano, a magnificently resonant Bechstein, Jorge Bolet gave a recital of immense but controlled power in Hanley's Museum Theatre last night. Yet for all its strength and dynamism, his music is amazingly subtle; so good that it is often almost lost in the variety of moods it induces. An early example of Bolet the spellbinder came in Liszt's Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude.'
'Cynics sneer that Liszt's religion was more religiosity, but this piece, as interpreted last night, touched levels of visionary contemplation usually associated with late Beethoven.'
'More Liszt followed, the Second Ballade in B minor. The singing tone of the Bechstein made for an intensely dramatic performance; the bold rhythms and brilliant climax were effortlessly realised. The young Schumann's Carnaval, with its parade of shifting emotion, was thrilling, though occasionally lacking the wistful. Chopin's Third Sonata in B minor was a marvel in the high romantic style. Bolet played this, the composer's longest and greatest work, with tremendous verve yet the economy necessary to bring out the exquisite, leaping melodies, and then threw in show-stoppers by Godowsky and Moszkowski as encores. (Eric Snape, Staffordshire Sentinel, 4.2.1986)
8/9 February 1986 with the Scottish Orchestra in The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh/ City Hall, Glasgow, Scotland. (I note that one of my piano teachers Hungarian/Australian Gustav Fenyö was playing at Craigie College, Ayr on the 8th, and one of my tutors at university - though I was not studying Music - Russian music expert Stuart Campbell was giving a Bach organ recital in Lysleland Parish Church, Glasgow on the 9th.)
Michael Tumelty reviewed the Glasgow concert and it seems that Wilfried Boettcher was rather stolid in the first half, Bartok's Divertimento lacking true Magyar fire in the belly. Suddenly, in the second half things changed when Jorge Bolet gave a performance of Chopin's first piano concerto which 'enthralled and hypnotised the audience with its vigour and poetry'. He drew on a limitless palette of tonal and dynamic variety. The slow movement wove a web of ravishing lyricism. A simple and moving Bizet Adagietto was the encore.
Retires from Curtis, 1986
It was in February of this year that Bolet left his post as Head of Piano at the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia. His letter of resignation is dated 11 February 1986, and is addressed Mrs Cary William Bok, President [1977-88], Board of Directors.
‘During the last few years my career as a performing artist has undergone a considerable change with ever increasing demands upon my time and energies for more performances and recordings.’ He mentions tours and DECCA Records. ‘In view of my present status as one of the few remaining elder statesmen of the great romantic tradition, I feel I must devote my time to my performing career.’
He received a most gracious reply from the President (signed ‘Stormy’ – the maiden name of Mrs Cary William Bok was Anges Margaret Storm,1920-2018).
‘We want you to feel that this is your spiritual home and to know that our hearts will be with you always. Our pride in your success will assuage our loss.’
An obituary of A. Margaret “Stormy” Bok describes her as: avid gardener, swimmer, former assistant lighthouse keeper, dog lover, registered nurse, and matriarch of the Curtis School of Music in Philadelphia, an independent New Englander throughout her 98 years. She died 27 October, 2018 surrounded by loved ones at her home in Rockport, Maine.
Michael Kimmelman, 27 March, 1986 in the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote a review of a recital in Curtis, a still elegant institute on Rittenhouse Square. It included Grieg, Brahms (Ballades), Liszt and Chopin. ‘At once fascinating and perplexing, brooding, dark quality, at times studied, a fine line between hypnotic and soporific. How rare it is to hear an artist of such distinctive character and compelling vision.’
'Now you see, now I have been discovered in France' (1986)
Thursday, 3 April, 1986 at 8PM in Carnegie Hall, New York. Amongst the items were Chopin's and Brahms's Ballades (the latter's 4 Ballades Op. 10, written in 1854) and Edward Grieg's Ballade Variations on a Norwegian Melody, Op. 24 (1875-1876). Clearly a "Ballade" Evening! Grieg's Ballade was highly regarded by Leopold Godowsky who recorded it for English Columbia in 1929. 'Some say that his best recorded performance is that of Grieg's Ballade, where he certainly conveys the work's elegant, wistful charm and beauty, and where he brings out the nature of each variation with great subtlety.' Gramophone April 1989
On 9-11 April, JB performed the Variations Symphoniques of César Franck in Amsterdam (Wed/Thurs) and Utrecht (Friday) with the orchestra's conductor, the Italian maestro Riccardo Chailly. These would seem to be Bolet's only appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, according to the online archives. The concert in Utrecht was in the Muziekcentrum Vredenburg and the programme as a whole was mixed, starting with music by Luciano Berio (including his "Folk Songs") and ending with Ravel's Bolero. A recording for DECCA was made (along with the Symphony in D minor) in Grote Zaal, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, 7-11 April 1986.
15 April 1986, Bergamo (Italy), a Liszt concerto with Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI di Torino under Rudolf Barshai.
A "Glasgow Kiss" of a review
On Monday 11 August at the Edinburgh Festival, JB performed Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with the BBC Symphony and Sir John Pritchard. It was not a great performance with quite a few slips. I heard it on the radio and recall one review at the time saying that Bolet failed to secure the atmosphere or indeed many of the notes. One commentator on Twitter (10.4.22) has written: 'I will never forget the rehearsal... I have never seen a more bitter, acrimonious clash between two musicians who clearly hated each other.' Michael Tumelty (Glasgow Herald 21 December 1986), a generous and humane critic, states that a rare unanimity among critics was occasioned by this 'catastrophic Edniburgh performance... This was an event which started badly and went on to complete disarray. It provoked football metaphors in this paper.'
On 12 August Tumelty had written in football terms in the Glasgow Herald: 'It quickly turned into a debacle with both soloist and orchestra in tatters; a repetition could have the BBC Symphony Orchestra earmarked for relegation. In the nearest equivalent in music to last Saturday's Rangers-Hibs game, the players finished in disarray, leaving poor old Beethoven in a sorry mess. Sir John Pritchard seemed unable to coordinate the tactics of his orchestra. The woodwind - a harsh-toned, maverick bunch who went their own way - should be reminded to blend their play with the rest of the team. Yellow cards were called for. (...) And Jorge Bolet - that older Maradona of the keyboard - the man of infinite technical resource and endless subtlety of colour. His performance was shot with an unacceptable level of inaccuracy. Musically speaking, whenever the ball landed at his feet, he booted it. Matters improved drastically in Richard Strauss's Alpine Symphony in the second half.'
Richard Morrison in The Times (13.8.1986): 'To watch so distinguished and long serving a pianist as Jorge Bolet going through a public nightmare was depressing. Passagework went frequently askew, the keys were thumped to increasingly harsh effect, and even in the Adagio, Bolet never found the touches old-style poetry for which he is celebrated. One wonders whether the big string section precipitated the problems: was Bolet simply trying to compete in volume?
But see the Dundee Courier review in the panel below! ‘Quot homines tot sententiae: suus cuique mos' [There are as many opinions as there are people], as the Roman comic dramatist Terence (c.190–159 BC) once said.
,
During the summer of 1986, JB made his first appearance on Friday 15 August at the 6th Festival International de Piano, La Roque d’Anthéron, France, with a Liszt recital at 9.30pm in Parc du Château de Florans. This took place at Aix-en-Provence with a piano which had to come from Berlin. Bolet was not at all happy with the instrument and a tuner had to be found immediately (this was Belgian piano technician Denijs de Winter, 'considered, in the general opinion, as one of the three best in the world' [Le Figaro Magazine] ). Consultation was all a little abstract, as de Winter did not speak much English. He nevertheless worked for a whole day, right up to the last minute, and JB got up onto the stage without having tried out the piano. Highly impressed, he then asked de Winter to do all his concerts.
Bolet also reportedly said: 'Now you see, now I have been discovered in France and I cannot make all the dates they want.'
Friday 29 August 1986, recital 9pm, Teatro Carignano, Turin. Haydn, Variations in F minor, Hob.XVII:6 and Piano Sonata E flat major Hob XVI:52 , Schuman, Fantasy in C, Chopin, 4 Ballades. This is one of the oldest and most important theatres in Italy. Building commenced in 1752 and the theatre was inaugurated the following year with a performance of Baldassare Galuppi's opera, Calamità de' cuori. (Nice to see Turin was also performing the ancient Roman playwright Plautus' comedy Casina that same evening.)
La stampa 30.8.86 reports on the Turin recital. 'For many years, JB was practically a stranger to Italy in concert life. This season, which marks his seventy-second year of age, we have been lucky enough to hear him already for the Unione Musicale, in January, and he had struck us with his noble and refined approach to the romantic world. (In the Schumann), two pianists seemed to be at least partially distinct: one in full harmony with Schumann's Eusebius, ready to chisel the sweetest and most nuanced features with grace and poetry ("pronto a cesellare con grazia e poesia i tratti più dolci e sfumati"); the other who, apart from a few technical incidents, occasionally found it difficult to keep Florestan's sustained and aggressive pace.' The Chopin Ballades found great favour, 'and in the end the audience showered him with enthusiastic acclamations'.
Friday, 10 October 1986, de Doelen, Rotterdam.
Some voices were raised at the BBC Symphony Orchestra's lack of enterprise in including Beethoven's familiar Emperor Concerto in last night's programme in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh. Actually, this, if anything, was worth a visit to Edinburgh, for the soloist was Jorge Bolet, that amazing virtuoso and powerful musical intellect whose repertoire centres round the great romantics, and who seldom strays as far back as Beethoven, writes our Music Critic. With his familiar Bechstein on the platform Bolet showed us a transparency and translucency which few of us ever hear—the inner voices were projected with diamond clarity and crystal-edged precision. Precision, alas, was something not always present as far as the orchestra was concerned. This was not sufficient to detract significantly from this remarkable performance, the slow movement poised and serene, and the final allegro brilliant and glittering.
Dundee Courier, Tuesday 12 August 1986
Bolet in London, November 1986
A London recital featured a favourite repertoire piece, championed earlier also by Godowsky.
'The recital high point, however, was Bolet's sensitively coloured account of Grieg's G minor Ballade. The work comprises nine variations on a folksong; it is a quintessential canvas of Nordic gloom, and not heard often enough. Bolet did not eschew its opportunities for more mercurial, lighter fingerwork, but his prime concern was to convey an inevitable movement towards tragedy: the stormy finale and its wistful coda set the seal on a performance of rare imagination.' Richard Morrison, The Times
On Tuesday 27 November, Bolet played Brahms' second piano concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Hungarian/American Antal Dorati (whose credits include a recording of all 104 of Haydn's symphonies with Philharmonia Hungarica).
'Reservations have recently been voiced on this page about the performances of Antal Dorati (1906-1988) and, in particular, Jorge Bolet. On Thursday night, they wiped their slates clean. It was one of those evenings when chemistry between conductor, soloist and orchestra was at its most productive; and when the programming itself seemed to bring to the fore some of the most positive and distinctive aspects of their performing characters.
'It was midsummer Brahms: the Second Piano Concerto and the Second Symphony, both written on holiday retreat in the Australian countryside. It was clearly Dorati's intention to minimize conflict at every point in the concerto's opening movement. The strings, obviously well-rehearsed, purred in assent to Dorati's cultivated phrasing, preparing a context for Bolet's deliquescent figuration and light, fluid rubato. He, in turn, was later to provide a long, expectant approach of sustained pianissimo for the solo cello's beautifully poised return in the Andante.
'Bolet's particular skill at filtering melody into its harmonic support - something which so distinguishes his Liszt playing - made its mark on the second, gentler theme of the Scherzo. It ventilated the properly oppressive three beats - Bolet's playing made us feel the tugging undertow of each one - and, with Dorati's meticulous balance of parts, freed the movement to rise into the major without a hint of the bombastic.'
Hilary Finch, The Times 29 Nov. 1986
On Sunday 30 November, inAvery Fisher Hall, NYC Bolet gave a recital.
'As he sang the alternately doleful and sunny songs of Liszt's ''Venezia e Napoli,'' which closed his program at Avery Fisher Hall Sunday afternoon, one could hardly want more.
What one might want at other times is fire. Mr. Bolet's Schumann (the Fantasy) never got red in the face, and his Haydn was unusually pensive and melancholy (but so beautifully phrased!) in the familiar F minor Variations and E-flat Sonata. The G minor Ballade of Grieg was the highlight of the program, brooding and northerly in spirit, stunningly realized on the piano in all sorts of obvious and less-than-obvious ways. (One long passage involves sonorous middle-register chords at moderate volume, each followed by an ''echo'' in the outer registers. It's difficult to balance; to balance about a dozen in a row with the weighting perfectly matched each time, you must really know what you're doing.)
Mr. Bolet was filling in for a canceled recital by Martha Argerich, and he zipped in between European engagements to do so. Perhaps that could have something to do with the relatively low temperature of the recital, and perhaps also with a memory slip or two. But those are almost a badge of honor nowadays, since they at least prove that a pianist and not a competition robot is on the stage. And Mr. Bolet's pianism merits honor all around.'
( Will Crutchfield, New York Times 2.12.86)
1987 (January/February)
'Bolet's whimsy has its pros and cons'
Final Faculty Recital
“His final faculty recital (1987) drew the largest audience ever seen in the room then called Curtis Hall (formerly Casimir Hall after Hofmann’s father, and now named Field Concert Hall in honor of a donor in the early 2000s). Jorge agreed to audience seating on the tiny stage because of the overflow crowd. Truly an unforgettable event because his playing was still remarkable because of his consummate technique, gorgeous sound, and sensitive musicianship.
“He was a Baldwin artist who had 2 Baldwin grands installed in a studio (courtesy of Baldwin) in an all-Steinway school. Many feathers were ruffled. He played that last recital on a Baldwin concert grand which is very slightly larger than a Steinway model D and it did not fit on the stage elevator. He paid for the installation and tuning himself and we blocked the hall for 2 days (my memory is a bit hazy on that that) so that Jorge could practise and work with the Baldwin technician on tuning and voicing the instrument." (Robert Fitzpatrick, Dean at Curtis from 1986 to 2009)
Thursday 8 January, JB was guest soloist with the Orchestra of St. Luke's in a performance of Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat and his Hungarian Fantasia in Carnegie Hall. The orchestra also played Liszt's Hungarian March and Dvorak's Symphony No. 6 in D. Julius Rudel conducted.
24 January, Palau de la Música, Barcelona: Grieg, Brahms, Liszt, Chopin.
Monday 2 February, St John, Smith Square, London at 1pm. Grieg, Rachmaninov
10 February, Manchester Free Trade Hall, UK. BBC Philharmonic Orchestra with Jorge Bolet.
Sunday, 22 February, recital in Amsterdam (parts of which can be heard on Marston CDs vol. 2).
'The Cuban-American pianist Jorge Bolet, who has been a familiar face on the Dutch music stages for over thirty years, is known as a passionate Liszt admirer and interpreter.
The two concerts he gives in our country prove that he is also on good terms with other composers (tonight - Friday 20.2.87 - at 8 p.m. in De Vereeniging, Nijmegen; Sunday evening at 8:15 p.m. in the Main Hall of the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam). Yet Liszt is also on the programme here, namely his three-part version of Venezia è Napoli from 1853, with which he concludes his performance. It begins with Haydn's Andante con Variazioni in F minor, followed by the Sonata in E flat no. 52 by the same composer. Then he plays the Fantasy in C op. 17 by Schumann and — before showing that his old love for Liszt does not rust — the Ballade in G minor op. 24 by Grieg."
(Cas Wichers, De Telegraaf)
NRC Handelsblad's critic S. Bloemgarten (23.2.87) entitled his review 'Eigenzinnigheid van pianist Bolet heeft voor- en nadelen' (Bolet's whimsy has its pros and cons) and said that he 'found Bolet's vision of Haydn and Schumann not only unappealing, but also somewhat irritating. On the other hand, I was completely captivated by the simultaneously controlled and virtuoso playing he developed in Grieg and Liszt. It is of course not surprising that this predominantly romantic pianist in Haydn did not immediately find the right tone. Bolet built up the Andante con variazioni so strictly and taut that the playful pleasure of ingenious variation in a simple tune was largely lost. [...] The mercury-like liveliness and sensitive cantabile in Schumann's Fantasie were also largely lost. It was in Liszt that Bolet found his top form. His rendition of Venezia e Napoli is therefore so clever, because he does not use his fabulously technical mastery of the keyboard ..."
25 February, Meany Centre, Washington DC
The recital programme for this European tour: Haydn Andante & Variations, Sonata in E flat Hob.52, Schumann Fantasy, Grieg Ballade, Liszt Venezia e Napoli.
Australia & Far East in February/March, 1987
The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne, Vic.) 23 January 1987 reports:
Jorge Bolet, pianist, will give seven performances in Australia when he visits for a series of concerts with the Melbourne and West Australian Symphony Orchestras and solo recitals in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide during February and March.
Jorge Bolet comes to Melbourne direct from a triumphant European tour, during which the critical acclaim has been overwhelming and concert halls completely sold out.
For the programme of his solo recitals, Jorge Bolet has chosen as the major items
Schumann’s superb Fantasy in C Major and Liszt’s hair-raising Venice and Naples, the composition with which he won the 1984 Gramophone Magazine award for Best Instrumental Record of the year. (This is an error for the 1985 Award for Liszt's Suisse.)
These concerts will commence an exciting year for the Michael Edgley International Concert Division (executive producer Reuben Fineberg), in conjunction with ABC. Jorge Bolet will appear with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hubert Soudant on 28 February (Beethoven 3, Rachmaninov/Paganini), 4 March (Beethoven 4, Schubert/Liszt Wanderer) & 7 (Beethoven 5) in Melbourne Concert Hall, with a solo recital on 22 March. This was advertised as Bolet 'at the height of his international acclaim as one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.
He will give solo recitals in Adelaide, 24 March, and Sydney, 26 March, afterwards appearing with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra under Dobbs Franks in Perth Concert Hall on 28 March. In actual fact, the conductor was Patrick Thomas who began with Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini and then JB played Franck's Variations and, after the interval, Rachmaninov 2.
The Age, Melbourne, Saturday 28 February 1987 published an interview with JB in his suite of the Hyatt, Collins Street.
Hong Kong
Monday 9 March 1987: a recital in the City Hall Concert Hall, Hong Kong. Haydn's Andante con variazioni Hob XVII/6 and Sonata in E flat, Hob XVI/52; Schumann's Fantasy in C major Op. 17; Grieg, Ballade in G minor Op. 24 and ending with Liszt's Venezia e Napoli.
On 18/19 March he performed Schubert/Liszt's Wanderer Fantasy with the HK Philharmonic under Kenneth Jean. Of interest are some comments from a memorandum regarding the arrangement of the 9 March concert. Harrison Parrott Ltd. had informed the Department that JB would be touring the Far East in March 1987. His concert with the Hong Kong Philharmonic had been arranged but he 'will be interested to give a recital under the auspices of the Urban Council while he is in the region'. The programme which he proposed 'is considered attractive though a bit substantial'.
'The agent has requested a fee of US $6000 inclusive of airfare share, hotel accommodation in one double and one single for two nights for Mr Bolet and his representative Mr Finley (the artist is now 71 years old and has to be looked after by his representative).'
Singapore
Concerts on Friday and Saturday, 8:15pm, 13/14 March 1987 were advertised in late 1986 (Straits Times 22 December advises that artists and programme are subject to change): Rachmaninov 3 with the Singapore Symphony under Choo Hoey, followed by the challengingly severe Symphony No 4 in F minor by Vaughan Williams (a Singapore premiere in the presence of the composer's widow, Ursula VW). This was to be in Victoria Concert Hall, the oldest concert hall in Singapore. But the Straits Times for 9 March indicates that Xue Wei would play the Brahms violin concerto on those evenings. The RWV symphony received appreciative applause but one common exclamation by people leaving the hall was "Aiyah, so loud!" (Business Times 16.3.87)
Choo Hoey (朱暉, born 20 October 1934, Palembang, Sumatra), Singaporean musician, founded the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in 1978 and was also its first resident conductor and music director. From 1968 till 1977, he had been principal conductor of the Greek National Opera
Australia
Sydney Morning Herald for 24 March, 1987: JB has told his agent that he wants three months off next year for a photographic safari through Kenya. “And then I want to go to Bayreuth to see the Ring, Parsifal and Tristan." His diary for that period seems to indicate that he did indeed go to Bayreuth.
The Age from Melbourne, Victoria: Tuesday, 24 March, 1987:
'On Sunday night Jorge Bolet ended his visit to Melbourne with a solo recital in grand imperial tradition. There were no Scarlatti sonatas. There was no Chopin. But the program was laid out in the best romantic carpet-bagging fashion, and the playing matched it precisely. Bolet started with two works of Haydn, the F minor Andante with Variations and the last of the Piano Sonatas, both played with great tact but rather coolly. After a passionate performance of the C major Fantasy of Schumann, he moved towards the kernel of his recital, the three movements from the close of the Italian pieces of Liszt's 'Years of Pilgrimage'. These were splendidly done, with fire and great bravura. Between the Schumann and the Liszt, Bolet played the G minor Ballade of Grieg, music dressed in some external brilliance but really as prim and reserved as your typical maiden aunt (compare that with Richard Morrison's very different review above in November 1986). It was a sad waste of programming time. This astonishing virtuoso should have taken something more rewarding from his repertory for this farewell recital. And Michael Edgley International, Reuben Fineberg, and the Victorian Arts Centre should take a bit more care with their printed program. It was dotted with misprints, and Jonathan Cook's annotations were inaccurate and ungrammatical.'
Fred Blanks (Australian Jewish News, 9 April) reports: 'As Bolet was ending the first
movement [does he may mean the second, the March? ] of Schumann’s Opus 17 Fantasy, which has three movements, a great burst of clapping erupted - not after the last note of the movement, but during it, while the sustaining pedal was still in full control. Bolet was clearly upset, and waved with his free hand impatiently at the audience. To be fair, let me add that it was not an ABC nor a Musica Viva audience, but an Edgley audience, and these private management audiences are usually the worst with what can be called incontinence.
'The actual Schumann performance was full bloodedly romantic, which is what we expect from Bolet. Much less satisfactory was his playing of Haydn’s F Minor Variations and the Sonata No. 52; this lacked classical poise and purity, and sounded more like Chopin. Bolet is one of those musicians who achieved international fame late in life, and for a particular area of the repertoire, mainly the 19th century. Outside this, he has severe competition.'
4 April, 1987 New Zealand SO, Franz-Paul Decker, conductor, Michael Fowler Centre,
Wellington & Town Hall, Auckland on 11 April.
7 April, 1987 Town Hall, Wellington
Reuben Fineberg (1937-1996), pianist, conductor, art dealer, had produced Bolet’s 1987 tour of Australia, some of which was videotaped at Rippon Lea House, outside Melbourne. In the art world, he had started a gallery on the top floor of the Kozminsky building, Bourke Street, Melbourne, specialising in etchings and lithographs by French masters such as Jean-Claude Picot. The USSR State symphony Orchestra’s 1986 tour under Yevgeny Svetlanov 'had an extraordinary sense of excitement… the whole tour was stage-managed to perfection'. (Obituary, The Age, 22 January 1997)
1987, 19-20 April: video recordings of Bolet performing were made by Frank Bell in the Georgia-Pacific Center Auditorium, Atlanta, Georgia. They have unusual shots from above the piano of Bolet's hands which really do look long and spidery. This may explain in part why he was not keen on some of Chopin's etudes which would not suit his manual physiognomy.
Not in the Chrysanthemum Empire
The previous year Larry Tucker (Columbia Artists Management) had sent a telegram to a Japanese agent Masahide Kajimoto dated 4 April 1986: 'Mr Mac Finley, who is business manager of the great pianist Jorge Bolet, will be in Tokyo May 7 and 8. It is my hope that you could meet with him to discuss possible tour with Mr Bolet in the near future. He will be touring the Orient in March 1987 and still has March 8-11 as well as 28-31 available.'
Kajimoto Concert Management had been founded in May 1951 in Osaka by Masahide's father Naoyasu. It was based in the Tokaido Ginza Bldg., 6-4-1 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo.
In 1970 it had extended the first invitation to Japan to Martha Argerich; Vladimir Horowitz (1983, 1986), Herbert von Karajan (1984, 1988). An email (19.4.22) from the present Kajimoto CM states: 'We have checked our files, and it seems KAJIMOTO has never worked with Mr. Bolet. According to our senior colleagues, he might have worked with either Kanbara or another agency in Japan, but both of them do not exist anymore.'
Claudio Arrau's sixth return in May to Japan. Performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.5 Emperor with the Japan Broadcasting Corporation Symphony Orchestra [NHK - Nippon Hoso Kyokai S.O.] conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch at Tokyo's Suntory Hall on 17 May.
Rippon Lea House and Gardens, 192 Hotham Street, Elsternwick, Victoria 3185. Built in 1869
by Frederick Sargood and named after his mother's maiden name, Rippon. Lea is an
English word for a meadow. The Australian National Trust inherited the property in 1972.
Splendid photos here.
The recorded recital here is in good picture quality.
Venezia e Napoli
In his tours, during the late 1980s, Jorge was keen to programme Liszt'sVenezia e Napoli, which comes as a supplement to the Italian volume of "Years of Pilgirmage II".
'The music is usually waved away as a rather insignificant group of encore pieces, but while they are obviously lighter fare, they merit high praise for their sheer beauty and ingenuity. Each piece is based on what was familiar material in the streets of Italy at the time of their conception.' (The Tarantella incorporates themes by Guillaume Louis Cottrau (1797–1847), a Frenchman living in Naples.)
Leslie Howard
This short clip (lasting 2m25s) was filmed during Bolet's tour of Australia & Far East in February/March, 1987 at Rippon Lea House, outside Melbourne. Bolet has said in discussion with Gregor Benko that he incorporates a few little extra notes of Josef Hofmann (see link below to a recorded conversation in Manhattan, NYC on 9 April 1987).
An ambassador from the age of nocturnes and nightingales
Further concerts in 1987
30 August 1987. The Aberdeen Press & Journal (12.8.87) reports that JB will record a recital in Findhorn, Morayshire (Scotland) for future broadcast on the BBC. This is presumably the Chopin-Godowsky recital (coupled with an interview by Michael Oliver) which in the end went out in January 1989.
1 Nov 1987, Palermo, Sicily
On 4 November 1987 in the auditorium RAI « ARTURO TOSCANINI », Via Rossini/Piazza Rossaro, Turin at 9pm, JB gave a recital.
Mendelssohn (Preludio e fuga in mi minore e Rondò capriccioso in mi maggiore op. 14), Beethoven (Sonata in fa minore op. 54 «Appassionata»), Franck (Prelude, choral et tugue) e Llszt (Rémlniscences de Norma, tratte dal Bellini).
The reviewer described the 'pure ideas of Bellini's melodies which seem to have been grafted monstrously onto the trunk of harmony and instrumental virtuosity' («li spunti «puri» delle melodie belliniane sembrano innestarsi mostruosamente sul tronco dell'armonia e del virtuosismo strumentale).
'Qualche dubbio sembra invece legittimo porlo per la scelta della Sonata in fa minore (Appassionata) di Beethoven, dopo aver rilevato, beninteso, che anche qui le doti migliori e più caratteristiche di Bolet hanno modo di svelarsi appieno, col nobile disporsi del secondo tema rispetto al primo nell'Allegro assai, con l'atarassia apparente del tempo lento; cioè nei luoghi lirici ed estatici che costituiscono l'eccezione necessaria per confermare l'ardore, la direzionalità, la ricchezza strutturale che devono essere rinsaldate in un unico arco globale; in mancanza di questo, l'Appassionata si riveste di panni eleganti, di toni apollinei, di una medietas che ne tradisce la sostanza espressiva. Successo globalmente e giustamente caloroso, comunque, siglato da un paio di bis.' Giorgio Pagliaro
13 November: an unfortunate performance of Rachmaninov's Concerto No. 2 with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and Charles Dutoit at the Barbican Centre, London. ‘That the concerto was the successful outcome of Dr Dahl’s hypnotic therapy for Rachmaninov’s depression is well known, but I have not, previously, heard a performance which aimed to recreate the hypnotic state.’ David Murray, Financial Times 16.11.87
Monday 23 November, Theatre des Champs-Elysees , Paris (including Beethoven's Sonata No. 23 Op.75 Appassionata and Bellini/Liszt Norma fantasy).
On Saturday 5 December 1987 at 11:15am on BBC Radio 3, Bolet was heard in a wonderfully musical performance of Liszt's Piano Concerto No 1 in E flat with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Czech conductor Libor Pešek. The programme also included Mozart Symphony No 36 in C (K425) Linz, Liszt Totentanz (G 126) and Dvorak Symphonic poem: The Golden Spinning Wheel.
Libor Pešek was a major supporter of the music of his homeland including works by composers such as Suk, Dvořák, Novák and Janáček. Under his baton Liverpool Philharmonic was dubbed ‘the best Czech Orchestra this side of Prague’ and in May 1993, became the first non-Czech orchestra to open the prestigious Prague Spring Festival. Pešek was appointed an honorary knighthood (KBE) in 1996 by HM The Queen for services to music in Britain. He died on 23 October 2022 and one obituary revealed that 'he became something of a local celebrity (in Liverpool), not least for his habit of buying large quantities of broccoli in local supermarkets and taking it home in his suitcases because fresh produce was in short supply in Prague.'
France 1988
La Roque d’Anthéron 1987
For 40 years, there has been an International Piano Festival of La Roque d’Anthéron in the grounds of the Château de Florans. The « petit Château » and then the « grand Château » were built between 1598 and 1667 at the instigation of Annibal de Forbin who died in a duel in 1612. In 1937, the Marquise Marie de Florans, the last of her name , bequeathed the family property to the Archbishopric of Aix-en-Provence. In 1981 Paul Onoratini created a Festival, in the heart of Château de Florans Park.
The Auditorium is located in the heart of a clearing in a small wooded area to the south of the park. Among the various species of trees are Japanese laurels and aralias, yews, hollies, lindens, hazel trees, broad-leaved fusains and many others. A row of sequoïa was planted in the early 2000s.
In addition to the flora, the Park is home to several species of birds: jackdaws, blue and chestnut tits, red tails, tree finches, magpies and oak jays, woodpeckers and orioles. When the sun goes down, tawny owls, barn owls and sometimes even great horned owls complete this fauna.
In the very first Festival in 1981, 9000 spectators came to hear 12 concerts programmed with performers such as Youri Egorov, Vlado Perlemuter, Martha Argerich and Krystian Zimermann. Since then, more than 700 pianists have been invited.
Hélène Grimaud, "Blue lagoons and green ti' punches..."
French critic Alain Lomech writes: ‘With a modesty as well as a feeling of misgiving that mark this charming personality, Hélène Grimaud took the risk in the middle of the summer of 1987, of introducing herself to Jorge Bolet, who was giving public lessons in performance at the International Piano Festival in La Roque d’Anthéron (south of France).
While she was already known to specialists, Hélène Grimaud played for the great American pianist originally from Cuba. What did she play? Après une lecture du Dante, by Franz Liszt.
'Embarking on this major piece in front of Jorge Bolet was not without danger. He was thoroughly taken with her. We shall long remember what he had to say to us that very evening, without any prompting: "You were there this afternoon, I saw you in the room. I want you to tell your readers that I have not met such an extraordinary talent as this for a long time".’ Alain Lompech, Label France 41 (2000)
One review of Griamud’s autobiography Wild Harmonies put it even more dramatically:
‘Another master teacher was the Cuban expatriate JORGE BOLET, who spoke no French and who in 1987 led a masterclass at the festival at La Roque d'Anthéron, known as "the Mecca of the piano. Of Grimaud (who at the time spoke no English), he said to a journalist from Le Monde: "It's been a long, very long time since I encountered a talent of such extraordinary quality and sensibility of temperament." These spoken words, once written, were soon heard around the globe, setting the upward trajectory of her star.'
13 November 1987, Barbican Hall at 7.45 Montreal SO/Charles Dutoit.
Don Juan (Strauss); Piano Concerto no.2 (Rachmaninov); Petrushka (Stravinsky)
'Jorge Bolet is a virtuoso of such undisputed authority that he doesn't need to assert it continually. In Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto no.2 in C minor he was perfectly content with the accompanimental role that the soloist should frequently occupy, but often doesn't. Those looking for a bravura, throat-grabbing performance might have been disappointed, for Bolet markedly reined in the emotionalism. In exchange, however, he continually encouraged us to listen to the familiar work with new ears, not least in the last movement's big tune, which he handled with exceptional sensitivity. Without the
benefit of such artistry, Dutoit's Petrushka had far less to offer. It was a well-oiled subtly balanced performance, but lacking rhythmic incisiveness and any sense of
drama." (Barry Millington)
"Blue lagoons and green ti' punches..."
Hélène Grimaud writing about JB and about La Roque d'Anthéron, France, where she played the Dante Sonata for him in summer 1987 and ‘bowled him over’.
‘I had seen pictures of him when he was just starting out. His Rudolph Valentino physique heralded an intensely seductive relationship with the world, with a touch of chic like the fruit atop the frosty triangles of glasses holding exotic cocktails: blue lagoons and green ti' punches...
‘I wanted to come face to face with a master: I recognised him as such. At the same time as I was mentally rehearsing, through the window of my room I gazed out at the hundred year old plane trees in the park, trees whose special smell always reminded me of Aix, autumn and the start of classes.’
‘What places to play! Silvacane abbey and the Lake of the Alders. Close your eyes and say these names, say them slowly, in a murmur. Fairies and water-sprites come to mind, don't they? Merlin and Melusina, under the magic wand of Orpheus."
Helene Grimaud, Wild Harmonies, p. 163ff.
In her memoir, Grimaud presents herself, even as a young child, as ‘uncontrollable,’ ‘unmanageable,’ ‘unsatisfied’. Without siblings, she was friendless in school; a daydreamer, she interrupted to ask inappropriate questions, something she felt guilty about.
There is therefore something marvellous about her meeting-of-minds with Bolet, the controlled, impeccable diplomat. Her comment about recognising him as a master is one of the most affecting things I have read about him, especially as it represents the view of a child-of-nature aged 18/19.
JB rehearsing en plein air at La Roque.
"No light, but rather darkness visible"
John Milton, Paradise Lost 1.63
'It was during his 1987 New York season that we noticed his weight loss and increasing instances of inconsistent and/or uninvolved playing. That gorgeous Bolet sound was still there, but the ecstasy, poetry, and seemingly inexhaustible reserves of strength and power often gave way to introspection and caution. Interrupting another hundred-plus concert season to have minor surgery performed by his lifelong friend, Dr. Richard Carlson, it fell to Dr. Carlson to tell Bolet on 7 December 1988, the results of the HIV test required by the State of California whenever an invasive surgery is performed. Jorge was silent for a long moment and then looked at his friend directly and asked one question: “What do I need to do to stay active for as long as possible?”'
For several months there was no question of resuming his tour, but in the spring he did return to his full schedule, recitals in the U.S. and Europe, solo recordings of two Chopin sonatas, a group of nocturnes, and the two concertos with his old friend Charles Dutoit in Montreal, this last a particular source of stress. He had performed the Chopin E-Minor Concerto many times over two decades, but had never gotten around to learning the F-Minor. Now he had committed not only to record it, but to play it in a half a dozen concerts. Given those circumstances, it is astonishing the Chopin F-Minor Concerto recording came off surprisingly well, but the Chopin sonatas and nocturnes, and two Liszt concertos (with Georg Solti and the London Philharmonic) were not released. Bolet’s New York recital had been postponed once and there were rumors from Europe of embarrassing recitals, including one in which he retired with a halting apology, unable to return after intermission.'
Francis Crociata in the booklet for Marston CDs Volume 2
The final years
Earl Wild, Abbey Simon and JB share a musical joke.
1988
In 1988 Elyse Mach’s book on pianists appeared. She had interviewed Bolet in the New York Men’s Athletic Club, Central Park and 7th Avenue [180 Central Park South, New York].
An 1988 recital in the Carolyn Blount Theater, Montgomery, Alabama (4 April) was taped and released on DECCA. This included a magnificent performance of Liszt's paraphrase on Bellini's Norma. Yes, it is a little stately in places (no bad thing, considering the musical source) but supremely moving. See the end of this section for a review by Joan Chissell.
On Friday 4 March 1988 there was a Carnegie Hall recital which included Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57, "Appassionata" (1804-1805) and Vincenzo Bellini (1801—1835) Réminiscences de Norma, S. 393 (1841 arr. Franz Liszt)
13 March (Sunday) Royal Festival Hall, London inc. Beethoven No.31 Op. 110 in A flat and Bellini/Liszt, Réminiscences de Norma. The programme says that JB plays Baldwin piano supplied by Pianomobil Antwerp. I think it was at this concert that popular British comedian Frankie Howerd was in the audience, sitting right behind me in fact (he came in at the last minute, perhaps to avoid any fuss or recognition). JB's repeat of much of this recital - on Friday, 4 March in Carnegie Hall - can be heard here.
The Festival Hall was JB's least favourite hall, one where - because of its notoriously dry acoustic. - no matter how hard he tried, he could never engulf himself with the sound of the piano. The Hall was opened in 1951 by Her Majesty The Queen, the beginning of her association of 7 decades with it. Opinions were divided from the start: critics bemoaned its 'dry and sterile' acoustics while protagonists celebrated its cutting-edge design and 'crystal clear' sound.
Cellist Julian Lloyd-Weber however wrote in 2016: 'Just because a concert hall doesn’t bathe its performers in a comforting wash of sound doesn’t mean it is not a good hall for the listener. It is no coincidence that some of the greatest performances I have ever heard have been at the festival hall. It has proved to be the exception to all known acoustical rules. In fact its acoustic distinguishes the men from the boys, and the finest musicians raise their games accordingly. The slightest mistake is immediately heard - but then so is the beautiful playing of a phrase that would have been lost in a sea of reverberation in the Royal Albert Hall.'
Sunday 24 April 1988
Konserthuset, Stockholm. Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Riccardo Chailly
Edvard Grieg Piano Concerto & Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 5.
30 April/ 2 & 3 May 1988 Rachmaninov/Paganini with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under David Shallon in the Auditorio Pio, Rome, the second of only two appearances with this orchestra, the first being in January 1973.
7? May 1988 with the Bamberg Symphony under Rudolf Barshai in a Liszt concerto.
9 June: a recital in Ascona, a beautiful Swiss town on the northern shore of Lake Maggiore, in the canton of Ticino. It consisted of LISZT: Benediction de Dieu dans la Solitude; WAGNER/LISZT: Tannhauser Overture; SCHUBERT/LISZT: 3 songs; SCHUBERT: Sonata in A, D 959. It can be heard here. Although you might not think so, some Schubert had been very much in Bolet's repertoire from the start (the rondo from the D major Sonata D.850 in his Town Hall New York debut), though there was not much on offer at Curtis. He was clearly fond of the big A major sonata (see 29 October 1940 in Town Hall recital, NYC) one of a group of three late works by Franz Schubert (D958, 959 and 960). They were written during the last months of his life, between the spring and autumn of 1828, but were not published until about ten years after his death, in 1838–39. Jorge will have appreciated such things as the lyrical rondo-finale movement, which has a seemingly endless resource of songful melody.
Photo: Salle Pleyel, Paris. May 1988
Istanbul, Turkey
23 June, Istanbul,
Atatürk Cultural Center,
Büyük Salonu (Large Hall) 9.30pm.
Bolet gave 2 concerts in the famous Turkish city, once Byzantium, famously Constantinople and since 1930 Istanbul. Cumhuriyet (the oldest daily Turkish newspaper) has reports on 28 June 1988, 3 August (same year), and carried an obituary 31 October 1990.
For 3 August 1988, it has the comment: 'His concert was naughty from start to finish.
But still, this vigorous pianist from his 70s captivated Istanbulites, especially with his interpretations of Beethoven and Franck. By the way, the name Bolet was not foreign to those who took the horse for so many years, at least to those who were sleazy...'
(I'm sure something's lost in Google translation from the Turkish so this is work in progress...!)
The obituary says that 'It turned out that we listened to two of the last concerts of Jorge Bolet, who was discovered in Turkey in the autumn of his life by giving two piano recitals during the International Istanbul Festival on 21-23 June 1988 in our country.'
Cumhuriyet (Istanbul) review 28.6.88
The recital included Beethoven's "Appasionata" Op.57, F Minor No: 23
(From the Turkish via Google Translate - you get the gist!) "The subtleties of style that have been forgotten in recent years due to the excessive speed, the "rubato" that is masterfully melted in measure without interrupting the rhythm...Contemporary pianists play this sonata with a thump, almost furiously, with energetic tempos, caught up in the concepts of "excitement and passion" that its name evokes. However, Bolet says that he believes that Beethoven's tempo markings and again the nuances added by the composer can be another interpretation of "excitement and passion".
"Although Bolet didn't play Liszt in the movie (Song without end), he only did the piano voiceover for the movie, he has the type of traits that would make him convincing in any historical movie, just as if he played the Governor-General of India of the Great British Empire".
Gerçi Bolet filmde Liszt'i canlandırmamış, yalnızcafilminpiyano seslendirmesini yapmıştı, ama jrihı bir filmde pekala Buyuk Bntanya Imparatorluğu nun Hindistan Genel Valisi rolunde inandıncı olabilecek tip özelliklerine sahipti.
The artist said that he could not lift his head from his programming and recording records, and thus had to leave the piano class at the prestigious music school Curtis Institute in Philadelphia due to this boom, which occurred, albeit late in his career.
We learned that Bolet will go on a 15-day photo safari in Kenya and Tanzania when his tour in Europe ends.
Most of the American pianists were content with being well-known in America at that time, they did not believe in the importance of opening up to Europe. It was enough for them by being roasted with their own fat.
Further concerts in 1988
On 25 June at Meslay [nr. Tours in Loire Valley, France] JB replaced an ailing Claudio Arrau in recital. "A kind gesture from one Latin-American brother to another, both of them heirs to the high Germanic musical tradition. (Arrau was born in Chillan, Chile in 1904 and had studied with a pupil of Liszt, Martin Krause, in Berlin.) But Bolet, venerable diplomat with a penetratingly stern gaze...seems completely wrapped up in himself at the piano his body bent over the keyboard from which he never lifts his eyes." [Jacque Lonchampt - Le Monde, 28 June 1988]
Arrau was well enough to give his next recital at the Festival Internacional de Música de Granada in Ciudad de la Alhambra (Granada, Spain) on Friday 1 July.
The programme comprised Beethoven's Piano Sonatas No.7 in D major & 26 in E flat, Los adioses, and Liszt's Les jeux d'eau à la Villa d'Este & Aprés une lecture du Dante. [El País, Madrid, 1 July 1988]
A selection of Debussy Preludes was recorded in September, in Davies Hall, San Francisco. He played 16 of the 24 of the preludes, and Gramophone magazine summed it up in a review: "To judge from this issue, at any rate, this fine artist is not heard at anything like his best in this repertory."
One has, of course, to remember that Bolet was seriously ill.
'Just for the record, Mr. Bolet was increasingly ill through much of his commitment to the English Decca recording company. The last recording, the Debussy Preludes, was produced at a point where he was critically ill and was withdrawn from the catalogue soon after his passing. The idea that he was trying to approach the music from a more studied and calculated position is outrageous. I knew him well and passion was everything to him. The deliberate tempi were a symptom that all was not well with him. Please do not do this disservice to one of the last of the great "Romantic tradition" pianists by repeating the complaints of listeners who choose to assume the worst rather than to recognize that factors beyond his control were gnawing at his very fiber!'
(Morley Grossman, Edinburg, TX USA, in reply to a reviewer on Amazon)
5 October 1988: Chopin No. 1 at Davies Hall, San Francisco. Marilyn Tucker (San Fran. Chronicle, 17.10.1990) comments that despite the fact JB has lived in Mountain View for the last ten years, the San Francisco Symphony has been a closed door to him.
Tuesday 11 October 1988
'Pianist with a touch of class. Cuban pianist Jorge Bolet attracted a huge audience to the Victoria Hall, Hanley [UK], last night to hear his performance of Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. He didn't let them down. The ringing vitality ...' With the BBC Philharmonic and Sir Edward Downes (with Elgar's 2nd symphony in the second half)
Staffordshire Sentinel 12 October 1988
Journal de Genève (19 November 1988) reviewed a concert in Victoria Hall, Geneva, with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Erich Leinsdorf in which JB played Liszt 1, which was followed by Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. The reviewer expressed an opinion that this might be JB's first appearance in Geneva (but this is not so, as he had certainly been there in 1974 and 1975). 'Son jeu léonin présente les qualités les plus hautes.' He played his own Baldwin piano and 'il sait en effet faire vibrer son instrument de façon inhabituelle, ample et intense, qui, dans le chant délicat, prolonge le son comme un long souffle. Et bien que cette conception soit, en quelque sorte, à l'opposé de ce que l'on attendrait d'un lisztien(électricité, brio, étincelles ...), on croit redécouvrir ce concerto en mi bémol sur lequel se sont échinés tant de lauréats du Concours ...En bis, Jorge Bolet parvient, dans les quelques mesures d'un Nocturne de Chopin, au sublime par l'intensité de la poésie la plus pure. Quelques secondes réellement bouleversantes.'
'His leonine playing exhibits the highest qualities.' He played his own Baldwin piano and 'he indeed knows how to make his instrument vibrate in an unusual way, ample and intense. In the delicate melodic passages, he extends the sound as if in a long breath. And although this conception is, in a way, the opposite of what one would expect from a Lisztian (electricity, brilliance, sparks...), we believe we are rediscovering this Concerto in E flat on which so many winners of the Competition have worked... As an encore, Jorge Bolet attained, in the few bars of a nocturne by Chopin, the sublime by the intensity of the purest poetry. A few truly heartbreaking seconds.' (The Nocturne is presumably a favourite encore, Op.15/2 in F # major.)
César Franck
Music by César Franck is also recorded this year in February (and is combined with the Symphonic Variations which were set down in Amsterdam in April 1986). There is a cherishable review of it by a much-missed Gramophone critic.
'The Symphonic Variations, Bolet and [Riccardo] Chailly seem to suggest, are a no less bold redefinition of the concerto not the gallic sorbet laced with Lisztian liqueur that they sometimes appear. Theirs is an uncommonly thoughtful performance, generally not at all fast until the genuinely joyous conclusion (the preceding sobriety gives it a still greater ebullience by contrast). The overall control, again, is so firm that details and contrast of character between variations can be delicately pointed without any danger of diffuseness. A very distinguished trilogy of performances, in short, and most impressively recorded, the bigness of the sound according well with the bigness of the readings, but with a no less accordant fineness of detail. No, come to think of it, "distinguished" is a weasel word for such music-making: this is great piano playing.'
Michael Oliver, Gramophone [9/1989].
"Cud is expressively chewed while Franck ruminates; but the mercurial dash
of the closing pages needs more élan. Jorge Bolet is a lyrical and sensitive soloist, underplaying the drama, but contributing many a happy concertante touch to the work. Acoustically the empty Concertgebouw hall aspires towards the resonance of Ste Clotilde." Robert Anderson
On Tuesday 6 November 1988 in the Theatre des Champs Elysées, Paris he played Rachmaninov 3 with Orchestre Colonne under Philippe Entremont (also: Lutoslawski's Funeral Music and Mozart's Symphony No. 38 in D, "Prague").
He then flew to Japan for a concert (Rachmaninov 3) in Tokyo on 9 November with the NHK Symphony under David Atherton, seemingly staying at the Imperial Hotel (founded 1890), overlooking the Imperial Palace, Moat and Hibiya Park. This was his third visit to the Land of the Rising Sun, the second being in May 1976, the first after the second world war. In an interview at this time, he mentions a former pupil, Makoto Ueno from Hokkaido (b.1966). He studied with JB at Curtis aged 16, and this was then followed by a period of study at the Salzburg Mozarteum. Ueno won 3rd prize at the Geneva International Competition in 1988 and since 1996 has been teaching as a professor of piano at Kyoto University of Arts. (Along with Kathryn Stott, he shared the masterclass study of the first movement of Rachmaninov 2 with JB in July 1984, first broadcast on Sunday 10 November 1985 on BBC2.)
Recorded 9 November 1988, NHK Hall, Tokyo. The concert also included Berlioz's overture Les Francs-juges Op. 3 and Messiaen's Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum. Messiaen's work commemorated the dead of the two World Wars. It was premiered in the Sainte-Chapelle, Paris at 11:00 in the morning on 7 May 1965, and was performed for the second time on 20 June of the same year following a Solemn Mass at Chartres Cathedral and in the presence of President Charles de Gaulle.
The piece was intended to be performed in large spaces - churches, cathedrals and in the open air. The composer had been inspired by the countryside which surrounded him as he worked on the composition – the Hautes-Alpes with their great mountains – but also the imposing images of Gothic and Romanesque churches, and the ancient monuments of Mexico and Ancient Egypt.
1989-1990
In the Decca vaults are both Liszt Concertos recorded with Sir Georg Solti and the London Philharmonic--unedited--presumably at the same time as the issued performance of the Schubert-Liszt Wanderer from this period (1989).
"My understanding is that Solti refused to pass on the concerto recordings."
[Francis Crociata]
Publicity material for the 1988/89 season includes Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal Symphony (Charles Dutoit), Orchestre National de France, Monte Carlo Philharmonic (Riccardo Chailly), Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, San Francisco Symphony and the NHK (Japan) Symphony, recitals at Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Champs Elysées, Alte Oper Frankfurt and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall; and appearances at the Bath and Roque d’Antheron Festivals, tours of the Far East and Australia and a tour of Belgium and Germany with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Sir Edward Downes and Bernhard Klee
On Sunday afternoon, 4.20pm, 22 January 1989 there was a television broadcast in the UK on BBC2 entitled MASTER CRAFTSMEN - JORGE BOLET AND LEOPOLD GODOWSKY. ‘The music of Chopin reworked by Godowsky and played by Bolet.
Bolet talks to Michael Oliver about Godowsky's technical skills and how his transcriptions shed new light on the music. As part of a recital given at Findhorn in Morayshire, Bolet performs a number of Chopin études in Godowsky's versions.’ (The producer was Hilary Boulding.)
There is a nice anecdote that when Bolet came to play in Dundee, he asked specifically to be taken to the Angus Hotel in Dundee (now demolished) because he claimed it provided 'the best cup of coffee outside of the Americas'.
On Sunday 5 February, Jorge Leopoldo Bolet Tremoleda gave what turned out to be his last solo London recital in the Royal Festival Hall (I was there); for programme see 16 April.
Tuesday 14 March 1989
Rachmaninov 2 with the Philharmonia and Vladimir Ashkenazy int e Royal Festval Hall, London (also Sibelius 2 and Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune)
Sunday, 16 April, 1989 at 8 PM JB gave - again as it turned out - his final recital in Carnegie Hall. He began with Liszt's Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, 2nd version, S. 173: 3. Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude (R. 14, No. 3) (1848-1853), following this with Schubert's Piano Sonata in A Major, D. 959 (1828). Then some Schubert/Liszt songs and ending with Wagner's Overture to Tannhäuser, S. 442 (1848 arr. Franz Liszt).
I attended the London recital which had its difficult moments. Reviews of the New York performance were very positive (and part of the recital can be heard on MARSTON cds.
Bolet's producer Peter Wadland said that while the London performance was patchy (and he apparently apologised to Peter afterwards), the New York recital was one of his best.
On 25-26 May, the two Chopin concertos were recorded in St. Eustache, Montreal with Charles Dutoit. Bolet had to learn the second (F minor) concerto for this recording as he did not have it in his active repertoire. He would have been much happier adding the Rachmaninov Paganini Rhapsody to the 'second side' of this disc. There is a stupendous recording of this latter work, live in Karlsruhe, Germany from March 1978.
Last recordings
Francis Crociata: "The Debussy Preludes disc was the last issued Bolet recording, made in August 1988, in the opera house in San Francisco. I find it to be full of interest and the signature Bolet sound—here as beautiful and well-formed as ever—is particularly well-suited to Debussy. Knowing this disc dates from so late in his life, the temptation is to dismiss it out-of-hand..., but I'll submit that would be a mistake. Sure, in his Decca Liszt, Chopin and Rachmaninoff recordings there are individual pieces which are disappointing recordings—but I can’t name a single issued recording where there is not enough vintage Bolet to make the purchase worthwhile. And, as I’ve probably observed before, I heard him a lot in his last five years (up to and including his last Carnegie recital on Apr 16, 1989) and only one of those recitals could be described as disappointing. That was the spring 1988 program built around the Norma Fantasy. In April ’89— six months after he’d received the AIDS diagnosis, he could still play the Tanhäuser Overture as impressively as he did in the 70s.
"Several discs from the last years were not successful. These included the Liszt Concertos with Solti & London Philharmonic. (The Schubert-Liszt Wanderer from the same sessions was issued--not bad, but not top-shelf Bolet.) The Second and Third Chopin Sonatas, and a disc of seven Nocturnes he had not previously recorded and the Berceuse. These Chopin discs were also made in California in spring 1990--after he had revived from a coma of several weeks' duration. I've not heard the sonatas, but I did hear the Nocturnes and found it to be one of the most moving and disturbing piano discs I've ever heard. The Bolet tone was mostly gone-- disconcertingly monochromatic--and technique putting one in mind of the concerts and recordings of Horzowski in his 90s. But, as with those Horzowski miracles, the playing contains perhaps Bolet’s most profound spiritual content--it's irresistible to project the impression that it was the last testament of a great artist thinking long about his own imminent passing."
Jorge Bolet dies on 16 October 1990
A photo from a rehearsal with Finnish conductor Paavo Berglund, savouring a particular moment in the slow movement of Rachmaninov's second piano concerto, after mentioning the "gorgeous chord" of the French horns. BBC 1985/6
JB signing a programme after his last concert.
(Mattheus Smits, Krommenie The Netherlands)
Jorge playing the piano on the day of his last birthday celebration, 15 November 1989.
(Mattheus Smits, Krommenie The Netherlands)
On 8 June 1989, Jorge Bolet gave his last public recital in Berlin.
A year later he passed away at his home in Mountain View [25 Toro Court, Portola Valley], California (Tuesday afternoon, 16 October 1990, aged 75) The cause of death was heart failure, said his personal manager, Mac T. Finley. 'But Mr. Bolet had been in declining health since late 1988 and had a brain operation in the summer of 1989 from which he never fully recovered.
A copy of Mr. Bolet's death certificate is in the Jorge Bolet Collection at the International Piano Archives-University of Maryland. Cause of death is given, simply, as AIDS. The pianist learned he was HIV positive in December 1988--a little under 2 years before his passing." [Francis Crociata]
Portola Valley was named for Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola, who led the first party of Europeans to explore the San Francisco Peninsula, in 1769.
In Bolet's last months, pianist Teresa Escandon was once by his bedside as he listened to his Carnegie Hall recital of 1974. (He used to spend holidays in Mantanzas, Cuba, with relatives who were friends of her mother. Nuevo Herald, Miami 23.1.8.)
Teresa cried, but Jorge said, 'No llores. No te acuerdas del Salmo?'
(Don't cry. Don't you remember the Psalm?) And she remembered:
"Ponme como sello sobre tu corazon porque el amor es fuerte como la muerte."
"Set me as a seal upon thine heart, <as a seal upon thine arm> for love is strong as death... "
[Song of Solomon 8, v.6 in the King James Bible of 1611]
Envoi
Joan Chissell reviewing one of JB's last recordings, issued after his death
The author (1919 – 2007) was a British writer and lecturer on music, and music reviewer for The Times 1948–79. She made a special study of the life and works of Schumann, winning the Robert Schumann Prize awarded by his birthplace, the city of Zwickau, in 1991.
As applause and an occasional cough confirm, these are live concert performances, recorded in 1988 when Bolet was already 74. And never—on the admittedly all too few of his discs to have come my way—can I recall him playing with more personal warmth. This is at once apparent in Mendelssohn's E minor Prelude and Fugue, where without a moment's loss of contrapuntal clarity he responds with such immediacy to romantic undercurrents—and not least in the mounting urgency and might of the chorale-peaked Fugue. The final return of its searching, chromatically inflected E minor opening subject, in a tranquil E major, is benedictory.
His piano is a Baldwin, perhaps just a shade steely higher up (at least on my equipment), yet capable of rich, organ-like sonority (very faithfully reproduced) in the fuller climaxes of Franck's Prelude, Choral et Fugue. At times in later years I had thought him over-cautious in choice of tempo, but there is certainly no hint of that here. At its start, you might even think the fugue (marked Largamente) marginally too fast, though you very soon realise how much this tempo contributes to the urgency and continuity of his conception as a whole.
For the best of all you must wait to the end. Totally unstrained by Liszt's virtuoso demands, Bolet plays the Reminiscences de Norma not only with a truly orchestral range of dynamics and colour but also with quite exceptional intensity—always knowing so well how to 'guard' secrets until the great moments of revelation arrive. In short, I felt I'd been taken just as close to the heart of the matter as when hearing the opera itself, with Callas in the title role, in the age-old, open-air theatre of Epidaurus on a never-to-be-forgotten night in August 1960. All thanks to Bolet—and Liszt too.'
